By Mata Press Service

For Jerry and Pamela Porodo, the aftermath of the tsunami turned out to be a mission to help women find work.

The Canadian couple, who had been residing in Sri Lanka for years before the tsunami occurred, owns several businesses.

Within minutes after the tsunami, the couple set up ImpaktAid to deliver food, medical supplies and necessities to the injured and traumatized.

A chance meeting with a pregnant woman who lost all her family members in the tsunami gave rise to the “Work for Widows” project.

Last month, the project held a fashion show featuring the jewellery made by tsunami widows.

Top Sri Lankan models went on the catwalk wearing hand made jewellery made by tsunami widows under the ‘Work For Widows’ programme by Impakt Aid Trust.

IMPAKT Aid was set up after the waves of the tsunami crashed down on Sri Lanka on 26 December 2004.

Started by a Canadian couple, Pamela and Jerry Porodo, IMPAKTaid began filling the immediate needs of the injured and traumatized. Friends, volunteers and donations poured through the doors and, within 24 hours of the disaster, an efficient and well-coordinated relief network was up and running.

The Work For Widows Programme is dedicated to helping widowed women, with or without children to support, to attain self-sufficiency through self-employment initiatives.

The main product produced by the Work For Widows group is jewellery; however, the projects include making everything from candles, wicker items and other household products.

Born in Calgary,  Pamela Porodo’s pedigree includes a grandmother who fought for the women’s vote, a aunt who was a female pioneer in Canadian TV and her mother who runs the Vancouver Vocational Centre.

Her career kicked off with a stint at General Motors in Canada, some teaching experience in Dubai, hotel management in Aberdeen, Scotland, running a Canadian internet business from Germany and this mother of four has now semi-retired to the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka was selected for retirement, as Pam and her husband, Jerry, fell in love with the island following many visits to close friends living there.

She was at a radio station being interviewed about fund-raising project when the devastating Tsunami tidal wave hit Sri Lanka.

Within one hour the Porodos were in their offices suspending all business and setting up an aid relief agency.

Hours later a tremendous response saw Pam and Jerry’s offices being converted into a collection depot as hundreds of Sri Lankan people and foreigners swarmed in with offers of money or help.

Cash donors were turned away with a hastily typed shopping list of urgent requirements ranging from basic food, dry rations, baby formula and water, to materials to build shelters, blankets, clothing, re-hydrating salts and the urgent medical aid essential for many people’s survival.

Overwhelmingly, many returned time and time again from the local supermarkets and shops with arms full of provisions, foreigners alongside Sri Lankans, spending their salaries and emptying their houses and hotel rooms in a desperate attempt to help.

Many offered their skills and talents and in some cases, just a pair of hands. Within a few days a database had been built of over 360 willing volunteers of all nationalities and ages.

A structure began to build and not long after ImpaktAid was born.

“I have seen so much bad press here and in the international media – nothing is ever said of the beautiful stories of immense kindness, generosity, compassion and help that I hear over and over again,” Pamela said in a published interview.

“In disasters like this it seems people become oblivious of race or religion and come together. I have seen and heard of immense humanity throughout, Sri Lankan families who also are victims taking in injured foreigners and giving them the last of their food instead of feeding themselves.

"Beach boys who swam to save tourists they saw struggling in the sea. The same tourists that had previously brushed them off when seeing them sell their gifts on the beaches. It proves beyond doubt that our natural instinct is to save and help and assist each other – not to reject, or judge by our different beliefs and nationalities.

In the midst of this catastrophe Pam was told she is a white woman with a coloured soul.  “I took this as a great compliment!”

Pam and her team are set to continue long term with a number of ongoing projects, these include building latrines within camps to minimize risk of disease, returning displaced children to school with the necessary uniforms and workbooks they require, creating employment opportunities for widows in order that they can continue to support their families – the initiatives are endless. 

“I heard a beautiful saying once which stayed with me and stopped me from feeling that anything I do is too small. It goes ‘it only takes the wings of a butterfly on one side of the world to cause a hurricane on the other.”

 For further information of IMPAKT please look at the website: www.IMPAKTAID.com.