London ,Ontario to be twinned with Galle....

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Support grows for link to tsunami-hit area and London, Squamish, other Canadian cities

Article By: Julie Carl, London Now.ca

A group of Londoners seeking to twin with a tsunami-hit Sri Lankan city have found support in at least two large London institutions.

Meanwhile, across the country, the tiny district of Squamish, British Columbia is roaring ahead with a project to adopt a devastated village and a challenge to other Canadian municipalities to do the same.

Shanthi Radcliffe, who with her husband David is spearheading efforts to twin London with Galle, Sri Lanka, said the group has the city’s official blessing. The mayor is expected to announce that blessing at a press conference at city hall tomorrow, Fri. Jan. 7, 2004. King College has donated office space, computers and a website, Shanthi said. Information on how Londoners can get involved is coming.

And as his wife was meeting with city officials Jan. 5, 2004, David Radcliffe, former dean of the faculty of education at the University of Western Ontario, was meeting with UWO officials and hearing equally good news.

UWO has created the Working Group for Asian Disaster Relief – a name that may change – to work with the city’s hospitals and the Radcliffes’ group, said Ted Hewitt, UWO’s acting vice-president of research. UWO’s group, which includes members of its medical, dental, engineering and nursing faculties, has met once, he said.

“Now we will start looking at areas of expertise. Shanthi and her group will be our connection to what the people need,” Hewitt said.

That’s the trick for success; you have to check your ego at the door and listen to what the people need, said Squamish Coun. Jeff Dawson who’s heading the Heart of Squamish project. He expected 30 to turn out to a meeting last night, but instead had more than 200 of the district’s 17,000 people show up. They were in the headlines last year when their district suffered serious flooding and aid and support came from all over the world.

But even more important than the massive turnout of Squamish residents for Dawson are the calls he’s had from across Canada – from media and from municipalities – who want to know more.

“We’re challenging communities to get on board,” Dawson said. “No one is too small. If you can’t adopt a village, you can adopt a street, you can adopt a family. A hockey team can adopt a soccer team somewhere.”

Dawson’s next step will be to compile a list of talents, resources and equipment from the more than 200 forms filled out at last night’s meeting, then seek an aid agency for guidance on where and how to help.

That’s a point that can’t be stressed enough, said Brock Carlton, director of the International Centre for Municipal Development. His agency, which is part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, has spent 18 years co-ordinating international development projects between Canadian municipalities and their counterparts in 20 countries.

“There’s an enormous expression of interest,” Carlton said. “We are playing the co-ordinator role of the Canadian municipal response to the tsunami.” The FCM will also work with the Canadian International Development Agency.

Most interest has come from the western provinces, Carlton said. He suspects that’s a combination of a larger Asian immigrant population and the memory for many of the tsunami that hit Canada’s west coast in 1961.