There’s No Turning Back......
From the day of the Asian Tsunami on 26th December 2004, it was a life without turning back for Mrs. Ana Subramanium of Batticoloa, East of Sri Lanka. Soon afterwards, she faced crisis after crisis but every crisis she faced was a
challenge to her and there was no turning back.
Mrs. Ana Subramanium (49 yrs) lives with her 
husband (49 yrs) and two children aged 12
and 11 and live two hundred meters away from the beach in Batticoloa. When the first Tsunami wave came ashore on 26th December 2004, Ana and her family ran towards the mainland without turning back. As the first wave was not so deadly, some of Ana’s neighbours turned back to collect there belongings but not Ana and her family. Fifteen minutes after the first wave came ashore the second wave also known as the ‘killer wave’ that demolished nearly 120,000 houses and took over 35,000 lives in Sri Lanka. As a consequence, Ana’s house and her neighbours who retuned to
collect their personal belongings after the first wave were never to be seen again.
After the Tsunami, Ana and her husband made a make shift hut out of dry coconut leaves on their land and lived for over a year until Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka came to their rescue and built a two bedroom 300 sq.ft house.
In order to burn the house fires Ana needed a livelihood; Living virtually next to the beach front, one could hardly think that wild grass would grow on her plot of land that was next to her house and filled with white sea sand. Undeterred, Ana and her husband took the challenge and grew green chilies in the plot of land that had an extent of nearly half an acre. To finance the project, Ana pawned her gold necklace known as a ‘Thali’ - a customary gift by the husband on the wedding day. Using cow dung to fertilize the soil and other techniques to keep the hot air away from the crops they were successful to see the green chilies budding. Just before the harvest, with unexpected and heavy rains the area got flooded and her crops went under water. This was the second disaster for Ana and soon afterwards her husband was found critically ill and underwent a major operation. Even today, he is nearly half paralyzed and could hardly work.
‘From Dec 2004 onwards Ana faced three major set backs but today she employs a dozen people and others emulate her art of growing green chilies on the white sandy beaches of Batticoloa'
A disaster after disaster but for Ana there was ‘no turning back’. With her husband on the sick bed, Ana single handedly started to grow green chilies again. This time fortune was on her side and when the harvest time came the market price for green chilies had escalated to nearly six times the usual price. By employing a dozen people from her community and giving them 10% of the harvest as wages, the green chilies were plucked and sold at an all time high rate to receive US $2500 in total. It was a time for Ana to rejoice as all her hard work had paid off. Ana got back the gold necklace that she had pawned and had reinvested the savings on another crop of green chilies. In addition, she has now dug a well in her compound and pumps water out using a fuel pump motor.
Today, others emulate Ana in the art of growing green chilies on the sandy beaches of Batticaloa. She is now looking forward in educating her children with better means, treating and caring for her husband and sharing her success with the community.
