“My name is Anita Kumudini Roellin. I was born in Panadura – south of Sri Lanka. When I was two months old my mother had given me for adoption to Sarvodaya Suwasetha. I was fortunate to find loving and caring foster parents from Switzerland few months after. I grew up in the DavosGR Mountains with my brother Philipp Ranjan who is also an adopted child from Sri Lanka. After 23 years I came last March looking for my original mother in Panadura area but could not find her. Instead I met my big and affectionate Suwasetha family. I am a qualified psychiatric therapist and a nurse. Immediately after I heard about Tsunamis killer wave I came back and now working with Sarvodaya as a volunteer round the clock helping in relief work especially in the field of medical and child care. I am going back tomorrow, hoping to come again in summer.”

This is fully copped from the Sarvodaya blog, but it’s a great story. I also write the Sarvodaya blog so I guess it doesn’t make much difference. To be completely honest, what interest me most is that she’s beautiful and that Sony memory cards plug directly into a Sony Laptops (how I downloaded her photos). The part that interests normal humans is her story. She’s been volunteering at the Suwasetha orphanages since the tsunami hit. It’s full circle for her.

You can view a slideshow of Anita’s excellent photographs here.

PS. For anyone who’d like to inquire about adopting an orphan, you have to go through the government. As a shortcut you can mail me money, put your head in the toilet and file for divorce. As far as I know they have made it pretty much made it illegal to foreigners to adopt orphans. This stems from the popular ‘When In Doubt, Ban’ policy. For more see my extended post on the government sucking.

I did some Googling and apparently Queen President wants to adopt a Tamil Tsunami Orphan, so as to wrap herself in two bloody flags at once. And yes, true to form, “Last week the Sri Lankan authorities banned the adoption of children affected by the tsunami until further notice.”

Posted on Saturday, January 15th, 2005 in Photography, Sri Lanka.