Within hours of the tsunami destroying thousands of lives, livelihoods and homes along the coast, the Caritas Sri Lanka network was bringing relief to survivors.

In Jaffna , a mobile medical unit was dispatched to administer to the injured and dying; in Galle , those staff who managed to get to the office (they were themselves directly affected by the disaster) immediately started distributing food and water; in Matara, relief packages of dry rations, clothing, mats and pillows were distributed among 3000 families.

Within days an emergency response team arrived from member organisations of the Caritas Internationalis confederation. The team, accompanied by Caritas Sri Lanka staff, undertook rapid assessments in the affected dioceses - Colombo , Galle , Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna and the Vanni.

By 21 st January 2005 they had prepared a special operational appeal and submitted it to the international headquarters in Rome . Five days later an initial budget of $33 million from Caritas Internationalis for relief and rehabilitation of the tsunami-affected communities was approved and Secours Catholique/Caritas France was mandated to coordinate Caritas Sri Lanka's national reponse to the tsunami. Trócaire/Caritas Ireland and CRS staff have since joined the national tsunami team.

Staff from other Caritas member organisations - Caritas Germany , Caritas Switzerland , Caritas Austria , Caritas Luxembourg , Caritas Belgium , Caritas Italiana, CAFOD and CRS - were assigned to facilitate work in the diocesan centres.