"We really are official."
That's the word on the Squamish Humanity Village Society (SHVS) from Jeff Dawson, the visionary behind the idea to partner with a tsunami-ravaged village and help its people.
The approximately 40 society members who attended an annual general meeting on Wednesday (May 25) voted 17 people to a board of directors that will meet regularly and steer the project.
Dawson and the others on the new board will meet on June 1 to elect the board's leaders.
The group has so far raised more than $70,000 to help the people of the small Sri Lankan village of Wanduruppa and more money is coming in through a financial commitment from MAC Realty, a Vancouver-based realty firm committed to help finance the project. MAC Realty promised to donate $100 from the sale of each home it sells in 2005.
Dawson says there is more work to do and in order to do it more money has to be raised for the people of Wanduruppa.
"I look at the calendar, this thing happened on Dec. 26 and we are now legal, the vast majority of the money we have raised has gone to Wanduruppa and it isn't sitting in Squamish," Dawson said. "One hundred cents of every dollar given by the people of Squamish has gone to Wanduruppa. We feel good about that and we feel good about the work that has been done, especially the work on the school."
Dawson said from the beginning that the project would continue long after the initial headlines. He expects to continue the effort for at least three years.
The people of Squamish aren't the only ones helping in Wanduruppa.
The Sri Lankan bathing suit maker Linea Aqua is teamed up with the SHVS and the World Conservation Union to get the tsunami victims into permanent homes with a restored school, temple and hospital.
A non-governmental organization based in Ireland called GOAL is also helping in the village with support from USAID.
[email protected]
