The long wait for a permanent place to live is set to end for several displaced Sri Lankan families after Caritas Chilaw laid the foundations for new homes in the northern coastal village of Kalpitiya.

The catch however, is that they will have to build them themselves.

Having fled fighting in the far north during the civil war in the 1990s, many Tamil families moved southward to seek safety.

Some 42 families fled to Kalpitiya with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Priests, religious and lay people in the parish helped them build temporary homes, where they have remained ever since.

But after integrating with the local population over the intervening years, many of the families decided to stay after the end of the fighting.

Now their long wait for a permanent place to live is almost over.

“These are to be your new homes, so you have to give them your labor,” said Caritas director Father Abraham Barnabas at a beachfront foundation laying ceremony for 12 houses on Sept. 9.

Caritas allocated approximately 400,000 rupees (US$ 3,600) towards materials for the homes, but it will be up to the new villagers to construct them.

“Let us set an example by helping each other,” Father Patrick Wijesinghe the vicar general of Chilaw diocese told the gathering.

Villagers promised the families to help build their homes.

The Tamil families couldn’t suppress their joy.

“Now we see a ray of hope shining in our lives,” said fisherman M. Nadeshwan Croos.

"We have always wanted to remain here, but without a permanent place to live we have had so much trouble in coping with things such as our sanitary needs all these years," he said.

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