It all started with the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004.

Dr. David Young, our President answered a call to attend to the needs of the people of Sri Lanka who were displaced, injured and devastated by the huge Tsunami waves that hit the country on 26th December 2004.

He rushed to help along with other volunteers who he mustered. When he went to Sri Lanka and travelled like most other volunteers to the South of the country, he saw first-hand the damage that was done both to the infrastructure and to humanity. However, he observed that there were literally hundreds of thousands of people helping in the South, and he then focused his attention towards the East of the country. These areas were not getting the due support as it was 5-6 hours away by motor car and the roads were badly damaged.

Notwithstanding the distance, he went there with his team of volunteers.
It took three days to get to Batticaloa, through broken roads, damaged culverts, and devastated infrastructure. When he reached Batticaloa, he was astounded to note the lack of essential hospital infrastructure, tools and equipment with which to bring the relief he and his team wanted to administer. They did what they could and promised to return to build an Accident & Emergency Trauma (A& E) Unit which the Batticaloa Hospital, and indeed most Regional Hospitals did not have.