Tsunami appeal to build a village

Jan and Ian had flashbacks to "people sitting on piles of rubble"

A couple from Kent are trying to raise £250,000 to build an entire new village in tsunami-hit Sri Lanka.

Jan and Ian Linch, from Maidstone, were in the Maldives when the tsunami hit and Jan says they felt "so lucky to be alive" that they wanted to help.

Following a visit to the badly hit village of Kosgoda, on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, they are aiming to build 40 new homes and a school.

A thousand letters have been sent to local businesses asking for donations.

Reduced to rubble

Jan and Ian know Kosgoda through a friend who was born there. The couple went to Kosgoda on 26 February, two months after the tsunami, and described the scene as "horrendous".

Most of the beach houses had been reduced to rubble and 57 of the 800 people living there were killed, with 10 still missing.

Although temporary shelters have now been built for the Kosgoda homeless, Jan and Ian wanted to do something more permanent.

They had already raised £10,000 so they put down a deposit to buy a four-acre plot of land two miles off the coast. A well is being dug but the bigger plan is for homes, a school and an entire village infrastructure.

Back in Kent the appeal has seen 1,000 letters sent to local businesses, while pupils from the Cornwallis School helped out with a fundraising DVD.