SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Lund University sets up Tsunami Affected Student Fund (TASF)

Lund University collaborates with University of Peradeniya in a scholarship fund for Tsunami affected students in Sri Lanka. The fund enables students to complete their studies.
- It will be a tangible support for many students who have suffered hard, and a tangible expression of the community of universities, says Lund University's Vice-Chancellor Göran Bexell.

In 2004 a Tsunami killed more than 30 000 people in Sri Lanka and brought extensive destruction to the coastal areas, primarily in the north and eastern regions of the country. The need for aid assistance is great with the disaster adding one more burden on a country that has already been brought to its knees by decades of civil war.
In the wake of the disaster, Vice-Chancellor Göran Bexell appointed a committee with the task of proposing how the university, using its established networks, could assist the affected areas. After discussions with universities in the region Lund University and University of Peradniya decided to collaborate to set up a scholarship fund where Lund contributes with SEK 200 000.
– The sum corresponds to, for instance, around ten percent of the need at Eastern University, which is a university situated in one of the worst affected areas, says Jan Magnusson, coordinator at SASNET (Swedish South Asian Studies Network), and the person who has worked together with University of Peradeniya's Vice-Chancellor Kapila Goonasekere to set up the fund.
Tsunami affected students receive SLR 5 000 per month (about SEK 380) until she/he has completed her/his studies.
The plans for a fund directed towards Sri Lanka was made public at the Tsunami symposium organized by SASNET and Lund University on 11 April 2005. More information on the Tsunami symposium.
On 14 October 2005 Lund University published a press release about the setting up of TASF. Read the text (in Swedish only).