He said his own hometown, Jaffna, was significantly damaged. “Unfortunately, I don’t have much information,” he said, but noted he’s since learned his father, who lives on the eastern shore of the island that bore the brunt of the tsunami, is OK. “He’s safe, but my extended family has lost a lot of property, and we don’t know, some of them may have been killed as well.”

He said his father is having trouble finding supplies. That, at least in part, may be due to politics, Francis said.

Francis, director for geriatric psychiatry at Meadville Medical Center since February, emigrated to Canada in 1990, but returned to Sri Lanka from October 2003 to January 2004, where he ran refugee camps.

Politically, he said Sri Lanka, which is a little smaller than Pennsylvania and has a population of about 18 million, is mainly Singhalese, who are Buddhist and control the government.

The minority is the Tamils, who are mainly Hindu from the northern part of the island. He said Tamils have been treated as second-class citizens ever since the island gained independence from Great Britain in 1948.

The tension between the two groups erupted into a low-level civil war in the 1970s and has continued sporadically since, though there is currently a cease-fire, he said.

He’s personally documented the carnage and human rights violations that results from the discord. “This is what people need to be aware of in the West,” he said. “Be aware there are two ethnic groups in this country.”

Though his family converted to Christianity some time ago, he said he’s still an ethnic Tamil, and wants to shed light on their conditions. “The northeast was the most affected in this (destruction), but the western media are reporting only the damage in the south,” in the Singhalese areas, he said. “Even footage from that area (the northeast) is not available.

“In the past, it’s always been that funds or moneys are usually diverted and don’t really reach the north and the east. I just wanted to give people some idea as to what happens in Sri Lanka and not always the most needy people get the money,” he said.

He said now is when most people are at risk of dying, mainly from diarrhea, dysentery, cholera and other disease stemming from contaminated drinking water, and help is urgently needed.

He said he also plans to see if he can get the time off to go there himself. “I’ll see what can be arranged, maybe down the road.”