START, the Srilankan Trust to Aid and Rebuild Tangalle, is working hard on liaising with the organisers of the big Pembrokeshire Concert to take place at Folly Farm on March 5. It will be one of the biggest events ever in the county and there will be a CD to buy so you can enjoy the music even if you can't be there. Both concert ticket sales and sales of the CD will benefit the areas affected by the tsunami. Meanwhile, other events are still taking place all over Pembrokeshire. The Nomads, a group who regularly raise money for charity from their base at the Evergreen pub in Tenby, have donated £306 to the cause. Valentine's Day brought out the romantics of Saundersfoot in full force. The Regency Rooms throbbed to the sounds and passions of the music and raised £500 for START. The Heart of Oak pub in Milford Haven held a fund-raising evening and has donated over £1,000 so far. "Some of you may have heard on the national news that DEC, the main disaster emergency charity, have declared that they now have so much money that they haven't been able to spend it, so they are closing their collection activities down," said START trustee, Jo Hammond. "We at START would like to emphasise that, though there have been vast sums of money raised by DEC and they have already achieved much, providing a new fresh water supply, dealing with the immediate medical emergencies and distributing food for instance, there is still a great deal to do," she continued. "It will take decades to resurrect the communities and to regenerate their economies. Small communities often get overlooked and we are about helping one such small town. The DEC may have funds to rebuild houses, but there was a whole community of people living in shacks on the beach who were washed away. "The survivors have no homes left and since they were unregistered houses they have no rights in the eyes of the Sri Lankan government. No-one is re-housing these people. This is something that we can focus funds on, in addition to our main aim of helping schools. We are there for the long term to help Tangalle get back on its feet," she added.
