Nicki and Jonathan are still helping Sri Lankan tsunami victims six years on

The Support Sri Lanka Foundation has used £6,000 in funeral donations to pay for furniture and equipment at the Weragampita clinic in the poor southern area of Matara.

The charity used another £2,675 in donations from Whitnash and Leamington people to hand out 535 mosquito nets to every new born and young child when the clinic opened last month.

Nicki Farthing and her former partner Jonathan Frost set up the foundation in 2005 after witnessing the devastation left by the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.

The clinic, which serves five villages including an area affected by the giant wave, is the second the charity has equipped.

Six years after the disaster, Miss Farthing said there was still work to be done. She said: “We are still busy helping.

“It has been life-changing. Jonathan and I went over nine months after the tsunami. We took over nine suitcases and raised £3,000 but realised how insiginificant our work was.

“We really didn’t think we would still be doing it now.”

The main donation came from the widow of a man who had visited Sri Lanka shortly after the tsunami struck.

Oxfordshire couple Sue and Tony Richards travelled to the island not long after the tsunami in 2004. After Mr Richards was diagnosed with cancer he asked for any donations at his funeral to be sent to help tsunami victims.

The new clinic replaces a tin shed with no walls, and only curtains to give privacy to patients.

While Dubai Rotary Club paid for the new building, the foundation’s donation from Mr Richards’ funeral paid for the equipment to go inside it.

This includes waiting room chairs, doctors’ tables and chairs, scales, an examination table and lamp, an equipment trolley and sterilization equipment.

Miss Farthing said there were plans for further events to equip a third clinic.

She added: “We are delighted to be able to work together with other charities in this way and look forward to being involved with another new clinic in the following months. The clinic will be financed now by the government and staff are already providing a valuable service.”