A GWENT woman is helping to spearhead a relief effort in her adopted home after it was devastated by the Asian tsunami.

Olivia Richli, who lives and works in the former Dutch fort town of Galle in Sri Lanka, is appealing for donations to help provide immediate humanitarian assistance as well as longer term projects to enable communities to get back to normal.

Mrs Richli, a former pupil of St John's on the Hill School, witnessed the deadly wave strike the town.

"We watched it in wonder from the ramparts in front of the hotel, puzzling what it was. It was not until we saw the roofs below us moving, with cars and boats and people crashing towards the ramparts wall that we realised this was something out of the ordinary," she told the Argus.

"The water did not breach the ramparts wall, but flooded through the old gate of the fort with the ferocity of a huge fire hose, carrying boats and cars with it.

"One of those boats is now outside the front door of my house- around half a kilometre from the fisherman's beach it came from. To give you an idea of the force of this water, the boat is so heavy we are still unable to move it without a JCB."

Although the hotel she runs and her home were only meters from the sea they were protected by the fort and were untouched by the damage.

But many others were not so fortunate. "It is shocking to see what has happened to this beautiful coastline," she said in an e-mail to her parents Diana and Philip Bown, who live in Chepstow.

"The surrounding town is utter devastation. The place where I bought my fruit and vegetables is gone. So is the fish market, the tailors, the shoe mender. Our favourite beach bar gone, friends' houses are just crumbling walls."

The 40-year-old, whose two children Bronte, 14, and ten-year-old Ivo are now in India with their father, has been able to help a huge number of people through the hotel which acted as a refuge camp for more than 500 people in the first two days.

Mrs Richli said the foreigners who remained in the town were mobilised to help with relief work under the umbrella title Project Galle 2005. They are working voluntarily, alongside the government officials co-ordinating aid distribution.

* Donations can be sent to HSBC, Colombo; account name Friends of the South; account number 003-096609-001.