A VOLUNTEER, who has just returned from two weeks relief work in Sri Lanka, has spoken of the "unbelievable devastation" in the wake of the tsunami.

Richard Berkeley, who works as a night manager at the Asda store at Bradford Road, Brackenhall, said the area he visited in the capital Colombo looked "just like a nuclear bomb had gone off".

But it is the gratitude and hope in the faces of the people, particularly the children, who are being helped by the international aid effort, which remains in his mind.

He said: "The children in Colombo were awesome. They had so much spirit. Whenever an aid van came they were just smiling and swamping the vehicle. It was incredible."

Richard, 26, was among a party of nine people who travelled there with volunteer group and charity I-To-I.

During the fortnight he was there, he worked in relief camps, helped clear beaches and helped with food distribution.

While in one camp in Colombo he spent two days de-lousing 600 people. Thousands of people are infected.

He also helped repaint and rebuild a school where many children had died in the tsunami.

The school was near the derailed train which featured in many television news reports following the disaster.

Richard, who lives in Warrenfield Court near the store, also met a 16-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer lying on the concrete floor of one of the camps he worked in.

Maheeshika, who has brain damage, had lived in poverty prior to the tsunami and her family including mother, father and three brothers and sisters had never been able to afford for her to have any medical treatment.

A determined effort by the team resulted in her being accepted by a clinic and receiving intensive physiotherapy which will help improve her quality of life.

Richard will continue to pay for physiotherapy to ensure Maheeshika will continue to receive a better quality of care in the future.

And he plans to return to Sri Lanka in the next six months to see how the country is progressing.

He said: "There's so much still to do. It's just untrue. I didn't really want to come home, but I will definitely go back."

Amazingly, Richard feels he has increased in confidence since working in Sri Lanka.

Rather than being traumatised by what he saw, he feels his experience has given him a wider perspective on life.

But he was humbled almost to the point of tears when he met a man who had just rebuilt his own home.

The stranger bent down and kissed his feet in gratitude for the aid effort.