Entrepreneur, Angel of Mercy

Thomas Gerbracht steered his canary-yellow 4x4 through the ravaged streets, past the smashed buildings, heaps of rubble and the sodden grove of palm trees where, on the first day, he saw the buses filled with dead. He stopped in front of a house and hailed a young woman sitting on the verandah.

"So how are things here?" he said, asking if the well that supplied her drinking water had been contaminated by the surging sea.
"No good," the woman confirmed in broken English. "I no water."

The German-born Gerbracht gave her a reassuring smile, promising to send a work crew -- firefighters from Munich airport -- to clean up the well in the morning. "They have a pump," he explained before continuing his rounds.

In normal life, Gerbracht, 47, is a successful entrepreneur whose Sri Lanka-based organic food business is one of the biggest in Asia. But the tsunami that struck this island nation on Dec. 26, killing more than 30,000 people, has thrust him into a new and unaccustomed role: angel of mercy.

So it is throughout Sri Lanka, where many vital relief operations are being carried out not by the government or humanitarian aid agencies -- although both are doing what they can -- but by businessmen and private citizens. They have put careers and personal lives on hold and, in many cases, dug deep into their own pockets to pay for food and other immediate needs.......

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57582-2005Jan7.html