Diane Eskenazi ships supplies for tsunami victims Diane Eskenazi ships supplies for tsunami victims (February 09, 2005)

Nearly 2,000 boxes of donated medical supplies to help tsunami survivors shipped out for Sri Lanka recently, said Woodside resident Diane Eskenazi, who coordinated the relief effort.

Ms. Eskenazi, a filmmaker who has contacts with the Sri Lankan charity called PEACE, through her nonprofit Peace Builders Inc., said an earlier trial shipment of clothes and linens arrived safely and had been distributed by PEACE to families in need.

Ms. Eskenazi coordinated the donation of $40,000 in basic medical supplies from California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and Mills-Peninsula Health Services in San Mateo, along with donations of bedding and towels from their employees. Due to a recently passed law in Sri Lanka, the shipments will go to the director general of health services in Colombo, Sri Lanka, instead of directly to PEACE, as she had hoped, she said.

Federal Express donated the shipping, she said.

A number of people have contacted her to find out how they can help after reading a cover story about her work to promote peace that appeared in the Almanac's January 12 issue, Ms. Eskenazi said.

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