W hen the rains began, Layani Rasika Niroshani was not worried. The 36-year-old mother of two was used to the heavy monsoon showers that drench Sri Lanka ’s hilly central region of Badulla every year. But as it kept pounding down without stopping, the family started to feel jittery.

Some relocated to a relative’s house, but her brother and his wife decided to stay behind to collect the valuables. As they were inside, a landslide hit the family home.

“By some miracle, my brother managed to pull her out of the house through a broken window,” said Niroshani. “They weren’t able to take a single thing out. We were all very scared.”

The house was destroyed as it was engulfed with mud and debris, taking all their family possessions with it; one of hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed by

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