Canadian paramedics volunteer in Sri Lanka

Among the group are four paramedics from Toronto, who paid their own way to reach the remote village of Induruwa on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka -- a place that has seen no aid arrive since the tsunami hit.

Most of the injuries that people are suffering from in this village are infected gashes and intestinal problems.

Billy Lui is a medic who works for 25 (Toronto) Field Ambulance, part of the Canadian military reserve. He spent $20,000 from his own pocket to take part in this aid mission.

"We're Canadians, we're human beings and we believe we should help other human beings," said Lui.

Despite resistance from official aid groups, which are discouraging independent volunteers due to the complications they can pose logistically, the team of four managed in 10 days to set up a tiny urgent care clinic in the front yard of a villager's damaged home.

Military reserve medic Jonathan Howard said, however, that he's not impressed with the organization of the infrastructure. They're having to use their own supplies that they brought with them.

"Lots of supplies are coming in," said Howard, "but there is no dynamic movement of those supplies."

"The IV units were sitting in boxes in the sweltering heat, so it's garbage."

Helping disaster victims is nothing new for Rahul Singh, another Toronto paramedic donating his services in Sri Lanka.

He's the driving force behind a group of paramedics, police officers and firefighters who travel every year to Third World countries.

Singh is also the director of emergency programs for the David McAntony Gibson Foundation, an organization that takes relief supplies and equipment to those in need.

This time, he brought with him a donation to Sri Lanka made by the city of Toronto, consisting of water-treatment supplies to provide clean drinking water for up 100,000 people.

"We're going to go in and teach people how to rehabilitate wells and purify water, and we'll do that two or three times with a core group of 10 to 15 people," said Singh.

The medics know they can only do so much, however.

"The people here are reluctant to go to hospital," says CTV reporter Lisa LaFlamme in Induruwa, "afraid that when they come back, the little they have left will also be gone."