Emergency relief for rural families in Sri Lanka

The initiative at hand

On 18 February 2023 my family and I will be heading to a remote area in Central North Sri Lanka called Padaviya to distribute a month's worth of food to 100 struggling families.

If you'd like to contribute towards this, a box of food to feed a family for a month will cost us 6000 Rupees (LKR) or ~AU$24, as we will be taking at least 100 of these boxes.

The rural community of Padaviya in Central North Sri Lanka is an area that is significantly impacted by the current situation and was heavily affected by the 26 years of civil war. Currently, the community is facing extreme hardship without stable housing, access to food, sanitation or electricity, and poor access to drinking water.

During the war the livelihood of this region was destroyed and significant loss of life, with families still carrying lived trauma. There has been no support from the Sri Lankan Government to rebuild this community and get people back on track. To our knowledge, there are no economic or regional development efforts planned to improve the living standards of the area.

A shared outhouse (toilet)

Home of a local family

Home of a local family

The current situation in Sri Lanka

I've been in Sri Lanka for less than two weeks and feel overwhelmed by the state of what I am seeing everywhere. It is different from the last few times I visit after the war ended, and even this time last year.

Sri Lanka is caught in its worst financial crisis and you feel it the moment you step off the plane!

Soaring inflation, unmanageable debt, a recession and currency depreciation over the past years are seeing people across the island struggling to make ends meet on a day-to-day basis.

People are going hungry with the unaffordable cost of living, parents are having to make hard decisions about if they can afford to send their children to school or put food on the table. There are daily rolling power cuts across the island, and transportation costs are rapidly raising.

Particularly those in rural and regional areas do not have access to any type of support or income prospects as the country plunges deeper into political and economic decline.

Disclaimer

We have tried not to include images of these families with faces showing to help them maintain their dignity. Upon delivery of emergency relief supplies and the permission of individuals, we will be circulating photos to all those that have contributed via email.