Hi!

I'm Karthik -- and I'm a founder in the bay area whose engineering team is based in Sri Lanka. I don't want to spend too much time on myself, because honestly that doesn't matter too much in the context of the situation. So I'll get to the point:

Sri Lanka needs help.... A lot of help. For those of you that don't know, there was a Cyclone (and for the U.S. crowd, that's a hurricane) that ran through the country -- that's a size a little larger than New Jersey.

That cyclone has caused a tremendous number of floods to regions all across the country which has devastated the local population. To put the numbers out plainly:

To put it simply, this is one of the worst disasters in the country's history. But, we can help. Several folks on our engineering team are on the ground and have left their laptops to go and get supplies and distribute things directly.

Since this is being run directly through our team, we want to be extremely transparent where this money is going and how it's going to be used (we're aiming to help 1000 people -- it's a starting point):

Rough Budget for 1000 People (Emergency Relief – Landslide Affected Community)

1. Dry Food Packs (per person pack × 1000)

Each pack includes:

Rice – 2 kg

Dhal – 1 kg

Sugar – 1 kg

Tea – 100 g

Biscuits – 1 packet

Canned fish – 1 tin

Salt – 1 packet

Estimated cost per pack: LKR 1,200 ~ $4 USD

Total: 1,200 × 1000 = LKR 1,200,000 ~ $4000 USD

2. Hygiene Items

Soaps

1 bar per person × 1000

Unit price: LKR 70 ~ $0.23 USD

Total: LKR 70,000 ~ $233 USD

Toothbrushes

1 per person × 1000

Unit price: LKR 60 ~ $0.20 USD

Total: LKR 60,000 ~ $200 USD

Toothpaste

1 medium tube for 2 people → 500 tubes

Unit price: LKR 180 ~ $0.60 USD

Total: LKR 180,000 ~ $600

Sanitary Pads

One pack (10 pads) per woman

Estimate 600 women

Unit price: LKR 250 ~ $0.83

Total: LKR 150,000 ~ $500

3. Basic Medicines

(Community-level emergency supplies)

Panadol / Paracetamol – 60 boxes → LKR 36,000 ~ $120 USD

ORS packets – 150 packs → LKR 22,500 ~ $75 USD

Antiseptic cream – 60 tubes → LKR 18,000 ~ $60 USD

Bandages & basic dressing items → LKR 30,000 ~ $100 USD

Total: LKR 106,500 ~ $355 USD

4. Transport & Logistics (due to access issues)

Motorbike + three-wheeler hires + fuel

Estimated: LKR 15,000 ~ $50 USD

Grand Total (Approx.)

LKR 1,200,000 + 70,000 + 60,000 + 180,000 + 150,000 + 106,500 + 15,000

= LKR 1,781,500 ~ $6000 USD

Our goal is to help as many people as possible but also be super tactical in how we go about this. As a start-up we know how to be hyper-efficient with our resources because that's the only way to survive. If we're going to get any person's donations, we want to take every dollar as far as it can possibly go. We don't want this to be one of those donation campaigns where you have to wonder how that dollar is going to be spent.

I know we can help Sri Lanka. And I know we can help a lot of people in need!