Sri Lankan Family in Need

I’ve lived in Sri Lanka for eight months now and the most important thing I’ve learned here is that the community helps each other.

If you have a problem, everyone will do everything they can to solve it. I have never experienced a community so united.

But, asking for help is one of the hardest things to do.

To have the courage to ask for help tells the other person just how much that help is needed.

So I knew I had to act when my friend asked me for help.

We’ve been friends for over three months now and he supports me in so many ways.

We’ve spoken a lot about his past and it tears my heart apart every time he tells me about the tsunami here in Sri Lanka in 2004.

The waves destroyed his family home and business in front of his eyes.

But I would have never thought that, over two decades later, the tsunami would still be having an impact.

But, thanks to the financial crisis at the time, and the devastation facing the whole country, their house was rebuilt very basically.

Every rainy season since, it breaks down a little more.

The roof has to be renovated as soon as possible.

Water is constantly coming through into their bedrooms.

I saw it with my own eyes and it was heartbreaking to see how his family has to live in such conditions.

To fix the roof is incredibly expensive and the small income from his mother’s fruit shop is simply not enough to support their family and make the necessary fixes.

In a desperate attempt to save money, his mother has already stopped taking her essential medication.

I wish I could help him and his family.

With tears in my eyes, I promised them I would do everything I could to support them.

So I’ve started this project.

How amazing would it be if we could get enough money together so they can sleep in a dry and clean house.

Enough money so that his mother could start taking her medicine again.

So this is me,

gathering all of my courage, and asking you for help.