Dear friends,

 

I hope you are healthy and well. As you may know by now, the economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka is deteriorating rapidly. This crisis is characterized by economic mismanagement, a rise in external debt, depleting foreign exchange reserves, a weakened currency, and rising prices.

 

The government is struggling to pay for energy supplies, and households and businesses have endured daily power cuts since February, with the duration stretching to 13 – 16 hours in April and 24 hours in some rural villages. There are long lines at gas stations and daily shortages of essential food items, which are becoming prohibitively expensive if available. Lately, Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has deteriorated into a medical crisis, with the top medical union declaring a national health emergency over a life-threatening shortage of drugs. Sri Lanka is in the grip of the worst financial crisis in its history, with record inflation.

 

As a result of all this, people are frustrated. From beachside towns in the south to the Tamil-speaking north, more than 100 demonstrations have broken out across our beautiful island nation since last week. The unprecedented wave of spontaneous protests reflects people's anger at spiraling inflation, fuel shortages, power cuts, and what they see as rulers' mismanagement of the crisis that has made it worse.

 

I was able to experience and witness the pain and suffering our own people are going through each day when I visited SL recently. Since I got back home, I have had many sleepless nights thinking of how I could help. More than doing a protest or a march, I felt it would be much more beneficial to do a fundraiser to obtain monetary donations to fund parcels of their most needed food items, as it is evident that many of those living in Sri Lanka are suffering financially - especially in rural areas. I have contacted the chief monk of Thanumpatthe Rajamaha Vihara, Dikwella, Urumutthe Vijitha Thero (who has visited and stayed at our temple many times). He has yet again happily agreed to help us with this meritorious deed at this much-needed time. I asked Thero to select the poorest families from a rural village (all ethnic groups). Vijitha Thero will be putting together the parcels in Sri Lanka and distributing them among the families who need them most.

 

The month of April is important for all ethnic groups in our country, as it is Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Easter, and Ramadan. I kindly ask all of you to please consider contributing to this important cause.

 

Vijitha Thero and I have put together an item list and are also trying to find a rural village that deserves the most. I will let you all know when I have the confirmed item list and the village information. In the meantime, as the Sinhala and Tamil New year is next week, we need to have the funds ready to send to Sri Lanka so that Vijitha Thero can start putting the parcels together for distribution.

 

“If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.” ~Buddha