Help for Sri Lanka

Dear Friends and Family

I need your help. As you may know, Sri Lanka is experiencing a humanitarian crisis. For this reason, Niraj and I are raising funds for families in desperate need.

After more than a decade of political mismanagement and corruption, Sri Lanka faces complete economic collapse. I have watched in horror as the country falls into deep turmoil. Politics aside (we can discuss that another day), this is the grim picture from my homeland:

Dollar Shortage: The country has less than $1 million in reserves.

Staggering Debt: The country has $51 billion in debt. Sri Lanka has entered into talks with the IMF and World Bank in an effort to secure loans.

Fuel Shortage: With insufficient dollar reserves, the country has been unable to import fuel, leading to unimaginable fuel shortages. People stand in line at gas stations for up to 4 hrs a day to pump fuel only to find out that there is no more petrol. As of yesterday, many gas stations do not have any fuel. Lack of petrol has forced even relatively wealthy Sri Lankans to work from home.

LP Gas shortage: Much like fuel, there is a gas shortage. Most Sri Lankan stoves are powered by gas and people are experiencing similarly long waiting times while they hope to secure a gas cylinder. Given the shortage, families are often unable to cook more than one meal a day.

Electricity shortage: Citizens, including my family members, have been experiencing power cuts lasting up to 12 hours a day. In the past, people could use generators to get some relief. But with fuel shortages, that is no longer possible.

Food Shortage: A fertilizer shortage (brought on by a poorly thought out government policy to ban chemical fertilizers virtually overnight) has resulted in one-third of Sri Lankan farmlands remaining idle and farmers unable to cultivate crops. Furthermore, due to the fuel crisis, farmers have been unable to power their tractors to harvest last season's crop. This policy blunder, combined with a lack of dollar reserves required to import essential goods such as wheat and milk powder, has created catastrophic food shortages.

Medical Supplies Shortage: The final nail in the coffin, so to speak, is that our hospitals are running out of essential medicines. Patients with diabetes, heart disease and cancer, people in the ICU, those needing life-saving surgeries, and pregnant women are all dealing with this new reality. It is devastating.

All this, coupled with out-of-control inflation, wage declines, and unemployment, has led to a situation that is hard to fathom. While the outlook seems bleak, the will of the Sri Lankan people is unbreakable. They will get through this awful time.

Out of sheer frustration and desperation, the people of Sri Lanka have taken to the streets in protest. They are calling for a change in the government and its system of corruption. They have held peaceful demonstrations for over a month, all ethnic groups have come together, the clergy from all religions have united, and the judiciary has stepped up to hold corrupt politicians accountable. This development is the silver lining in an otherwise horrific situation.

There is also hope that the IMF and world bank loans, along with bridge financing, will start to trickle in over the next few months. However, things will get a lot worse before they get better. During this interim period, the people of Sri Lanka need our help.

I have partnered with an organization my dad founded called Gammadda Sri Lanka (https://www.gammadda.lk/) in the hopes we can provide a food aid package for families that would last them around three weeks. We are targeting the neediest families in the rural villages of Sri Lanka. The pack would include rice, flour, sugar, and one other item to be determined depending on availability. Each aid package costs roughly $6, including transportation costs. Niraj and I have sent the first tranche of funds to start the process, and we will match anything we raise. We hope our friends and family in the US will help support this effort in any way you can. Any amount, big or small, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much, and sorry for the long email.

xoxo

Shanika