LATEST NEWS FROM SRI LANKA- 06:11

Hi there! Adrian has asked me to respond regarding the situation here in Sri Lanka. Jenny is currently in Jaffna where the situation is very difficult. She managed to get up there after getting a Ministry of Defence Clearance and then because we are an NGO (Registered Non Governmental Organisation) she was able to go to visit the projects that we have in Jaffna.

The situation is like this. Nearly six weeks ago the army cut of the main roads into Jaffna to stop the LTTE from entering there. So the normal food supplies that enter the Northern Peninsula were suddenly cut off. Jenny and I had already prepared for such an event and so had stocked cans of tin fish at our children's home. Very quickly food supplies in Jaffna started to run out and so the prices of goods went up dramatically. Many of our church believers are very poor. A good number of them are widows with children. So when the food prices suddenly shot up they came to the church for assistanc. Many of them had not eaten for days. So we responded by collecting money in our own churches in Europe and then through contacts that we had in the Jaffna region with business people we arranged for money to be given in Colombo (the south) and then these businessmen released the food to Sweette our home Manager (in the north). So we did not have to get the money to Jaffna. However Sweette still has to spend her whole week going from place to place to find food for the 30 children at the home plus 10 staff members.

Links International has been collecting finance on behalf of the Paalam Project and they have already sent £2700 to us here in Colombo which we used in Jaffna to purchase goods to give to our church members. So for the past three Sundays we have provided a cooked meal for all thoses attending the church and also given them a parcel of Dahl, rice and flour to take home. For those with children we also provided them with a box of milk powder. For the past three years we have also been working with the Jaffna Prison visiting there twice a month. Once a month we provide a meal for the prisoners and the other week we give them soap and toothpaste. However during this time they also came to a crisis point of not being able to access enough food for all the prisoners. So for the past two Sundays we have also provided food for the Prisoners.

With the finance sent to us by Links International we have been able to assist 110 families from our church and 120 Prisoners from the jail, as well as provide food for the children's home for the past three weeks.

We are praying and believing that the road to Jaffna will open next week, which will ease this crisis. So it is an issue of finance because people cannot afford to buy the food that is available. But also food is not very readily available. Red Cross ships are coming up but the army tends to get that before the Civilians.

I hope this helps. Should people wish to assist us with the food assistance project we would be grateful of their support as we don't know how long this will continue. Links International run by Norman Barnes and Richard Hubbard are overseeing this for us.

Last week here in Colombo we also had serious flooding in our area and in fact were unable to leave the area as the two main roads had been so badly flooded that no-one could drive on them. 50 families in our area had to be re-housed in local schools and council buildings. The Paalam Project assisted these families by providing food for them for three days until they could return to their homes again. So it has been a busy time for us. Also a very difficult time as there is a lot of army checking in Colombo.

I hope this clarifys things for you. Adrian was in Sri Lanka and so saw first hand the amount of army movement in Colombo itself and he also was able to get feedback from Sweette directly.

I have attached a couple of photos from Jaffna. These are of our church in Jaffna as boys from the Childrens home are preparing the food parcels and then leaders of the church are distributing them on Sunday.

Blessings
Karen Dey & Jenny Sinnadurai

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