Articles - Miscellaneous

News from Sri Lanka

Our link as a diocese with Sri Lanka has been given renewed meaning as Christine Jack, a reader from our deanery, is living and working there for a year, mainly to help develop work with children and young people in the churches. However, the flood of displaced peoples from the fighting in the north of the country has led the church there to be heavily involved in the relief efforts. Christine writes of this:

On the 15th/16th May 2009, about 500 IDPs from the Northern war zone arrived at Kurunegala Hospital. The Hospital Management Committee immediately sent an appeal for the necessary medicines, medical equipment and personal items to deal with this emergency.

Help has come flooding in from many places, including much needed mattresses to try and give the people somewhere to lie off the floor, for comfort and against the rains. It has rained almost continuously this week, to add to the troubles. New wards are being built at great speed, as you can see in the picture on the left. Teams of medics and support staff are working around the clock to relieve the most urgent needs.

Workers have been in to work with the children, bringing paper and pastels and giving them time to draw pictures about their experiences. This is a very helpful and necessary method of allowing children an opportunity to express their feelings on paper, and will have a therapeutic effect on their emotional wellbeing.

It is hoped that most of the displaced civilians will be resettled within six months, many returning north to the Trincomalee District.

The euphoria of the apparent end to the LTTE with the death of Prabakaran was expressed in the streets last week with firecrackers, hooting horns, flags and street gathering. The country is now focusing on issues of relief, rehabilitation, resettlement and reconciliation including the setting up of provincial councils to work towards a permanent political settlement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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