Let’s Rally in Prayer for Sri Lanka!
Landslides and floods in Sri Lanka have killed at least 151 people and the country faces the risk of more mudslides as torrential rains continue.
More than 150 people are still missing after the worst rains on the island since 2003.
The state-run National Building Research Organization warned people in 15 out of the country’s 25 districts of the possible need to evacuate from the hill slopes should the rains continue.
I visited the Southern District of Matara, where a river burst its banks, causing havoc to the nearby towns and villages, with water reaching over 15 feet in height, on land, wiping out homes, communities and moreover entire families.
As of 2nd June 2017, a tea estate community of 30 families was unaccounted for after a mass landslide. The entire slope they lived on became a muddy grave, making it near impossible for rescue teams to even approach the site.
My journey to these areas educated me of the fact that it takes only a moment in time to reduce to zero, what took years of labor to achieve. The average individual household has to depend on a daily labor wage of USD$ 3.30 per family of four to five persons, which begs the question, how do they restart their lives, when they do not earn not enough wages to even enjoy two square meals a day?
On the positive side, the nation rose to this challenge with thousands of individuals rallying to help along with corporate bodies, nonprofit organizations, the army, navy, airforce, and all local TV stations who joined forces to get food, water, and basic toiletries to many affected areas.
The challenge for the immediate future lies in school children who have lost all their books, tuition notes, uniforms to their parents losing the very homes they lived in, to modes of transport where the bicycle or three wheeler was taken on a loan, have been wiped off their road to progress.
The Government has assured those affected that assistance would come their way, but in realistic terms, this will only take them back to the life they had, which was not much for starters and will take many seasons to achieve.
My appeal to anyone reading this blog, is to take it upon themselves to try and assist at least one person or a family in some area in their attempt to return to the path of moving forward. International and local aid will cease the moment another calamity takes place in another area of the island or place in the world, but these folks have to return to some state of normalcy or mere survival for many years to come.
David Nicolle is GOD TV’s Regional Director for Sri Lanka where the network had an office in Colombo, servicing viewers and partners in the region. GOD TV Sri Lanka has undertaken several humanitarian projects in the Island-nation, helping ‘widows and orphans’ in war-torn areas. Read the inspirational story of [Jayanthi] who has been provided with a new home by GOD TV viewers.
https://godtv.com/sri-lanka-testimony/