Getuigenissen over onze hulpverlening

31st. July 2014.

MS. Lieve De Kegel, Chairperson,

MARTIN DE KEGEL FOUNDATION, BELGIUM.

Dear sis Lieve,

We are writing this Email to draw your kind attention to the most pathetic situation that our people in the District of POLONNARUWA, ANURDHAPURA, MULLAITHEV AND KILINOCHCHI are facing due to the very severe drought prevailing in that part of the country. They have lost practically all their cultivations and animals reared for economic purposes, their hoses and properties have been pawned to the Bankers and Money Lenders and now they have almost nothing to save them from starvation. On the top of these, they have no drinking water as all rivers and reservoirs have dried up. They have been forced to walk 5 to 10 Kilometers daily in search of water. Most of the people have been exposed to various deceases due to drinking polluted water and mostly affected victims have been their children.

Local Government authorities doing their level best, to supply drinking water to various villages by using boozers but the people do not have storage facilities in their houses, and they use their pots and pans for this purpose which has resulted in loosing much of the water brought for distribution. Through Radio and TV, they have made several appeals to the Government, NGOs and general public to provide them minimum one 5-to-10-liter container per house. Only few NGOs have responded to this call which hardly sufficient to meet the demand.

It is due to these circumstances, we thought of asking you if you would be kind enough to help us to supply these poor and destitute families with some containers to the value not exceeding SL/Rs. 170,000/- (Euro.1,000.00). Because of the urgency of this need, we are prepared to advance this amount from funds received for implementation of other projects provided you would be generous enough to give your consent to pay this amount before end of September 2014.

Thank you and due to the urgency of this matter, we look forward to having your response soon. May God bless you and protect you all, always.

Yours Sincerely,

Joseph Anthony Manchanayake.
President – Martin De Kegel Foundation (Sri Lanka Branch.)
WMCW Council Member for South Asia.

23rd. December 2014.

Dear sis. Lieve,

I am sure now you must be aware of the terrible devastation taking place due to Floods and Land Slides in various parts of Sri Lanka. According to the TV broadcast last night, about 46,000 people are housed in temporary erected resting places while 6 deaths have been reported so far. There are over fifty families of our Farmers Groups in the district of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura among these victims.

Though we cannot fulfill immediate needs of all those unfortunate people, we feel that we should do something for our members. There also we cannot do much but if we could provide them with a parcel of Dry Food and other immediate necessities, it will be most helpful at this moment.

We have no Funds allocated for this purpose. However, we have some Funds that you gave to help the Land slide victims, but we have no direct contact with them. If we are to give them some assistance, we must go through the Government Agent in the area, and he too will be a complete outsider to us and the CWM. Further we have no guarantee that the funds we channel through him will be genuinely distributed or used to help the true victims.

Under these circumstances, we write to seek your permission to use part of this Fund, approximately Rs. 200,000/- to provide these families who have become Flood Victims, with a parcel of Dry Food Etc., which we feel is their immediate need. We thank you to send your response to the above-mentioned Email address with a copy to sis. Sudharma early treating this situation as a matter of urgency.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

Joseph Anthony Manchanayake.
Co-ordinator – International Affairs CWM Sri Lanka
WMCW Council Member for South Asia.