Help us support local charities and organisations which work with the most vulnerable people and communities
This little girl is one of three living with her parents in this floating shanty of corrugated iron, near to Mullaitivu on the north east coast which was in the battle zone in the last stages of the civil war. Her father was injured in the crossfire, along with thousands of other village people, and he can no longer come out in daylight as his eyesight has been badly affected. Her mother struggles to bring up the girl and her brother and sister as they have no money or food.
After three years living in Menic Farm, a government camp, they were allowed to go but have no home, and their land is flooded. There are no welfare benefits or other means of support. They need your help.
Contact us.
The Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation (JJCDR) in the north has long been in the front line of the civil war and has been providing prosthetics and other help to war victims for over twenty five years.
In January 2013 we met there many innocent victims of land mines, from young people to pensioners, young mothers with no lower limbs and those who now work at the centre providing assistance to others. Bombs do not discriminate.
With little government help, the centre pursues funding from other countries and from their own efforts to keep going. They provide mobility devices, physiotherapy services, micro credit loans and student educational grants to the disabled people. Jaipur’s mission is to reach out to people with limb-loss / physical disabilities and empower them through a total rehabilitation programme to restore their dignity, rights and recognition.
Almost 2000 clients are currently registered at the JJCDR. They have a variety of mobility impairments such as limb-loss, polio, clubfoot, leprosy, cerebral palsy, stroke, congenital deformities etc and many have had limbs amputated because of undiagnosed diabetes. Almost three-quarter of the clients are landmine victims and war wounded.
They need funds continually to keep going. If you want to help, contact us or see their website: http://www.jjcdr.com/
The Zahira School in Kattenkudy in the Eastern Province is an excellent example of local people working together to help children with special needs achieve their potential.
Zahira School - read about their work and their ongoing need for financial support. Funded mostly by local businessmen and community leaders they offer a chance for children who would otherwise be kept at home without an education or a chance of a future.
Help us support local people in remote areas suffering from the 2012/13 floods, power cuts and galloping inflation. Send us your old mobile phones now.
Many local people living in remote areas of Sri Lanka in January 2013 are suffering from floods and landslides, which means power cuts, waterlogged land, ruined crops as there is too much water and too little food. The result is poverty and hardship. Inflation is high and rising and there are few jobs for many people.
One of the ways you can help is by donating any old mobile phones and chargers so we can send them to be sold in Sri Lanka. The money will be used to provide food and materials to people in the very remote village areas who are suffering the most.
So if you have any old mobiles in your drawers that you won’t miss – with chargers if possible – please contact us:
Sidabode.hibernation@gmail.com in Sri Lanka
Sue@theabodetrust.com in the UK
Supporting people with sensory impairments
Since 2007 we have been taking second hand glasses to people in remote villages in Sri Lanka. Many there have poor eye sight and are unable to read newsprint or food labels and to have the sharp focus that spectacles bring is something so easy to arrange yet makes such a difference to the quality of people’s lives.
Friends, colleagues, families and local church groups have donated glasses they no longer use and so far we must have distributed thousands to local people. In August 2009 we gave out sixty pairs to those we met on our travels and to Buddhist monks for sharing with local communities. In April 2010 alone we distributed over 150 pairs of glasses. So if you have any glasses you don’t use any more, please send them to us.
If you are willing to donate money to help us with postage, as we currently have 13 kilos of spectacles ready to go, please tell us.
We have also started to supply second hand digital hearing aids to those in remote communities. Many only have the old fashioned type of hearing aid I last saw being used in the UK by my great grandfather when I was a child. We have now taken digital aids to local people, thanks to those of you who have donated in the UK.
If you have any digital hearing aids you no longer use or would like to contribute towards the cost of buying some for people in Sri Lanka, please contact us.
Sidabode.hibernation@gmail.com in Sri Lanka
Sue@theabodetrust.com in the UK
