Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance(BWA) has given an initial grant of US $5,000 to the Sri Lankan Baptist Sangamaya (SLBS), to assist Sri Lanka's Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The SLBS has joined with other churches and Christian organizations to provide milk, biscuits, medicine and drinking water to those in need.
The United Nations emergency relief coordinator, John Holmes, claims that tens of thousands of people are in mortal danger in Sri Lanka's northern combat zone. The UN estimates that there are at least 50,000 civilians trapped along a sandy strip of land near the north eastern town of Mullaitivu. The government calculates the number of civilians trapped because of the fighting at between 15,000 and 20,000.
Fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been going on for more than 20 years.
There is concern about 150,000 IDPs already in camps with limited water supplies.
Kingsley Perera, the SLBS president is grateful for the help being given. "This is our initial response for the IDPs", he said, "and we are also planning a livelihood resettlement program" in the long term. Asia Pacific Baptist Aid, the regional entity of BWAid is also supporting the work of the SLBS.
BWAid Director Paul Montacute is asking for the worldwide Baptist family to help the Sri Lankan Baptists as they play their part in helping those in need.
Donations can be sent to BWAid's Emergency Relief Fund.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A screen grab shows what the Sri Lankan military said was how the "LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) hackers had hacked the Army official website" May 1, 2009. For a ...
