Reporting from Colombo, Sri Lanka
Serving Food "Military-style"
On Saturday we traveled down South to meet our food relief team in Matara. On the way we witnessed the incredible scale of the destruction as literally hundreds of miles of coastlines was wiped out. At one point we stopped to view a train that had been hit by the wave. As I surveyed the area I came across hundreds of personal items, including a child’s shoe. Nothing more needs to said.
Our team in Matara have been cooperating with the Sri Lankan military to provide hot meals to various refugee camps in the area. The people down here have a very particular taste — they love chilies, salt and loads of rice cooked a very particular way. So our team made the adjustments and began serving thousands of meals daily. The other unique feature of this program was how the meals were served. Rather then sit everyone down or have everyone line up in front of our pots, the local soldiers and some villagers helped us to scoop the rice, dhal and vegetable curry into plastic wrap and then package them with newspaper.
Major General Kulatunga told me, "this is military style." And I must say it was very efficient under the circumstances. The meals stayed hot for a long time while we traveled to each refugee camp to distribute them.
Food for Life Relief Coordinator, Indradyumna Swami (Maharaja) meets with Major General Kulatunga in Matara.
Afterwards we gave out Food for Life Volunteer T-shirts to all the children that helped us. Talk about enthusiasm, the kids swarmed us like a Rugby scrum pleading for one of our bright yellow t-shirts.
The next day the military suggested we move our operations to more needy areas on the island. We had to agree, it was becoming clear now that the military had done an excellent job of providing food for these camps. Food for Life was instrumental in making sure no one went hungry during the early stages of the relief, but it was time now to move on. Our team packed up, loaded the truck with our rice and headed back to Colombo. Next stop, Batticaloa, on the far east side of the Island and one of the hardest hit areas, where we will join our other relief team.
Since the beginning days of the Tsunami relief, Food for Life has been operating in the East in the main port of Trincomalee Our teams continues to provide much needed food and counseling in this area, and soon our team from the South will join them in the nearby city of Batticaloa. We expect to also close down these operations in one month as the situation continues to normalize and go from relief to reconstruction.
Food for Life Action Shots
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| Many villagers like this man lost everything. Food for Life’s hot meal was greatly appreciated. | Vaikuntha Vijay stirs the huge 200 gallon pot used to cook the vegetable stew. | Volunteers place the cooked meal into plastic wrap and then newspaper to be handed out later at the relief camps. |
Foundation Laid for New Orphanage Buildings
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| Children at the orphanage offer pranams and song to the visiting dignitaries. |
On Monday, local representatives from the United Nations and Lions Club joined other local dignitaries in the inauguration of the construction of new buildings at the Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home (Orphanage). Mr. Mahakarta Das, the director of Food for Life in Sri Lanka, greeted the dignitaries and thanked them for their ongoing support for the project. The Lions Club recently donated $30,000 towards the expansion.
The children looked very happy and healthy as usual and entertained the crowd with singing. The facility currently cares for 80 orphan children but the new expansion will enable 170 more children, of which 100 will be Tsunami orphans. See: www.gokulum.org
Fund Raising Office in Colombo
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| Sita Devi, the youngest and most popular orphan at the Bhaktivedanta Children’s school |
As mentioned in our last newsletter, Food for Life Global is planning to finance the expansion of the Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home (orphanage) by gifting a major portion of the Tsunami relief donations we received over the last month and also setting up a fund raising office in Colombo.
Already some volunteers from abroad have expressed interest in helping Food for Life Global in this endeavor. Two in particular have experience in film production and have offered to produce a documentary on the orphanage.
We are all very excited about the potential of this orphanage and are confident that many people will step forward to help the Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home to realize its dream of creating a haven for 250 needy orphans.
Food for Life Global will soon be setting up an "Orphan Sponsorship" program and posting details on our website. Yesterday we had a professional photographer take a photo of the beautiful children who range from 2 to 18 years of age.
The Future of the Children
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| Food for Life volunteer, Devala das, comforts the children at the orphanage. |
As with every shelter program like an orphanage, at some point in time the child has to stand on its own and start a life independent of the orphanage. The thought of this however has been worrying Mr. Mahakarta das, as to the best way to do that. We discussed at length possible transition initiatives and a couple of interesting ideas came up. I want to share them with you and get your feedback.
One idea would be for the Orphanage to start its own set of cottage industries, whereby the older orphans could be trained by local professionals in building a business that could give back to the orphanage. They could earn a living and at the same time be participating in a business that could support the orphanage.
Another idea I felt had a lot merit, would be to start a Children’s Home Food for Life service and engage the elder orphan children in distributing free meals to the needy. In this way, the program could not only help the poor, but would be very therapeutic as the children reach out to other less fortunate people.
Volunteer Coordinator Urgently Needed
Food for Life Global continues to receive applications from volunteers wishing to assist FFL in its worldwide projects. We desperately need the expert help of an experienced Volunteer Coordinator. The ideal person needs to have the following qualifications:
- Familiarity with Food for Life projects
- Familiarity with ISKCON
- Vegetarian
- Enthusiastic, determined and straight-forward in dealings
- Able to communicate with a wide range of personality types
- Can work virtually as well as on-site when needed
- Good team player
- Ability to "Rally the troops" and inspire people
If you or someone you know possess these traits, first
I would like to say "Wow" and then ask that you please write to us with references to volunteer@ffl.org
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| Food for Life volunteers (left to right) Vaikuntha, Jake From and Ursula Kreb cut potatoes. | Food for Life Relief Team in Matara, Sri Lanka |
How to Contact Food for Life Global in Sri Lanka
The Food for Life base camp is situated at:
ISKCON
188, New Chetty Street,
Colombo 13
Sri Lanka
Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home
www.gokulum.org
email: iskcon@slt.lk
Office phone: +94 11 2433325
fax:+94 11 2471099
Paul
Turner Cell: 94 77 302 0495
Volunteering
Offshore
Food for Life is encouraging people to give their time in their local area to help raise awareness of FFL’s activities and thus raise much needed money. Many students have emailed to ask if they can organize a fundraising drive at their campus. The answer is a resounding "Yes." Please help in whatever way you can, whether it is selling t-shirts, approaching your local businesses, or writing an article. We just ask that you keep Food for Life Global informed of all your activities.
Poster - Please Distribute
Please print and post this new poster around your city. You can also print this flyer and place it in vegetarian restaurants or hand them out at your church or shopping center.
For the webmasters among you, we humbly ask that you place one of these banners on your web site with a link to our home page (www.ffl.org).
Donations by Check
Send to:
Food for Life Global
PO Box 59037
Potomac, MD 20859, USA
All donations
are tax deductible.
Where
You Can Donate
JustGive and Network for Good, both of which are prominently displaying Food for Life on their hunger relief pages and of course at the FFL web site using PayPal. (Note: PayPal does extract a very small percentage of the donated money for transaction fees. Typically $3 for a $100 donation).
Thank you for your friendship.
On behalf of all the Food for Life volunteers, we hope this meets you in the best of health and happiness.
The Food for Life Global Friends Newsletter is distributed to more than 20,000 vegans and vegetarians worldwide.
Paul Rodney Turner
(Priyavrata das)
Food for Life Global
PO Box 59037
Potomac, MD 20859, USA
phone: (301) 987-5883
www.ffl.org
