February 15, 2005 | Contact: Paul Turner | Colombo Cell: (+94) 77 302-0495 | DC Office: (301) 987-5883

Is there enough for the other children?

Today I talked with the director of Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home, Nandarani, about some of the children that come to her care. She told me a story of three children, all from the same family.

Apparently, they had lost their home because of the tsunami and their father had been injured and was unable to support the family. Out of desperation, their mother was willing to make the greatest sacrifice, giving her children over to the Home. She simply could not care for them properly.

Nandarani (left) explained that when they first sat down for a meal at the Home, the children voiced concern that there would be enough food the other children. She told me that the children had earlier spoken to her of times when the food ration line near their previous home would run out, and they along with others had to go without. Never before had they experienced a time when they could eat as much as they liked!

I asked Nandarani, did they cry when their mother left them here?" "No," she said, with a smile of reassurance. "None of the children cry. Many are coming from a hopeless situation — no bed to sleep on, not enough food, poor health, and in many cases no parents at all. They are very happy when they learn that the Bhaktivedanta Children’ Home will be their new home."

Tsunami Orphans

Friday, February 11 — Five more tsunami orphans arrived at the Children’s Home. Another 15 more will be arriving in the coming weeks. All in all, 100 tsunami orphans have been designated to the Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home by the Sri Lankan government. "We need more facility to care for all these children," Nandarani pleaded. "The first thing we need is funds to buy more land."

Food for Life Global has set a target to raise $250,000 to help purchase more land and finish construction on new buildings. "Talking to Nandarani inspires all of us, explains FFL Volunteer, Sara Spears. "She is giving everything to these children. I can not think of a better cause and better person to help. I am totally impressed with this project." To help us raise awareness, see Advocacy

Moratuwa - A nutritious lunch!

SSaturday, February 12 — Our lunch time meal continues in Moratuwa. Niti Laksa Das (pictured right), our head chef from London, has set up a base camp in a house that is within minutes of many relief camps. Cooking begins around 9AM. First the vegetables are sorted, washed and cut into bite size chunks. Today we are using eggplants, okra, potato, tomatoes, and plenty of chilies. Soy chunks are a staple here, so near the end of the cooking, 50kgs of soy chunks are added to the simmering pool of curried vegetables. As steam pours out of the huge 300 liter pot, Niti smiles, wipes the sweat from his brow and continues stirring with a massive stainless steel spoon. "I have to make sure everything gets mixed properly," he tells me. "Bring more chilies," he laughs. "They really like it hot in Sri Lanka. Even the children don’t mind a lot of chilies. We have to make a special batch of curry just for us," he explains, while pointing to another smaller pot to the side. "Okay, we’re ready. Let’s get this on the truck," he tells the others.

FFL Volunteer, Colleen Hardiman, serving vegetable curry at a relief camp in Moratuwa.

Four men are required to lift the pot onto a flat bed truck. "One slip and someone is going to really get hurt", I think to myself. Fortunately, everything is loaded without drama — 300 liters of vegetable curry, 400 liters of steaming hot rice, and 300 liters of dhal. Enough to feed more than a thousand people. Six volunteers quickly jump onto the back of the flat bed truck and we move out. Next stop, relief camp #12.

As we approach the camp site, our truck bearing a Food for Life banner on the grill, is quickly spotted and an announcement goes out over the loud speaker. We don’t understand what is being said, but we recognize "Food for Life." Everyone waves as we enter the gate and quickly form a line. Today, we have three new volunteers from the US serving the meals, Colleen Hardiman, Sara Spears, and JenRenee Paulson. "This is so much fun," says Colleen, as she dishes out the curry, while JenRenee serves the hot dhal and Sara labors with the hot rice.

I decided to walk around and chat with the people in the camp. Many were eager to tell me their story. One lady took me into a large shed and explained that this was now her place of residence. As I surveyed the cracked cement floor, I could see that there were many families living in this one congested area. Each family had no more than five feet of real estate to sleep and keep all their belongings. "There are no fans, so it gets very hot at night time," she told me. "Is there something else I can do for you," I said. "Yes, please bring the children some books to read." I couldn’t help but appreciate her selfless and simple nature. She was suffering under these austere conditions, and when asked what she needed, she only wanted me to help the children. This attitude is very typical here. The Sri Lankan people are very caring and hospitable. I told her I would come back soon with some gifts for the children.

Sweet Rice - You should have seen them smile!

Leaving the Food for Life base camp with our sweet rice pudding and bananas.

Sunday, February 13 — Our FFL team decided to add a little sweetness to our distribution. Many children had been asking us for something sweet. Laksminatha, our chef from South Africa suggested we make sweet rice (milk and rice pudding). I liked the idea and asked him to also hand out fresh bananas. We called our local "Go-to man", Laxman, who buys all of our supplies to come over. "Please buy 1000 bananas, a bunch of fresh milk and raisins to make sweet rice," I told him. "Yes, no problem." "How much for one banana," I asked. "About 5 rupees," he replied. "Let’s do it," I said with a smile, thinking about how cheap it was to make these people happy. Five rupees is only 5 cents when converted to US currency. One thousand bananas will only cost Food for Life $50.

That afternoon, Niti Laksa prepared 200 liters of sweet rice while Sara, Colleen, and Laksminath helped to serve it out. "You should have seen the excitement," said Sara. "The children went absolutely nuts when they found out we had sweet rice." "All the children were running and smiling. I had never seen them so happy before," explained Niti Laksa.

Food for Life Action Shots

FFL Volunteers, Sara Spears (left) and JenRenee Paulson (right)	Vaikuntha Krsna das from London serving out vegetable curry.	A happy little girl with her hot lunch
Traveling down the beach front through miles of destruction this man approached our truck with who we imagine was his motherless granddaughter.	Feeding the needy in Moratuwa	A happy mother and child are receiving their sweet rice and bananas.

A Cottage business to support tsunami orphans

FFL Volunteer, JenRenee with Sita Devi the youngest child at Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home.

Friday, February 11 — Another visit the Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home was in order. Our latest volunteer from the US, Ms. JenRenee Paulson, was eager to see firsthand all the wonderful things she has been hearing about the Home from our reports.

JenRenee traveled from the US specifically to volunteer at our new Child Sponsorship office. Soon, five more volunteers from the US, all with experience or expertise in fields such as fund raising, videography, desktop publishing and public relations will be joining the team.

JenRenee was so inspired by her experience with the children, she is now heading up a new craft business established by Food for Life Global to support the orphanage. "I asked a group of children to write and draw about some of things they like. The response was very touching," she explained. One girl wrote about Nandarani as her mother:"She is very beautiful. She always be happy and enjoy with us. If we sick, she help. She teach every subject to us. Sometime she play with us. God sent mother for us. Because, she very kind to us. We are very happy with my mother. She will cook very good." Another young girl wrote:"My teacher can play games and joke with us. My teacher like all the children. We all like our teacher very much. Our teacher is very kind with us."

"We plan to take some of the drawings that illustrate these notes and create gift cards, calendars, and other gift items to sell around the world," JenRenee explained. Plans are already underway to identify distributors in the US, Australia and Europe. The new business will be called Children of the Tsunami — Arts, Crafts and Education (COTTAGE). If you are interested in helping Food for Life Global make this happen, please contact: jenrenee@ffl.org

Orphanage Action Shots

Children pay attention in class	Sri Lankans love cricket and the boys at the Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home are no exception.
Every morning children come together to do hatha yoga for 45 minutes.	After yoga, some of the girls gather in the temple room for classical singing lessons.

Lunchtime meal in Batticaloa

This elderly lady was extremely grateful for her free lunch

Freshly cooked meals continue to go out from our FFL base in Batticaloa, on the far east side of Sri Lanka. A new team has now taken over and is headed up by local volunteer, Mr. Govinda Raj. People at the relief camps are praising the tasty lunch they receive and are begging Food for Life to stay as long as possible. Funds are needed to keep these programs running, so we are still requesting support from our donors. If you have not given yet, please do so.

FFL Counseling Team

The FFL counseling team we sent out to Batticaloa reported of wide scale panic one day when it was rumored another tsunami was on its way. "People began screaming and pleading with us to let them in our van," explained Australian born, Shanti Parayana. "It was madness. The people here are still very much on edge. The psychological scars from the tsunami disaster run very deep in this region."

"We arrived in Batticaloa on January 26, the one month anniversary of the Tsunami hitting Sri Lanka. All the camps for displaced persons were being visited by priests of all denominations. Our first experience was at St. Michael’s college. By now the arrival of white skinned westerners coming to offer assistance was an accepted occurrence. Even so, our group of celibate monks raised a few smiles and stark glances. However, the crowd around us soon numbered 250, and a feeling of community quickly pervaded the room. People truly enjoyed our company and we all sang together. It was so fulfilling to see them smiling again.

"We then led the mothers with their 10 liter buckets to our truck loaded with over one ton of hot rice, dahl, & soy curry. The remaining sad faces soon transformed to a joyous, easy-going smile as families peacefully sat together sharing a meal prepared and offered with love. The relief they felt knowing that the world did care finally gave them a moment of peace."

Advocacy Package (How to get involved)

Please help get the word out! Print these documents and distribute far and wide in your area.

• Press Releases (Send out a press release to your local media)
  • Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home
  • Malnutrition - killing 11 children under 5 years every minute
  • Food for Life Tsunami Relief
• Letters to the Editor (Write to your local newspaper)
• Web Site or Blog Announcement (Tell people about FFL on blogs and community websites)
• Creative Ways to Help (Tips and ideas for advocacy)
• Email Signature (Add this signature to all your email message)
• For webmasters (Place one of these banners on your web site with a link to our home page (www.ffl.org).

Food for Life in the News

• Children collect toys for tsunami orphans
• ISKCON serves 250,000 freshly cooked meals to survivors
• Hungarian PM’s daughter here
• Opening hearts, wallets for disaster relief funds

APPEAL: 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, please write to us with references to volunteer@ffl.org

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

email: iskcon@slt.lk
Paul Turner
Cell: (+94) 77 302-0495
Office phone: (+94) 11 243-3325
fax: (+94) 11 247-1099

Bhaktivedanta Children’s Home
607A, Negombo Road
Mabola
Wattala
Tel: (+ 94) 11 294-8398
www.gokulam.org

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.

Donations by Check

Send to:

Food for Life Global - Emergency Relief Fund
PO Box 59037 
Potomac, MD 20859, USA 

All donations are tax deductible. Food for Life Tax ID: 52-195-2901

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.

Paul Turner
Director

The Food for Life Global Friends Newsletter is distributed to more than 20,000 vegans and vegetarians worldwide.

(c) 2005 Food for Life Global - Using text or pictures contained within this newsletter without the expressed permission of Food for Life Global is illegal.