Flood Donations

As adviced from the divisional heads, we were given a proper list of donations they needed as well the head count. It consisted of 76 elders, 6 pregnant mothers, 48 toddlers, and 28 infants. We collected things such as clothing’s for all sectors, woven mats to sleep, pillows, cooking utensils, sanitary wear and etc. The motive behind collecting such stuff was that these things were not being fulfilled for the victims. So with the help of my Duke of Edinburghs International Award Unit children, I carried on this special project.

Collecting donations was very challenging with our normal schedules. Yet we were able to collect atleast some item for each person mentioned above.

It was an early Sunday morning which was 16th of July 2017 where we set of with our crew. The village where we were off to was named as Paragoda in Bulathsinghala which is towards the south side of Sri Lanka from Colombo.

The divisional head had sent a message to all the villagers prior to our visit to gather to the office premises on our arrival.

The best thing about Sri Lankans are that they never fail to bring out their greatest gift of hospitality. The villagers had arranged traditional snacks sufficient for our crew to fill up our little tummies before we proceed.

It was truly a delight to see their innocent smiles waiting for us.

As you can see,the divisional head read out the names which helped us to distribute the things evenly.

Eventhough we had the clothes and all other items properly partitioned, it was quite hard to distribute in the process of distribution since people requested different sizes and different preferences.

So first we finished the distribution of woven mats and pillows to the elders since they were waiting for a long time for our arrival. They couldn’t sum up as to how happy they were to get the donations since they kept praising us which motivated us to do more.

Next we moved on to the kids section where we distributed small aprons, baby kits and clothing.

We also distributed men’s clothing upto some extent. So the distribution process took around 2 hours where we were packed with people and donations.

The whole team was engaged in various activities and I charge of various sections under my guidance.

After finishing up with this areas victims it was time for us to get a group photograph of our crew who helped us in every way to make this project successful.

We also kept some donations to distribute to the landslide area victims where we were about to go next.

We were truly devastated after seeing the destruction of that area.

The rescued victims are still staying in the temporary tents till they build their own houses. But their economical stability is not upto the standards to even build a little house for them since everything they owned was destroyed.

Till the house was renovated they are stayed in the temporary tents.

It was disheartening to see whole families with infants facing such unfortunate situations. So as future young leaders we should render our fullest support to help them stand again on their own feet and be stable.

Seeing such innocent faces yearning for help will melt anyone’s heart to lend a hand. It was indeed a good experience for us to support the victims as well as to talk to the potential young children in those areas to prepare them for such occurrences in the near future.


Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world

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Tharindra Arumapperuma

Written by

Discomfort is a catalyst for growth

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