Sri Lanka Floods - 2011 During the first 13-days of January, the Ampara District received 5' 11" of rainfall, causing massive flooding throughout much of Sri Lanka, and prompting an urgent plea for help from my friend Brother Huxley. The Ampara YMCA had been providing food rations for flood victims, and they had run out of money to continue. The monsoon rains were still in progress, many earthen dams at local reservoirs/tanks were rapidly failing, causing additional flooding around the country.
A donation was sent to the YMCA so they could sustain their feeding efforts which was the only help that many people received, and made plans for a mission trip for the month of February. I shared with Brother Huxley that I was prepared to come to help, but that I did not have funding to allow doing a large relief project. I suggested that one thing I could do was to use my Red Cross skills to teach First Aid/CPR to people, and to bring First Aid and medical supplies.
After arriving in Sri Lanka, I worked with the YMCA to continue their efforts to feed flood victims, and also provided tools to flood-affected families so the men could get back to work and support their familes. I did receive some funding by the time I departed Seattle, and I continued to received donations while I was on the ground in Sri Lanka. Those donations made it possible to bless the flood victims with material items such as food and clothing. We ended up conducting eight First Aid/CPR classes, teaching approximately 300 people in YMCA's, schools, and churches. We also distributed more than 65 First Aid kits to people who attended my workshops.