The Disabled Persons Project is an on-going expression of love and compassion for some of the most needy, yet ignored people in eastern Sri Lanka. This project actually began in February 2005 when a wheelchair was purchased for one of the Tsunami victims in Kalmunai. Fred Breedlove had gone to Kalmunai to work with a small non-profit (NGO) organization to help survivors of the massive tsunami which struck Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004, killing more than 10,400 persons on the eastern coastline and creating more than 3,000 new widows. One of the survivors was in need of a wheelchair, so Fred used donated funds to purchase one...and thus the Disabled Persons Project was begun.
The photo above shows a disabled boy whose only source of nourishment is milk..he cannot eat food. After receiving our milk rations for two years, his body still could not recover, and he passed away in 2012.
In 2011, during "Mission of Hope 2011", Fred was visiting the remote jungle village of Mangalagama to check on the progress of people helped there during "Mission of Hope 2007". We had built drinking water wells, toilets, started micro-finance projects, purchased a wheelchair for a disabled girl, and performed other humanitarian projects in the Ampara District during "Missions of Hope" to help some of the most needy and vulnerable people in Sri Lanka. The people being helped are victims of civil-war, tsunami, floods, and poverty. Fred, accompanied by Brother Huxley (YMCA Admin Director) met the aunt of the boy in the photo (his parents were working as laborers in the nearby rice fields), and learned of his condition. Mission of Hope 2011 donated a one-year's supply of milk that would provide nourishment to the boy through the month of March 2012. Funds were given to the Ampara YMCA, and the boy's father comes to the YMCA for monthly rations of powdered milk. By using the YMCA to provide monthly milk rations, we were able to insure that the funds donated would be utilized for the intended purpose.
Disabled girl (civil-war victim) receives a new wheelchair...
The girl in this photo was given a new wheelchair to replace her old one which was worn out and too small for her. Her mother (photo, left) and her father had been injured by a land mine when the mother was pregnant with the girl. The father was partially blinded by the blast, and the mother lost her left leg to the blast and sufferred severe blood loss. Because of her injuries, her unborn child also sufferred and the girl was born without control of her limbs, and she is unable to speak. The girl can hear and understand, and she has a sweet personality. Fred revisited with the family in 2011, and the child immediately recognized him. Prior to receiving the new wheelchair, the girl had to be carried by her father to the bushes next to the house at all hours of the night to use the toilet. The family actually did not have a toilet, so the bushes nearby would have to suffice. Mission of Hope 2007 also provided funds for materials to build a toilet (built mostly by the father), and a community drinking water well nearby. The land mine which had caused the injuries to the mother and father had been planted near their home by the Tamil Tiger rebels (LTTE). The families living in the village of Mangalagama had been pushed out of their previous homes by the Tamil Tigers, only to continue to be attacked and harrassed by them in Mangalagama. When Fred was visiting the village in 2007, gunshots and explosions could be heard nearby. Today, the civil war is over, but many of the people continue to live in fear of further attacks..continuing their struggle to survive in a very difficult life.