How World Concern is helping in Sri Lanka

World Concern is working with the International Red Cross right now, helping many civilians who were wounded in a Sri Lankan war zone.

Working in hospitals just outside the conflict area, World Concern disaster response experts are providing the wounded with meals, dining supplies, bedding, toiletries and clothing.

Additionally, we’re supporting hospital staff with food, beds and other services to help them cope with the sudden influx of patients.

Donate to Sri Lanka relief efforts

Sri Lanka is an island nation just off the southeastern coast of India.

It has endured a 25-year civil war, where some members of the Tamil ethnic minority, the Tamil Tigers, have been fighting for autonomy.

Within the last few months, Sri Lanka’s government says it has forced the rebels into a widespread retreat, and expects to soon end the longstanding war.

According to the Associated Press, the war has killed about 70,000 people.

Sri Lanka's tragic civil war

Sri Lanka’s three decade old conflict between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and the Sri Lankan Government is at its fiercest.

The safety of an estimated quarter of a million civilians trapped within ...

Read the full story, with perspective from Sri Lanka

Other reports on Sri Lanka

• An AP story about what happened there
• Why a United Nations agency is "outraged"

Photos from Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka background information

• A recent return to violence, especially in the north, may be signaling the final throes of a 25-year civil war
• Thousands of people expected to flee their homes
• Sri Lanka is a fertile tropical island country with vast potential
• The economy depends on tourism and exports of tea and manufactured clothing
• The tourism industry has suffered badly from the tsunami and press coverage of the violence associated with the civil war.
• The Indian Ocean tsunami destroyed communities and infrastructure along ¾ of its coastline.
• More than 30,000 people died in the tsunami; remnants of hundreds of communities forced to relocate, away from jobs.
• The 2004 tsunami destroyed an estimated $1.5 billion worth of property - devastating the economy

Restoring Lives and Livelihoods

• Providing civilians injured in civil war with food, bedding, toiletries and clothing.
• Support to hospital staff includes food, beds and other services.
• Temporary income to war-displaced families
• Providing wells for drinking water and irrigation, improving health and increasing income
• Providing mental health care to those traumatized by the war and the tsunami
• Supporting churches and other local agencies to increase their ability to serve families chased from their homes
• Building permanent homes to replace those lost in tsunami
• Supporting communities to form new livelihood strategies
• Helping other communities to double their income through better access to markets and equipment