SLYPA™ for Sri Lanka Flood Relief
For Immediate Release (Download PDF)
January 27th, 2011

It is estimated that the recent floods in Sri Lanka have been even more devastating than the tsunami of December 2004 in terms of the numbers of people displaced and farmland breached. More than one million people have been affected in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, with nearly 400,000 displaced and more than 200,000 still in emergency camps. SLYPA extends our sympathies for the lives lost and pledges our support for the victims of this horrible disaster.

We are proud that we set a goal of $10,000 for Haiti Earthquake Relief and ended up raising over $12,000, which was donated to Partners in Health and their Haiti relief efforts. Now the time has arrived for us to help the people of Sri Lanka in this desperate time of need.

We are officially launching the Sri Lanka Flood Relief Campaign to raise $10,000 to support the Sewalanka Foundation (www.sewalanka.org), which is a well established and widely trusted organization delivering relief to where it is needed most. We hope to meet and exceed this goal as soon as possible, so that our contributions can begin helping the people of Sri Lanka right away.

To maximize our impact we are partnering with Lanka Solidarity (www.lankasolidarity.org) to spread the word, as well as mobilize our generation and community to show strong support. We also welcome the cooperation and contribution of other Sri Lankan organizations around the U.S.

SLYPA Board Members have kicked off the campaign by making individual donations. Since time is of the essence, we encourage you and your friends to join our efforts and make a gift today. YOUR DONATION IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Your dollars will go very far and help many needy families find shelter, food, clothing, and other basics required to rebuild their lives:

• $9 (Rs. 1,000) provides a family with clean drinking water for a week
• $27 (Rs. 3,000) provides a family with a week’s supply of dry rations (rice, dhal, sugar, cooking oil, tin fish, coconut milk powder)
• $12 (Rs. 1,300) provides children under the age of five with milk for two weeks.
• $15 (Rs. 1,650) provides a family with a sanitary kit (two soap bars, one large toothpaste, five toothbrush, two sanitary napkin packets, ten shampoo sachets, two laundry soap bars, five towels, one large bucket) for two weeks.
• $23 (Rs. 2,500) provides a family with basic kitchen utensils (two saucepans, two cooking pots, two cooking spoons, five plates, five cups, knife, jug)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Shireen Idroos at shireen@slypa.com.

We truly appreciate your support for this campaign.

Thank you,

SLYPA Board of Directors