board members

from left - right;mrs.Shama Chandrika treasurer fellowship. Mrs. Malika Amaravithanage treasurer Sangha Sabhava.Mr. Chaminda Prasad youth activities. Mr. I.D. Lasantha Kumara (Bandara) and Mr. W.V. Karaunasena Justice o/t Peace, religious and welfare activities.

Below:

next pic: again mr.Chaminda and the treasurers

last pic: L-R:Mr. Da Silva secretary both foundations- Ven. Devamitta and in the background Mr. Da Silva our accountant, brother of the secretary, accountant Min. of Social Affairs - housing projects.

“OF COBRA’S, OTHER SNAKES, CENTIPEDE’S, SPIDERS, FOUNDATION BOARDS AND OTHER POISONED CREATURES :-)”.

Well, dear friends, as you might guess from the heading we had some visitors lately.
During the last month or so the weather has been hot and wet, and this brings out all kind of creatures. The first who came to visit us where a few spiders, though not deadly poisoned, they where poisoned enough!

In the middle of the night I woke up with a shock when I was bitten in my big toe (seams funny, but it was not!), and the feeling as if the bones in my feet where burning; the pain was incredible and the bones of that feet still hurt! About 3 nights later I woke up in the night because the Rev. Ariyadhamma jumped out of his bed while screaming and started rolling on the floor with pain. He was bitten in his under belly by a spider which he saw just jumping away, he was in severe pain for a few hours before it diminished and it took about a week before the pain was gone. There was a bad swelling and it oozed water from the bite mark and he had quite a fever for a few days. Next was Rev. Tapassi; early morning he screamed and when we ran to the room where he was sleeping he was jumping up and down, he was bitten twice – once in his belly and once on his back! He also had a lot of pain and there where to bite marks and soon after these places developed swellings like with Rev. Ariyadhamma. This time Rev. Devarakkhita saw the spider and helped it to a new incarnation.

The family of Rev. Narada phoned us to inform us that they where coming from Weherajaya (6+ hours by bus) to visit us but that they would be late because they 1st had to go to hospital to get the 2nd serial of injections for Rev. Narada’s little brother (he’s only 4 years old) who was bitten by a dog with rabies. When they arrived later that afternoon the little one and Rev. Narada‘s sister where near the ditch next to our house and saw there 2 poisoned water snakes. Together with the fact that we have a cobra living on the backland which we just got donated by the fam. Gras from the Netherlands made me have a urgent talk with everybody present that they should be very aware and careful for snakes!!! Not that that helped much, because the same evening when they got ready to go to the house of Aruna to sleep there, I heard quite a commotion outside and it turned out that a very poisoned snake sneaked between the legs of the little one and his father could just in time lift him up. There is no antidote for the poison of this snake and Anura helped this one to his next reincarnation.

A week later we had 2 Patheya’s (poisoned centipede’s) making a house call, they where quite big; about 20-25 cm, and that sized ones will give serious problems if they bite you, they hopefully have a better next live now.

Because I had to register my last will and testament at the Ministry for Religious affairs so the different people and the foundation board in Holland of the Randolph Fellowship could be stopped worrying what would happen if I kick the bucket, I had to go to Colombo twice and when I returned the last time I was really dead tiered. I wanted to rest an hour and went to lie down on my bed. Being very tired I could not sleep and was looking at the wall, there I saw a movement and when I looked better I saw a snake of nearly 1 ½ meter on top of the wall. I called Sarath and Ariyadhamma to have a look and they said it was a hybrid kind; a mix of a Rat Snake and a Cobra and quite poisoned. (I don’t even know if such a combination is possible, but what the heck). They pushed the bastard outside and he disappeared to the next door land. The next day all the novices where gone to school and Sarath had his work in the rent house so I was alone at home. I was busy to send sms messages to Jaap (Plugge) and wanted to send him a email when I heard a noise in my bedroom, when I went to look I saw that the bastard of the day before has come back for a next visit! I locked the dogs in the other bedroom (don’t want them to be killed), and had a more then 10 minute fight with the serpent to finally work him out of the house, man that bastard was aggressive !!!!!! When I had him outside I gave him a farewell “soejang” (hit him nicely with the broom) and of he was!

Day before yesterday we had the next episode; people catched a BIG White Cobra a few meters away of our house on the path, he was 1.80m. long and fat as an arm!!! Half the village came out because most of the people here never saw a white cobra or any cobra so big for that matter! Eventually they wanted to kill him and we where just able to stop them and we put the fellow in our laundry basket and called to the wild park. Some rangers came to fetch him but when they saw him they returned to their station to fetch a strong metal case because such a big snake was too much to transport in a rice bag (lol), they measured it later. So now we only hope that this was the end of our poisoned visitors and we have some rest of them!!!!

As you might be aware of from the above I had to make my last will and testament, because of the worries about continuity etc. when I might kick the bucket. I appointed some people to take care of things if that happens and had my testament registered at the Ministry of Buddhist affairs. (Up till now the property is all privately bought – tough there is a loan which still stands open for a part of our house and land – we have been promised that for this and for the needed improvements there will be fund raising organized?). The other land is a donation I personally received from well wishers, and there is some land I bought more then 25 years ago and those lands will be inherited according to tradition by my pupils. The Blue Lotus Sangha Sabhava Foundation will manage them and has them under its control (in beheer), as entrusted property but according to law and tradition the “Paramparawa” the Linage of Monks owns them. That way nothing can ever be soled or disowned. Having said this I realize that;

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein.

Anyhow, I made my testament, visited the Ministers of ; Health, Education and Social affairs to make sure that when the time is there the registration of the “Randolph House” as a Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre will be accepted and go smoothly. Also I made sure that they will corporate and they offered tax deduction and in some cases even freedom of tax.

We now have to wait till funds are transferred from the Netherlands so we can buy land and buildings and start to build the “Randolph House” !!!.

It means that we will have a lot of work coming but we are very eager to start!
Also we found according to our ideas the right person to run, together with me, the building process and later the House. Hopefully our Dutch friends of the “Randolph Foundation” who sponsor this project understand that I can’t do everything myself (especially if I have to go on with my work for a longer time and my expiring date should be a bit later lol), and that we need someone to work fulltime on it and that such a person should be on “the payroll”. I am sure that this will be a good investment because this way we will safe quite some money on the material needed and we can be sure that we have good quality material and work done.

Our Sri Lankan Government has got the taste of things, and the MP’s have discovered that they are supposed to be lawmakers, so they make and chance laws on a nearly daily base now. Also the law on NGO’s and INGO’s has been changed again, sigh, and we had to change our board accordingly and where just in time to be within the deadline so we can be registered as a NGO.

So now we finally thought we had the two boards for the two foundations ready; but …. One of the two secretary’s who we invited was absent without leave and will be absent during the 1st few working months of the foundations. It’s a good person, and we assured that later he will still join! What to do?

“"Sometimes you just gotta let shit go and say to "hell with it" and move on"”

And that’s what we do! During the 1st period we will have 1 secretary for the 2 foundations and later we will see if we can persuade the intended other secretary on his return to Lanka to take over the post of secretary of the Blue Lotus Buddhist Fellowship our “working foundation”.
So its time for me to introduce our boards to you:

THE BLUE LOTUS SANGHA SABHAVA;

This is the foundation that is running the affairs of the Sangha, controlling and managing property and in charge of the religious affairs and activities. In future the board should mainly be made up by Sangha members except the treasurer which should preferably be a layman/woman. (We prefer woman to handle the money, in Sri Lanka its better anyhow and they know it very well)

President: Ven. H. Sri Devamitta Maha Thera.
Secretary: Mr. De Silva (Super intendent of a big rubber and thee estate and secretary of the Ruhuna Buddhist Council for Welfare and Social affairs.)
Treasurer: Mrs. M. Amaravithanage. (Housewife)
Gen. member: Mr. W.V. Karunasena Justice o/t Peace. Religious and welfare activities
Gen. member; Mr. I.D. Lasantha Udeya kumara De Silva (Bandara), youth activities and coordination projects.

THE BLUE LOTUS BUDDHIST FELLOWSHIP;
This is the “working foundation” which will execute the projects and be in charge of running them on a daily base.

President: Ven. H. Sri Devamitta Maha Thera.
Secretary: Mr. De Silva (see above).
Treasurer: Mrs. G. Shama Chandrika (Director Samurdi Bank Ambalangoda).
Gen. member: Mr. K.H. Chaminda Prasad (painter - contractor) Youth activities
Gen. member: Mrs. Karunasena (retired teacher) woman and children activities.
( I would like to put a face with the names and therefore you should have a look at the pics.)

I’m quit sure we have a good team and hope and wish that we will be able to work hard together for the benefit of the poor and needy, and for our society in general!

I like to wish all the members of our board good luck, and success in their work. I hope that they will find satisfaction in the work, and that the knowledge that they are working for the good, happiness and wellbeing of many will bring wellbeing and happiness to them to!!!!!!! Lastly I would like to thank them personally for their participation and their wish to help us do this often difficult work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera.

freedom of terrorism

FREEDOM OF TERRORISM, FINALLY !!!!!
SRI LANKA HOPEFULLY GAINED ITS FREEDOM OF TERRORISM

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. -Abraham Lincoln

Dear Friends

After more then 30 years of terrorist attacks by the LTTE this organization which has been internationally recognized as the most dangerous terrorist Group in the World has been defeated by the Sri Lankan armee.
War and armed action is a horror in the eyes of any normal person, but sometimes a government has to use armed action to protect its people, and a government is the only authority in a country who is allowed to use force for this purpose. We are not happy that the Sri Lankan government had to use full force, but in this case there was a need to do so. The LTTE has killed during the last 30 years more Tamil people then Singhalese, and we all know how many presidents, ministers and even the prime minister of India fall victim to this group. A number of young samanera’s (novices) and monks where slaughtered by them, innocent worshippers at the Maha Bodhi Temple (mainly woman and children)The Temple of the Tooth was bombed , hundreds of innocent Muslim worshippers at mosques where killed, market places, schools, trains, busses etc. etc. where bombed and innocent people slaughtered. Tamil parents who did not want to give their children to them as canon flodder where brutally murdered and so we can go on and on. Hopefully this is now all ended. We want peace and wellbeing for all, not only for a few.

… For Cruelty has a Human Heart,
And Jealousy a Human Face,
Terror the Human Form Divine,
And Secrecy the Human Dress.
The Human Dress is forged Iron,
The Human Form a fiery Forge,
The Human Face a Furnace sealed,
The Human Heart its hungry Gorge.

-WILLIAM BLAKE, Songs of Experience ( A Divine Image)

To long we have been living whit this kind of humans, it should end now!

This cruelty, jealousy and terror has to end!
It should be changed so we can live in peace together true unity, non discriminating, with mutual respect and with a feeling of belonging. That it is possible, we saw that during a number of inter – religious meetings we organized with the purpose to reconcile the different groups! When we started there was animosity, mistrust and fear. After a few day’s during which there was the possibility to confront each other and openly talk about the wrongs done, the situation changed quite quickly, and there where apologizes, expressions of regret, respect, care and love for each other and a feeling of belonging together! There we learned that:

... For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face, And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

-WILLIAM BLAKE, Songs of Innocence ( The Divine Image)


Unfortunately we had to stop these meetings: not because there was no interest (the people who participated had many ideas to expand the activities), but because of a lack of funds. We are so sorry for this because especially now we need this kind of activities mosth. We had hoped to be able to organize also a number of inter – religious activities for woman and children etc. but money is the problem! I want to stress that we need reconciliation and a dialogue and I want to appeal to anyone who can help us to reach our goal! If any of you can help us or knows a way to find funding please help us! Our Christian, Hindu and Muslim brothers AND SISTERS are most willing to meet again and work hard for this purpose!!!!!!

THERE HAS TO BE DONE A LOT OF WORK IN THIS COUNTRY.

Democracy on the basis of one person one vote has to become accepted true out the whole population, not one group might it be religious or racial can expect more then that. No more privileges like before, not to the Singhalese but also not to the Tamils; not to anyone!

Corruption has to be routed out! Unity has to be established! Like President Mahinda Rajapakksha said: There will be only one majority; Those who love, and are working for de independence and unity of Mother Lanka! And there will be only one minority: Those who are against that!

This all is a long proces and we hope and pray that it will be successful, it has to be if we want peace and prosperity in this country. It’s a hard and difficult process. This country needs all the help it can get, not the “help” like we had recently, we don’t need this NGO’s and INGO’s who 1st of all fill their own pockets, stay in the most luxurious hotels and have humble crab en lobster lunches!!!!! We don’t need those who work together with and support terrorist groups!!! We don’t need those who put their stickers on houses build be others to show their donators a lie, or those who announce great projects and stop them half way because “its so difficult to work here”. We don’t need those who come here and try to buy over people to become a member of their religious groups so they can collect more funds to convert more “poor heathens”! We surely don’t need more of this politicians who come here to have a nice trip and who look down on the “natives” and feel like the colonial masters they once where! They have the courage to judge the situation here while their own countries invade and slaughter millions in other country’s (based on lies and financial interests!!!!!). We don’t need more of this Sri Lanka “experts” who have been here a few weeks or even months staying in their luxury hotels or villa’s racing true the country to reach the nearest beach resort and the next luxury hotel to open another bottle of whiskey.

Those things which are wrong here may be said, but they will have to learn to do that in a respectful and not in a patronizing way!!! That way anybody here will be willing to listen and agree!!!! We need those who really have the best interest for this country and its people in mind!!! We need those who are willing to help this country to do the work needed in constructing democracy, welfare, development, human rights etc. and who are doing that because they want to help fellow human beings in an independent, peaceful and united country.

My mother used a saying which I want to share with you here: It’s so easy to push the crown of once head, but it’s very difficult to put it back on! Let’s together try to put the crown back on the head of this country!!!!

I know it’s a difficult job, but live has no easy ways if you want to do something positive.
I’ll end this piece by asking you to work together with us and pray for a peaceful and prosperous future for this beautiful and deserving country and its people.

With Love; Yours in The Dhamma:
Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera
Rev. Baddegama Ariyadhamma Thero
Rev. Rotumba Devarakkhita Thero
Rev. Weherajaya Narada Thero
Rev. Baddegama Tapassi Thero.

Metta –Ashrama
Singha Govi Mawatha/ Bandarawatta
Daluwatumulla. Telwatta.
Sri Lanka.

Old Year - New Year

OLD YEAR – NEW YEAR

Dear friends
The old year has passed and the New Year has started, we hope and whish that it will be a good year for all of you; and better year for all of us!

The past year has not been an easy one, we changed place, we had losses and some of us had personal tragedies to cope with.
The Rev. Devarakkhita (Bhante’s second pupil) even lost his father on X-Mass day. Together with the Rev. B. Samitha Thero, Bhante took care of the funeral costs.

Many more of our friends have passed away this past year and the war took its toll like some natural disasters did.
Even the Mafia killings in and around our village are regrettable.

Some of you also had personal losses and even the economic crisis has left its mark on the world.

Even tough all of this there are also good things which happened this past year: we changed place (tough not easy, it’s a good thing because all of us are happy in our new place), we could do a number of very good works for our society, we could help or support some individuals and make some people very, very happy! (If, for example, your eye site or hearing is restored it’s a great thing). Also the list of things we have done (which you will find in an earlier post), is impressive.

Thanks to a donation of Mr. Jaap Plugge we even have a new fridge, a big one with a big deep freezer, and it’s our own one this time!

We are renting a big house in the village now where we are trying out our ideas and some programs. Thanks to Mr. Georg Höfer who donated the rent for a period of 6 months (42.000 SRS). He came here to run a program with a number of kids from Telwatta and Galle called: Telwatta Photo Kids for which he collected the funds. This is a great success and the result is above expectations tough all what we hoped for up till now!!!!! Georg is not only a passionate professional photographer; he’s a great teacher who is able to inspire the kids in a big way, and we hope you will visit the weblog of this program where you can see the really beautiful results of this program in the form of the pics made by the kids. (See the link on this page)

We are very grateful to Georg for this program which is great fun and a source of inspiration for all of us!!!!
He makes the kids, and us, very happy!!

In the house we started among others to show a few films for children of the village and they enjoy it tremendously!!

During the next few weeks we will have a few meetings with woman rights activists to which we will show a (bit of a controversial) Buddhist film, and which will be followed by a discussion.

There will be inter – religious meetings and we will start in corporation with the Salvation Army a HIV/AIDS prevention campaign.

We hope to get our woman and girls activities started (which is quite difficult to begin with).

We have a lack of funds to do all the things we want to do and we hope that there will be found some generous people who would like to donate some funds for this purpose. (on the moment we have NO FUNDS AT ALL FOR THIS PROGRAMS AND AGAIN BHANTE HAS TO PAY MOST OF IT FROM HIS OWN POCKET, AND THE POCKET IS EMPTY AFTER ALL THE COSTS WE HAD TO COVER DURING THE LAST FEW MONTHS!!!).

Talking about funds: the funds to pay for the OK KIDS English teaching program are all spend, we are even behind in payments!
We stopped intake for people with medical needs because there even are no funds for those we have already!
We had hoped to be able to help some of the neediest children in our society to get some extra food and sponsor their study:
but no funds!
We had hoped to improve our living quarters: but no funds!
We don’t like to go on with this list, but you will “get it” I think.
The bottom of our “money box” is totally cleaned out!
We would like to continue our work but need your help with it!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!!!

We recently got the help from Lianne a Dutch volunteer, but although she has a lot of ideas and is more then willing to work hard to realize them; all kind of activities cost money and we have not got it!!!

We hope that in this New Year we will be able to get some structural financial basis so we can continue our work with the poor people and youth from our area and elsewhere.

Anyhow:
We like to thank all those who supported us during the past year, all those who showed interest in our work and life and we hope that you all may be; Healthy, Happy and Safe in this New Year !

Bhante Devamitta Thera,
Rev. Ariyadhamma Thero,
Rev. Devarakkhita Thero, and
Rev. Narada Thero.
O, yes before I forget them :
Rex and Ariel.

Intro with the update of 12-08-08

Dear friends
1st of all we would like to say that we are sorry that it took such a long time to update this blog. Due to sickness, an overload of work and the fact that we had to move to our new place of residence coursed the delay. We hope you understand this and will still enjoy this blog.

We will update the other Blog also and will send you a message when that is done. If you know any one who would be interested to read our blog please give them the address.

Our new residence is the Metta – Asrama ( Metta = Loving-kindness and belongs together with Karuna = Compassion, Mudita = Sympathic Joy and Upekkha = equanimity to the Four Brahma Vihara’s the Divine Abodes of Buddhism).

Also this time we tried to make the whole thing more readable because there are more entries so you can read from the top down.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this blog and as soon as the other postings are ready we will inform you!!!!

Bhante Devamitta

Comming soon; Medical cases –People; storys of people around us – Children who need care; stories of children around us – Try-cycles continued – Ward 6 continued- Buddhist Teachings Yes or No ?

Singhapura part 1

SINGHAPURA A VILAGE IN NEED! Part 1.

Last month we where asked to come to Singhapura, a small and very poor village near the town of Polunaruwa in the Eastern-Middle Province of Sri Lanka. The request came from one of our friends who have been working there for the Red Cross. “They urgently need help, Bhante! For years no one has paid any attention to them!” He told us further that even tough the Red Cross started some work there, they would not be able to finish it and those who needed it most would not be profiting much of it. He then started to tell us all kind of things which made us curious and we decided to go and have a look.

After a trip of more then 9 hours by car we finally arrived. Our friend Kapilla received us at the tank of Polunaruwa and guided us to the village. What we saw there exceeded the things we where told. About 60% of the population is living under such poor conditions as seldom seen, even in Sri Lanka. We where 1st brought to the address where we should spend the night. We received hospitality from a family who can be considered one of the “rich” families of the village. We where well received and after a wash up and thee, we where shown around the village. Here we will give you 1st a report about the good things which are happening there, and after that we will tell you about the other things we where confronted with.

There are in a big part of the village nice channels with vast streaming water, they are a part of the new irrigation system which was much needed here because it’s extremely dry here for a big part of the year.

Thanks to this system the farmers, that’s nearly everybody here, can now grow crops again like in ancient times. This ensures that the people here can earn a living, anyhow those who own land.

Even paddy and coconuts are growing here now! Also most people use those streams to take their bath and do their laundry. It’s a great progress since I’ve been last in this arrear about 24 years ago.

Unfortunately is the drinking water of such a bad quality that we can say that it is quite poisoned, and not suited for human consumption.

Lately the Red Cross has built a water purification centre, which is a great blessing, or could be so. The problem is that if you want to be connected to the water system to receive the purified water you have to pay an entry fee of SRS 5000.=.

There are 92 families who are so poor that it is impossible for them to pay that amount, so they will not be connected and have to do with the un purified water!!!!!!

The water contains among others heavy metals like; Cadmium, Mercury, Arsenic and Fluoride which causes chronic kidney diseases.

This is a BIG PROBLEM and there is rice of 25 % of kidney failure, their teeth are rotting away, liver and milt are slowly giving up, and also intestinal problems are chronicle etc. etc.

There where 140 families which had no toilet facilities, the Spanish Red Cross would supply them with a decent toilet. The problem is that after they supplied 55 houses with a toilet the money was finished (or stopped) so there are another 85 families who have to do with a whole in the ground!!! Not only uncomfortable but what is more important very unhygienic and a source of infections and eventually epidemics.

Then we came to the “Mother and Child Healthcare Centre” if you might call the ruined building we saw there so! This 1st line health centre was not to be called a building even! Not even fitted for animals to be stalled in!!!!! Not surprising that during the last couple of years there has not been a midwife here and that even Dr. Indika who is in charge of it never went there anymore. He visited the place 3 years ago and never went back. I must say that this is really very understandable indeed!

This Centre is one of the 1st urgent things which should be renovated so the 1st line health care for pregnant woman and woman with their baby’s should be started again!

Then we went to the Montessori school where the smallest children of the village are supposed to start their education. Even tough the super structure of the building is not too bad and can be repaired quit easily the rest is in a terrible state. What we 1st thought to be a kind of stall for goats or so, turned out to be the place where the children supposed to take their meals. The playground is in fact dangerous for these small ones to play. The toilets are not worthy of the name the washing facility is a trough and the rest is in the same state. As said the walls and the roof can be repaired and should be newly plastered, but the rest …….? (see pictures at picasa)

After we visited those places in Singhapura we had enough of it really!
That evening we talked with a number of people mostly young householders with children and some people in their twenty’s who formed a committee and who where not willing to lie down and accept the state in which their village is in! Admirable, but where to start and how to get things going? They did not have an answer to that!

It was clear to them and us that they needed help urgently!

The next morning we went to visit the school which was also in a bad state, but Bhante saw also that the teachers there where not really doing their thing. (This was confirmed by the English teacher there and he told that the discipline among the staff was the biggest problem of the school). There are 6 teachers and 12 children and the level is below 0 ! therefore we think this has on the moment a low priority and we will contact 1st the inspector for education and schools in the district before we look in to the possibilities. Even tough repairs are really needed, better work by the teachers is a 1st condition.

We talked with a few villagers and asked what their big whish would be except from the things we mentioned, and we where highly surprised to hear that they wanted a good library with, if possible, 1 or 2 computers so the youth could read and study there! We where so surprised because people in Lanka are not exactly known to be readers, and in some place those who like to read books are made fun of!

On that moment Bhante’s phone rung and we received message that due to the heavy rains the town where we used to live for some time, and which is in the vicinity of Telwatta, Baddegama was flooded by the heavy rainfall. There where a number of people who drowned and thousands of people fled their houses and where in need of help. We decided to start back to Telwatta and organize the needed help.

We quickly said goodbye and started our return journey at once.
On the way back Bhante started to mobilize people so next day we would be able to start a help program for those in need. When we where near to Kalutara we where forced to go back and find another way because the water blocked the road. Finally late in the night we returned back to Telwatta and could get a few hours of sleep to start of next morning early hour to Baddegama. But that is another story which you will find elsewhere.

BADDEGAMA FLOODED!

While we where in Singhapura near Polunaruwa we got the message that Baddegama was flooded due to heavy rains, and we hurried back to organize some help for those affected. We arrived back in Telwatta late in the night and during the trip back Bhante started already to organize a few things needed.

The next morning we called to a number of people in Baddegama and tried to make an inventory of what was needed. Fortunately a lot was done already by the army and some government agencies. Bhante had the day before, during our trip back, mobilized our good friend Mrs. Joy Butler Markham of the Manacare foundation and she had gone already to Baddegama and distributed food, medicine etc.

That morning when we went to Baddegama and it turned out that the water was still very high but that the situation was quite under control, and that there was not much help needed anymore.

We found out that in Neluwa near Deniyaya there was urgent need for medical help. The nurse of the Manacare centre who was standby was send there to distribute medicine and help with the needed care to be given to those in need there. This was an initiative from our BLBF.

The next step was that on initiative of Bhante Devamitta there was a meeting held on the 6th of June at the house of Mrs. Joyce Butler Markham in Hikkaduwa. During that meeting the situation in Baddegama was evaluated and on initiative of Bhante Devamitta there was a Disaster Emergency Committee formed.

Invited where:
Mrs. Joy Butler Markham of the Manacare Foundation.
The Ven. B. Samitha Thero vice pres. o/ t Baddegama Pradesia Sabhava. He excused himself and asked Bhante to represent him.
The Rev. Father Niroshan of Christ Church Parish (Church of Ceylon) in Baddegama and
The Ven. H. S. Devamitta Thero.

A number of needs and wants and a work program where formulated.
We hope to have the second meeting soon.