District Governor George & fellow Lions
1. Establishing a single point of contact to keep us up to date on the MD306
schemes
2. Obtain a typical list of help Lions who have delivered and examples of how
District105C / LCIF money has been invested so far
3. Obtain pictures from the ground on needs and local lions in action
4. Request that MD306 consider block sponsorship of housing to help with promotion
of funding
5. Gain commitment to have budget costing for housing
6. Obtain an insight to MD306 in their approach to LCIF funding and joint projects
7. Investigate future ides and how this could be achieved
8. Gain an insight into longer term projects ( Schools, Orphanages, Hospitals,
etc )
Full discussions and update on the magnificent response by the lions of Sri Llanka to help the people less fortunate than themselves makes me certain that with our help and support lions can and will make a difference as this island people strive to come to terms with this disaster and will make a significant difference to the speed with which they can begin to recover. To give you an idea almost 0.5 million persons are currently living in temporary accommodation and in UNHCR camps.
Local Lions are working around the clock delivering humanitarian aid and responding as best they can with limited and rapidly depleting money and resources. For example 60 truck loads a day are transporting emergency rations to the UNHCR camps ( see attached map ).
This alone has cost an estimated 35 Million Sri Lankan Rupees (£175,000), all donated by individual Lions members.
TV images and media reports do not give the true picture of any of the communities affected in the countries bordering the Indian ocean . Truly heroic efforts are being carried out by thousands of people from all over the world and representing dozens of NGOs . Valuable as the media can be, nothing prepared me for the real and vivid feeling when on the ground and viewing the devastation at first hand. Fellow Lions, just try to imagine standing 1 mile from the coast ( as I have ) and to hear absolutely nothing. No birds singing, no animals calling, no trees rustling., no life as we know it, except the unmistakable smell of death and decay.
Imagine then, turning through 360 degrees and see no living thing as far as you can see. Only a scene that has to be imagined, and, even then scarcely believable that "The cruel sea" can do such a thing. The scene afterwards is as if some giant hand had scraped the earth clean of every living thing. It is a very very eerie feeling and almost beyond human understanding, but that is the reality of 75% of the coastal communities of the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.
It is truly awesome to witness such desolation and despair. However, equally awesome and encouraging is to talk to the brave people of this island, in the midst of their shock, grief and despair the lions of MD306 are showing already that they intend to put all this behind them and are determined to try to rebuild their homes, recover their jobs and livelihoods and rebuild their communities, and provide the lead to the population of Sri Lanka to build there country as they told me " From the ashes of the Tsunami, will rise like the phoenix a new and proud country" With our help and support my fellow lions, I know that they will succeed.
For those old enough to remember it is, I believe, like " The Battle of Britain Spirit" coming around again, halfway around the world.
I feel so privileged to witness my fellow lions in action stoically despite their own personal losses, and they too have lost so very much. Never before have I felt quite so proud to be an international lion.
You too should feel proud to be in a position to help in this essential humanitarian work. With our support the lions of Sri Lanka can, and I am absolutely certain will, in time, recover, After all what better way could there be to satisfy the first objective of Lionism:-
£10 will pay for :- An emergency family parcel including basic disaster
supplies including clothing, Blankets, lanterns, tinned food, water and dry
rations for 1 week.
(Local Lions are making these up from aid already flowing in, funding for
this will be required for months 200,000 families currently displaced)
£25 will provide :- A Gas bottle and cooker, with utensils and basic food and water for 1 month. (Thousands are required urgentl )
Or a tube well to provide clean drinking water (hundreds of these are needed immediately )
£50 will pay for :- Will purchase a basic domestic treadle sewing machine to allow women a new start to provide for themselves. (hundreds of these are needed)
£100 will pay for :- New clothing for a family of 5 persons with some cash over to provide them a new start in life, or a tent for temporary accommodation for a family. (0.5 million people are still displaced)
£250 will pay for :- A small motorised fishing boat with the basic equipment to start again for a local fisherman (Thousands of local fishermen affected)
£500 will pay for :- Sponsored education for 1 x year for an orphaned child. (thousands of children need help to be educated)
Circa £750 will pay for :- A two room house with, bathroom, Kitchen and Kitchen utensils and cooker included (MD306 lions have pledged to build 3000 houses)
306A runs from Colombo down the west coast diagonally right to Ratnapura across the UDA national park to Galle on the south coast and over to include Ampora and Kumana
6 am and together with local lions and accompanied by PDG lion Ashrof Razack I visited the town of Galle and a dozen assorted 306 A lions projects on the way to the south os Sri Lanka.
PDG Ashrof 306 A, PDG Gordy meet lions for breakfast on the way south at a Lions hotel
 |
 |
How a picture can apparently lie. This is the scene on the beach just one month after the tsunami devastatingly hit Sri Lanka. A local resident trying to catch breakfast .The reality was that a 40' wall of water hit this hotel at approximately 50 miles per hour on the 26th December just about breakfast time. ( I am pointing to the water line)
The
reality of the damage today just outside the hotel
 |
 |
 |
Region Chairman and I ready to open the first clean water tube well for the local community donated by his own club members, and to tell a young lady that she is to be re-housed under the Lions programme. |
 |
 |
At the home of the Zone Chairman The ground floor wiped out
A proud fisherman with his only possession, his nets.
He lost his boat, his house, his wife and his children but is bravely determined
to re start his life.
This local man told me he was looking for his family.
A few moments later a body is found but not the people he was hoping to find.
 |
 |
Testing the lunch for today as local people start to rebuild their lives.
 |
PID Mahendra and I meeting lions from 10 local clubs to find out their personal problems and what they are doing in their communities. The local doctor asks me to visit the only maternity hospital in the district which has been "totally wiped out" |
 |
 |
|
This is a view of the hospital from the shore and the shore from the hospital |
|