CRS was first contacted by the Sri Lankan High Commission in Singapore earlier this year to help to provide medical and other relief to those displaced by the decade's long Sri Lankan civil war. On Wednesday 17th June 2009, a 5-member recce team led by Dr. Lim Koon Jin left for Batticaloa via Colombo. The other team members are CRS Project Director - Terence Lim, Business Psychologist - Goh Hong Yi, NUH A&E Nurse and a colleague of Dr Lim - Nur Jelita and General Practitioner - Dr. Jennifer Yeo.
Our original destination had been Jaffna but government restrictions prevented us from going there. Our local partners, Rev. Albert Jebanayagam and Rev. Harry of Canaan Fellowship International Church obtained permission for us to accompany The Salvation Army of Sri Lanka into the IDP camps in the Eastern Province of Batticaloa instead. |
Helping to screen passengers before the flight
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WHO had declared an Influenza A H1N1 pandemic on 11th June 2009 and even before our actual relief work began in Sri Lanka, we found ourselves helping to screen passengers for our Cathay Pacific flight to Colombo. Cathay Pacific rewarded us with a business class upgrade for our efforts!
We were met at Colombo airport by Rev. Albert and his team and our Singapore partners from CityCare – Stephen Pok, Jebasingh and Evangeline Ong (a nurse) led by Pastor Kenneth Sim. Driving through the night past numerous security checkpoints, our two van drivers managed to get us to Batticaloa in 7.5 hours instead of the usual 10 hours. Batticaloa lay on the east coast of Sri Lanka, separated from the mainland by an inland lagoon.
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After checking in at Co-Op Inn, we had breakfast and drove straight to begin our two day programme of mobile clinics and distribution of dry rations in seven IDP camps: Sathrukondan I & II, Palameendu I & II, Zahira, Sinhala and Kokuvil. On the second day, Dr S. Sathurumugam, Regional Director of Health Services, Batticaloa visited the mobile clinic. Some team members went to nearby BT Zahira Vidyalayam School to distribute rations.
Our daily routine consisted of morning devotion and prayer, breakfast, clinic and distribution, lunch followed by the same, dinner and debrief and ending with an evening devotion and prayer before lights out.
Batticaloa had been affected by the December 2004 tsunami that killed thousands across Asia. We saw memorials erected in memory of those who lost their lives.
Just before leaving Singapore, Koon Jin had gone to the bank to deposit some cheques for CRS. When he entered and left the bank two different men held the door open for him, He saw that as a sign that doors would be opened for CRS to reach out to the needy in Sri Lanka as indeed they were. To God be the glory.
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