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The Hand of Help have been providing medical clinics to the refugee camps in the villages around the towns of Batticaloa, Mullaittivu and Colombo.
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Water in the wells of the camps is often not clean,
And deliveries to camps infrequent. Living conditions are poor, with hundreds of people living in close proximity, and with very little fresh fruit and vegetables. Diseases that we are treating include dysentery; severe chest infections; wounds sustained during the tsunami; severe ear/eye infections and people with dangerously high blood pressure.
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We buy medicines, wound dressings etc in Colombo, and travel with a small team in a minibus. We co-ordinate with the District Medical Officer in the area that we are working, and with church leaders who live in the communities that have been affected. In this way we have reached many camps that have either had little or no help from other agencies or government doctors.
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We have also treated many of the Sri Lankan soldiers at the many checkpoints along the coast. The soldiers keep a record of the various teams movements, and are a valuable source of information about camps that are receiving no help, or have had a fresh outbreak of disease.
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Alison Avery is an English Accident and Emergency nurse, who has worked with Sanna before. She flew straight to Colombo after the Tsunami struck, and worked for two and a half weeks with the team in the camps. She will continue, with her husband Lee, to raise money for Hand of Help, in France and England.
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Jaqueline and Meneka are invaluable members of the medical team. Jaqueline is a nurse from Sri Lanka, who lives in Colombo, and organises all the medicines, and runs the pharmacies in the clinics. Meneka sources, orders and collects all the medicines etc. She is a valuable member of the New Life Church administrative team.
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We met a lady with two children in one of our medical clinics at a refugee camp near Batticoloa. Both children had such profound club feet that walking, working and a normal life would be impossible. We plan to bring these children with their mother to Colombo, for operations to restore their feet to a normal position, to enable them to lead a full and normal life in the future.
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We will continue to help with special cases such as these, but if we can build a hospital in Batticoloa, many thousands of people could benefit from such a care, locally where they live.
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Many people have injuries to their feet from fleeing from the Tsunami.
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Listening to the chest of a child in a refugee camp near Batticoloa.
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Please explore this website to find out
about their work, and how you can become involved.
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