The Story of Sri Lankan Aid

The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami was the deadliest natural disaster in modern history. Equally historic was the global humanitarian response to the crisis. Billions of dollars were mobilized and converted into relief for victims on the ground.

 

In the weeks following the tsunami, a group of friends, all college freshmen, began looking for opportunities to spend a summer volunteering abroad in the relief effort. They discovered dozens of amazing charities doing vital work, and began communicating with relief workers on the ground in the region.

 

Although the relief network was huge, the students were surprised to discover many small communities in Eastern Sri Lanka -- one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami -- had been overlooked by many international organizations. Complicating the situation further was a twenty-year-old civil war, raging in many parts of the island where help was needed the most. Working with contacts on the ground, the students decided to organize their own relief effort.

 

And so the organization was born. While much has changed about the group in the subsequent years, its purpose remains largely the same: to personally venture into areas where international aid is failing to reach the people and create projects in partnership with the community. Today, the team is one of just a small handful of international organizations to have maintained a regular presence in the region since the tsunami and throughout the upsurge in the country's bloody conflict. Because of this undaunted dependability, Sri Lankan Aid enjoys an unparalleled relationship with local leaders and communities in the region.