Relief in Puttalam

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13 October 2008

Since September 2008, the people of the Maillankullama village in the Puttalam district have faced tremendous amounts of persecution, suffering, and poverty. This situation has caused a severe food shortage in the village. Further, the children too are finding it difficult to attend school within the limits of the Maillankullama village.  

Puttalam is well known for its picturesque lagoon, a paradise for shallow sea fishing activities and prawn farms which have come up more recently. Maillankullama is a very remote village situated near the west coast of Puttalam district and it portrays a different story.

The Christians in this village live amidst much pressure amongst a predominantly Buddhist environment. There are no proper churches in the village for the people to pursue their religious activities. All Christians are discriminated and are isolated from society. These families undergo many hardships and persecution and are also treated poorly in their own village for being a Christian.

In September news reached us that the small space, the only meeting place where the Christians met, was burned down to ashes.  This hall was especially used by the Sunday school children. The mob of villagers beat up the Christian village heads and even threatened to kill all the Christians in the village unless they changed there religion. Soon after this incident the schools attended by these children beat them up, merely because they were Christians. Further, the shops refused to sell goods to these families causing them to starve. Traveling all the way to the closest town which is 30 kilometers away was not practical as the expense of traveling up and down was far too high.

Having assessed the problems faced by the Maillankullama villagers, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) made a visit to this village on the 13th of October 2008 with 14 relief packs which contained dry rations ( ie. rice, dhal, flour, milk etc.), and 22 packs of stationery and school requirements for the children. Special packs were given to disabled children as well.

Amidst all the hardships faced by these people, it was a pleasant surprise to see that these villagers had organized a formal welcome for the NCEASL staff. When the children ’s packs were distributed, it brought a smile across the faces of the little ones as they were so happy to receive new school stationery.

All the victimized families received dry pack rations and some of them broke down with tears. “These are tears of joy which could not be expressed with words or a smile” said one of the villagers as she received her pack. Later, NCEASL representatives listened to the problems faced by the villagers during the past few months and encouraged them. All the recipients thanked members of NCEASL staff individually as the leaders and villagers ended the gathering with a word of prayer.

For us at NCEASL it was a great privilege to have been amongst people who really needed help; to have brought joy and a smile on their faces for at least a few days!
Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith...... may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”. (1 Peter 1:6-7)