Flood catastrophe awakens volunteerism in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan actor and musician GK Reginold boards a motor fishing boat in the suburbs of Colombo, hoping to bring food and water to those in desperate need.

Mr. Reginold says some families have been without help for days, isolated by the South Asian island nation’s worst weather disaster in decades.

Cyclone Ditwah ravaged the country last week, causing devastating floods and landslides that killed more than 400 people, left hundreds missing and destroyed 20,000 homes.

But the deluge also inspired volunteerism among the population facing what their president described as the “most challenging natural disaster” in their history.

“The main reason I wanted to do this was to at least help them get a meal,” Mr Reginold told the BBC. “And I was so happy to be able to do that.”

More than a million people were affected by the disaster and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency.

While the Sri Lankan army is deploying helicopters for rescue operations, humanitarian aid is also coming from foreign governments and non-governmental organizations.

But it will be a long journey to recovery for Sri Lanka, which has had its share of turmoil in recent years.

In Colombo’s Wijerama district, activists who protested against former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 are now helping run a community kitchen that provides food aid.

The protests three years ago were sparked by a spiraling economic crisis that caused shortages of fuel, food and medicine. Public anger erupted and led to Rajapaksa’s ouster. Now that political activism is being channeled into hurricane recovery.

“Some volunteers came after work, some took turns, some even took permission to be there,” social media activist Sasindu Sahan Tharaka told the BBC.

“As soon as we heard about what happened last Thursday, we reactivated the group,” he says.

Mr. Sahan also considers the kitchen an “extension” of his volunteer work in 2016, a year when heavy rain and floods killed 250 people across the country.

Sahan said that volunteers compiled hundreds of requests for help and forwarded them to the authorities and organized food distribution to local residents.

“Whatever we asked for, we got a lot of response from the community,” he says.

There’s also a flurry of activity online, where social media users have created a public database to direct donations and volunteers.

Another volunteer-supported website helps donors find relief camps and the things needed most in those areas.

While private companies organized donation campaigns, local television channels started working to meet basic needs such as food, soap and toothbrushes.

President Dissanayake, who has faced criticism for his handling of Cyclone Ditwah preparations, called on Sri Lankans to “put aside all political differences” and “come together to rebuild the nation”.

Opposition politicians accuse authorities of ignoring weather warnings, which they say has exacerbated the impact of the disaster.

On Monday, opposition lawmakers went on strike in parliament, claiming the ruling party was trying to limit debate about the disaster.

But as Sri Lankans pick up the pieces in the wake of the floods, a sense of unity remains on the ground.

“In the end, the joy of helping someone else save their life makes this fatigue fade,” Mr. Sahan wrote in a Facebook post on Monday after spending long hours at the community kitchen in Wijerama and other charity sites.

“Disasters are not new to us. However, the empathy ability and capacity of our hearts is greater than the destruction that occurs during a disaster.”