This is a copy of an email I sent to my friends. I think you are my friends too.
To my friends, I love and miss you a lot. I know a lot of you are on Third World salaries like me, but if you can forward this to your family and friends I would appreciate it. I’ve asked people to wait before donating because I wanted to make sure that the money was helping the people in need. Now I feel that it is.
I am now asking you to donate to Sarvodaya.org. Sarvodaya is well known in Sri Lanka and abroad for its 50 years of work to alleviate poverty, promote peace, and relieve suffering. I trust Sarvodaya. My family trusts Sarvodaya.
I sleep in the Sarvodaya hostel. Yesterday I worked all night organizing online payments to Sarvodaya.org. When you donate I see the money come into our bank account. When the money is spent I see where it goes. In the last 12 hours we have collected over 50,000 USD. I see that it is saving lives.
That money buries the over 30,000 dead. It gives clean water, food, medicine, and shelter to the 1 million refugees. Sarvodaya has stations in 34 Sri Lankan cities, including the most heavily damaged. The distribution network is good, and most importantly the people are honest and kind.
I am asking you to donate money here because Sarvodaya will use the money wisely. I also ask because you can hold me personally accountable. I am working full-time so that you can see the results of your donations over the Net. My blog is updated as much as I can and we have a team rebuilding Sarvodaya.org for this crisis. I believe in Sarvodaya and I believe in Sri Lanka. I believe in your prayers and thoughts. I believe that money donated here will be well spent.
I also ask that you consider distributing your donations to other countries as well. I cannot vouch for any particular organizations, but we are all the same at times like these. Actually, I think that we are all in this life together, but we only see it now.
I wish I had something better to say but I am tired and crying. Thank you, and all my love,
indi
Indrajit Samarajiva
www.sarvodaya.org
www.indi.ca
Sarvodaya means Awakening.
Great to see the fine work you are doing for Sarvodaya.
Since the day of this monumental disaster, we’ve been running a website with information on how people can assist the relief agencies, at http://www.aidsrilanka.com
We’ve also mentioned how you can get further information about the current situation.
It would be great if you can spread the word about aidsrilanka.com through the Sarvodaya website.