Target reached!
Those living around the poverty line in Sri Lanka are in a desperate situation right...
To live with dignity – The Abode Trust Crowd Fund
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
To help support the Abode communities in the Knuckles and Mannar towards purchasing basics essential to support their livelihoods.
Could you help us help them?
Sri Lanka is currently facing an unprecedented political and economic crisis in her 74 years of independence and the local communities in far-flung places are most vulnerable to the ripple effects of the crisis. As you know, The Abode is a grassroots tourism project engaging with local communities in the Knuckles Mountains & Gulf of Mannar. These sites have been severely impacted in the last few months owing to continuous cancellations and a decline in bookings.
Coming on top of the pandemic the situation has become impossible.
The escalation of social unrest compounded by ecumenic hardships has driven these communities to the brink of despair and hopelessness and has threatened their very livelihoods. As most of you are aware these folks were not dependent on tourism entirely and live off land and sea getting about their humble occupation and Abode provided a window to experience their life.
The Abode Trust through its tours supported them over the years to overcome challenges and made them stakeholders of its community homestay operations with the help of our partner company ETG for over a decade now.
Be as it may the ground realities have changed dramatically for the island nation now and the Abode Trust has started a crowdfunding campaign amongst its clientele to meet the urgent needs of the communities in the Knuckles and Island of Mannar.
The monies will go towards purchasing fertilizer, farming & fishing-related expenses, medical; support and mostly for ensuring food security in the months to come. The weakness of the Sri Lankan rupee means that your sterling or dollar donations will go a VERY long way.
We hope by providing essential financial support at these trying times we will be able to give them back their dignity and preserve their livelihoods so that like-minded future travellers like you would get to experience the same.
The direct beneficiaries from the crowdfunding would be 'granny' & 'grandad' in the Knuckles; Mr. & Mrs. M J Wijerathna and their immediate family as well as Mr.Thangarasa and his extended family on the island of Mannar respectively. We also hope to broaden our reach based on contributions in the coming weeks to all their next of kin who are adversely affected by the crisis.
The fund will first ensure food security by providing cash advances for the affected families to purchase essentials monthly basis and where possible the Abode Trust will personally deliver dry rations to them; we are trying to limit our physical presence and support remotely due to high cost of travelling worsen by the fuel crisis.
The Trust will roll out funds for this season's harvesting being carried out now and re-introduction shifting cultivation in mid-July and August. Intermittently we will encourage cash crops to grow and step in to cover high fertilizer and other pesticide costs that have prevented these farmers away from growing.
Equally, Mannar will get a cash advance for fuel and other fishing related expenses for 2-3 selected families on top of monthly food expenses. The Trust will work local cooperative society to ensure monies dispensed for the purchase of fuel are properly distributed to the most vulnerable.
If we raise just £500 we will be able to make a significant difference. If we can push to a £1000 we will be able to help the wider members of their family too.
Overall the Trust will build a fuel safety net to ensure that food stocks produced by both communities will reach the markets.
The Trust also plans to set aside funds for the maintenance of its homestay properties to avoid falling into a state of neglect and disrepair owing to a decline in bookings.
We firmly believe that tourism will return to the island nation soon!
On behalf of the Abode community, we look forward to your active participation in the fundraiser.
*IMPORTANT NOTE:
This project is being hosted on behalf of Sid Elikewela by Sam Clark, MD and Co-founder of Experience Travel Group. The reason for this is that with inflation running at such a pace and the banking system in Sri Lanka very unstable, we would prefer to raise the money in hard currency (pounds) and keep the money in the UK until it is ready to be spent. Sid will oversee the spending of the money and will account for it carefully. He will report back on what has been purchased via this site. Thank you.
This project successfully funded on 28th June 2022