Cries for Help

house of pain: Area Sri Lankans have marshalled their efforts at an Overbrook Avenue mosque. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Local Sri Lankans are working to help the relief effort in their homeland.

by Dan Keashen

On Friday, a group of Sri Lankans from the Philadelphia area gathered at the Mosque of Shaikh M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship on Overbrook Avenue near City Line Avenue. There, they prayed for relief and aid for their home country that's still reeling from the devastation of one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Among them was Ayub Cader, a Philadelphia accountant who lost more than 90 members of his extended family in the tsunami tragedy.

"I cannot put into words the suffering and the grief I have in the aftermath of this event," said Cader.

Cader isn't alone in turning to the comfort of community in a difficult time, said Muhammad Abdul Lateef Hayden, secretary of the mosque, which has some 2,500 members, most of whom are Sri Lankan.

"The mosque," said Hayden, "has provided a place of refuge and salvation to many of the affected members like Mr. Cader and others who have personal ties to the tragedy."

Since the tsunami struck Sri Lanka and numerous other nations in South Asia, the mosque's executive committee has been pleading with its membership to help the relief effort. As Sri Lanka has been torn by civil conflict for two decades, they want to make sure donations go to legitimate charitable agencies, including UNICEF and the international arm of the Red Cross.

Donating money to organizations already on the ground is critical to the current relief mission, said Jonathan Granoff, a Philadelphia attorney and Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship executive committee member who serves as a consultant to the United Nations on nuclear disarmament through his nongovernmental agency, the Global Security Institute.

"The goal here is to get funds into the hands of those who need help," said Granoff, noting that there remains a dire need for medical care, food, clothing and shelter.

While the tsunami has drawn emotional reactions nationally and internationally, stories from members of the mosque have served to localize a wide-ranging tragedy.

Cader's extended family still resides in the southern coastal tip of Sri Lanka, in the towns of Hambantota and Galle. "Galle was hit hard from the tsunami and was where a majority of death in my family occurred. In Hambantota, my aunt's house was swallowed by water. She only survived by hanging onto a window and being rescued much later by her son," said Cader, noting that relatives who survived the tsunami itself lost everything and are now displaced.

Making matters worse for relief efforts is the Joint Typhoon Warning Center's warning that a cyclone was moving toward the south coast of Sri Lanka this week. Should it hit — the storm was forecast to strike the island after press time — it could halt all operations on an island devastated by the tsunami-related deaths of 30,500 people. About 3,780 others are still missing.

Overseas, Cader's family is working in the capital city of Colombo, giving out food, water and medical supplies. "I will be planning a trip to meet up with them," he said. "I need to bring my physical presence to the crisis and help my family, the victims and the country in the relief effort. … The victims need more basic supplies to keep surviving. There is a desperate need for help and this is a deserving time to show love and compassion."

One positive outcome of the tsunami has been the global response. Foreign governments and agencies have pledged more than $5 billion in aid, and companies and individuals have promised $1.5 billion. Many Western countries say they will suspend tsunami-ravaged nations' debt repayments to help free resources for rebuilding. The Sri Lankan Central Bank expects the crisis to cost the country approximately $1.3 billion.

Despite those efforts, Cader and Granoff are both pleading for Philadelphians to keep giving. (Granoff says organizations taking donations can be found at www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/ngolist.html.) Granoff hopes tsunami relief efforts extend to other global woes in the future.

"Right now, there are millions of people dying from starvation, disease and violence throughout Africa, Asia and South America," he said. "I hope this kind of charity will continue throughout the world to breach the bridge of death and destruction that goes unreported and unnoticed."