Catholics, UN appeal for aid to Sri Lanka’s flood victims

(January 24, 2011) Churches, media organizations and civic groups in Sri Lanka are collecting relief items to meet the needs of people affected by the flooding in Sri Lanka. The floods are the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka since the 2004 tsunami and have caused 43 deaths. The government has estimated flood and landslide damage at some $500 million. The United Nations has launched an appeal to raise $51 million to meet the urgent needs of more than one million people and enable international partners to support the government to help them over the next six months. Parishioners of the Sacred Heart church at Katugastota in the diocese of Kandy have collected relief items to help the victims. Sri Lanka is still rebuilding after the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which killed roughly 40,000 people and left 2.5 million homeless. The country also continues to struggle with the aftermath of a violent decades-long separatist rebellion in the north of the country, which ended in 2009.