Help IDPs in Sri Lanka with Emergency Aid

As of April 26, 2009, there were as many as 160,000+ internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka taking refuge in camps across the Northeast (Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Mannar, Mullaitivu, and Jaffna), with an estimated 60,000 more still trapped within the conflict zones. Each day the number of those desperately making their way into these IDP camps grows, as does the number of those seeking immediate medical care. Those who are arriving at these camps have nothing but the clothes on their backs. They have no food or cooking utensils, no personal belongings, no other clothing…not even a bucket in which to collect water.

Local hospitals and health officials are overwhelmed by the number of patients needing medical care, but continue to lack basic medicines (including antibiotics), supplies, and more. Many of those arriving in the hospitals are missing limbs. The number of civilian dead confirmed by local health officials and international observers has surpassed 6,000, with many thousands more injured, although exact figures for each cannot be accurately or completely known. A few chosen survivors have been transported out of the area with the help of the ICRC, but the vast majority has not been so fortunate (as reported by www.TheIMHO.org)