Dedication of Health Care Center

As our relief efforts continue, we dedicated our first Health Care Center that we build for the victims of war. On the 20th of July at 2pm we dedicated the little hospital by lighting the traditional oil lamp and chanting blessings. It was a very joyful moment for all of us.

The building consists of a maternity room, a dispensary, a drug storage room, a patient care room and a doctor’s office. The Center was completed in record time with the help of extra workers and double shifts.

At the moment of dedication, Dr. Semali, the doctor in charge of the camps, expressed her gratitude saying “We have no words to thank you for building this Health Care Center. You have provided us with the most urgently needed arsenal to meet our needs here in this area. It is truly a noble deed that you have done. You cannot imagine the difficulties we had to go through to treat our patients in small hot and dusty plastic tents. There were occasions when my patients fainted as they stood in line in the hot sun waiting to see me”.

Describing the personal difficulties she endured daily she further said,?Every evening I go home covered with dust. Often we could not keep our medications fresh because of the heat and the dust. I feel like we have moved into a mansion. We are all very happy and grateful to have such a comfortable facility to take care of the sick people in this IDP camp?.

Weerapuram IDP camp is set in the midst of newly cleared land in northern Sri Lanka. 1,400 families who lost their homes because of the war arrived here at the end of May 2009. They all live in small tents. Everybody arrived here with only a few of their belongings and most of them simply with the clothes they were wearing.

For those who have suffered so much and so long due to the war, the health care center provides a small relief. We know it will help to heal many people, and who knows, it may save a few lives as well.

Thank you so much to all who helped from the bottom of my heart.