Update on Sri Lanka from Shakthi Eurasia Exchange

This past Sunday Sri Lanka suffered horrific terrorist attacks where 359 people tragically lost their lives and many more were injured.

Earlier this week we reached out to our member organisation based two hours south of Colombo, Shakthi Eurasia Exchange, for their assessment on the immediate effects on local volunteer programmes. Ashika Seneviratha, Shakthi’s Director, reported that fortunately no one from Shakthi’s team, participants or partner communities, was affected by the events, and that all their projects continue running as planned. Shakthi’s team spoke to all overseas volunteers on the ground, who despite being shaken, said they would like to remain with the programme. 

According to Ashika, volunteers cooperated with all safety instructions during an island-wide curfew, and some even offered to donate blood for the victims of the attacks.

Ashika also shared an update about Shakthi’s most recently completed project, a new pre-school educational center they built from scratch in a rural area. You can see the photos from this project below.

UPD: Late Thursday evening the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office released advice for travellers to Sri Lanka recommending only essential travel within the country. On Friday, April 26th, Shakthi Eurasia Exchange assisted all overseas participants with arrangements to return to their home countries.