JourneyOnline
KAMALA and her husband fled war-torn Sri Lanka with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
After five years in a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu, southern India, during which their daughter was born, they have returned home.
Support from churches around Australia for the Christmas Bowl has helped this family and many like them to survive, and is assisting them to rebuild their lives now that the conflict has ended.
The Christmas Bowl is the annual appeal of Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.
Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans were forced to flee as a result of the civil war which gripped their country between 1983 and 2009.
Sri Lanka now faces a huge challenge in resettlement and reconciliation between ethnic communities, as well as rebuilding basic infrastructure.
Act for Peace supports programs in the refugee camps which equip refugees for their return.
They are provided with health care, and participate in self-help groups to support community leadership, peace building and human rights.
Act for Peace, working with a local project partner, also helps provide refugees with the documentation they need — like birth and marriage certificates — to ensure that they can prove their Sri Lankan citizenship and obtain the benefits they are entitled to on their return to Sri Lanka.
Act for Peace Executive Director Alistair Gee says Australian Christians have been supporting people like Kamala for more than 60 years, ever since the Christmas Bowl began.
"Act for Peace sees first-hand the devastating effects of conflict on innocent people – but also the incredible difference that the right support can make.
"Act for Peace's life-saving work around the world simply would not be possible without the support of people around Australia."
Last year more than 2000 churches from over 19 denominations took part in the Christmas Bowl, raising almost $2.5 million.
Uniting Church congregations in Queensland contributed more than $150 000.
Funds raised through the Christmas Bowl will help Act for Peace project partners in countries including Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burma/Myanmar.
For more information call 1800 025 101 or visit actforpeace.org.au/ christmasbowl
Photo : Christmas Bowl gifts help fund vital health care in refugee camps and prepare refugees to return home safely from India to Sri Lanka, with a special focus on vulnerable women and children. Photo courtesy of OfERR
