CampbellNelson Cares

Our Motivation, In our words

Kurt Campbell

“When I went into these camps, my heart was absolutely broken. To see families that were separated, they didn’t even know where their own children were, or moms and dads were, to see people who had lost limbs during the war. Lost their sight. Lost their hearing. They’ve lost hope.

"And I think that’s the saddest thing of all is to see people who really don’t know if it’s worth living another day. It crushes you. And when you walk in there and are surrounded by children who all of the sudden view you as something maybe, as a sign of hope, and smiles cross their face, and they just get so excited, it just really raises your level, your heartbeat. You get excited. You want to help. You want to get involved.”

Craig Campbell

“They need a lot of encouragement and they need a lot of support. And it needs to come from the outside, not just from within. There are a lot of things that go into it, and I think awareness is a key factor. It’s so easy to be caught up with what’s going on in your neighborhood or what’s going on on your street and not realize that there are people with a lot greater issues going on in front of them.”

Stories From the field

Excerpt from a letter, written by a young woman named Ruthra:

“The shelling was heavy; bullets would cross from one side to the other and would fall on the ground next to us. We would lie down and pray to God. We heard screaming of people and my entire body started to shiver when the parts of the bodies and pieces of clothes started to fall into our hut. My only worry now is whether we will be reunited with my father and brother.”

Excerpt from a letter, written by a young woman named Sivarasa:

“Many lost their limbs and the dead people were all over—on the streets and everywhere. There was no one even to bury the dead. The biggest tragedy was that many young children were orphaned without any living relative. The roads were like pool of blood and in all the houses we could hear only the loud cry of losing their loved ones.” Read more +

Real stories, real people

These are the kind of stories we hear from Sri Lanka from World Concern. They are working with those who have lost everything. Their possessions, their homes, their land, their family members. At this point, they don’t even have their freedom, as they are required to live in war camps until a plan is created to return them home.

Current Situation

War Ended In May

Nearly 300,000 Sri Lankas are currently living in war camps, and have been since the civil war came to an increasingly deadly end in May of 2009. Some in the camps are getting out as time goes by, but most are not.

Seattle-based Christian humanitarian organization World Concern is assisting in four of those camps. They are set up in schools, factories and tents, and thousands of traumatized Sri Lankans are living there in cramped conditions on meager rations.

World Concern, Help For The Wounded

World Concern has assisted more than 23,000 people who have been affected, many of them civilians wounded during the nearly 26-year-long civil war.

For about 8,000 displaced people, World Concern is providing the basics, depending on the need. It usually includes food, clothes, even toilets. The goal is to keep them fed and healthy and ready to go home when they have the chance.

History of the war

Long and Difficult

Those living in displacement camps are of the Tamil ethnic minority. Members of the group called the Tamil Tigers are widely considered to be terrorists, demanding an independent homeland for the Tamil people.

The conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military has caused significant hardships for the development of the country, and for the life of its citizens. The Tamil people in particular found themselves in a tough spot, as much of the fighting occurred where they live. Whether they were in favor of the insurgency or not, life was difficult. The insurgency developed into a long-standing thorn in the development and peace in the country. Regardless of the politics, civilians often found themselves caught in the middle.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 80,000 people.