A Sri Lankan visionary is hoping Sydney's Anglicans will open their hearts and help her send her starving people home.
Sooriya Kumary, a prominent international aid worker, is joining forces with Sydney churches to raise money for Sri Lankans made homeless by war.
Twenty years of torturous conflict have resulted in over 60,000 deaths and inestimable destruction for millions of Tamils.
This national misery has resulted in a massive exodus of an estimated 100,000 Sri Lankans to neighbouring India.
The National Council of Churches is using its 2004 Christmas Bowl appeal to assist OfERR (the Organization for Eelam Refugees) in its quest to care for Sri Lankan refugees and finally return them home.
Sooriya Kumary has played a pivotal role in establishing OfERR in Sri Lanka. She was displaced from Colombo in 1983 and upon arriving in India, became a founding member of OfERR.
"Originally I wanted to be a doctor to serve people but I think God has given me a different way to serve," she says.
As OfERR's Joint Secretary, Mrs Kumary is working to see a 101 per cent return of refugees " 101 per cent because some Sri Lankan refugees have married Indian citizens who would also return to Sri Lanka, taking their families with them.
The NCCA assists OfERR through sustaining programmes and advocacy work in India, and through preparing refugees for the return home.
"I get satisfaction seeing how OfERR has been able to give education to the children of parents who have never seen a school in their lifetime. For any person, family, or country, education is a basic building block on which advancements can be made," Dr Kumary says.
One of OfERR's community development programs is providing large ponds of "spirilina' for villages.
This nutritious booster drink is taken by pre-teen female refugees to give them essential nutrients. OfERR is teaching each refugee group how to make and harvest the spirilina for their own use.
The 2004 Christmas Bowl appeal aims to remind Australian Christians that many of their spiritual brothers and sisters are suffering as a result of famine, oppression, poverty and war.
By placing an empty bowl on the Christmas dinner table, Christians are encouraged to donate money to support NCCA's partnerships with organisations involved in community development and advocacy work.
Caesar De Mello, National Director of Christian World Service, says the Christmas Bowl is "Australia's Christmas gift to the world'.
"The Christmas Bowl is Christians acting together moved by a common faith in Christ, giving [those] facing hunger, poverty and conflict the courage to hope for peace."
