SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — The government of Sri Lanka has asked Baptist Child and Family Services, based in San Antonio, to help open five new emergency child-care centers along the country's east coast to care for tens of thousands of children orphaned by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
Even more importantly for the long-term, according to the Texas Baptist agency, BCFS will help organize a foster-care system and train Sri Lankan staff to operate it.
The five emergency-care centers will house an estimated 800 to 1,000 orphans each.
The 60-mile stretch where the shelters will be located has an estimated 30,000 people displaced and needing care. There have been reports of infants dying of starvation even after arriving at disaster-relief centers, as Sri Lanka struggles to get relief supplies and services where they are needed.
“Such massive human suffering and physical devastation can numb those of us not directly affected and make us feel there is nothing we can do to make a real difference,” pointed out Kevin Dinnin, president of Baptist Child and Family Services, an agency of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. “It's true none of us can take on the whole effort, but as individuals we can help specific people. As small groups we can work with specific communities.”
A BCFS crisis-response team of veteran child-care administrators, including Dinnin, a medical doctor and a psychologist left for Sri Lanka Jan. 6.
The implications of taking care of thousands of orphans are long-term, Dinnin said.
“Obviously nobody budgeted for this but we have to respond to a need we are qualified to meet,” he said. “We'll just have to rely on people who want to make an on-going difference for orphaned boys and girls to help cover our expenses.”
BCFS was invited to Sri Lanka on the recommendation of Gospel for Asia, a Christian ministry that has numerous permanent staffers in the country. The two organizations have partnered together before. Gospel for Asia is “not trained to handle a disaster like this, so we need experts to come in, assess and advise,” said Kim Beckett, a GFA worker in Sri Lanka.
In Texas, Baptist Child and Family Services provides residential services for emotionally disturbed children, assisted-living services and vocational training and employment for special-needs adults, mental-health services for children and families, foster care, and pre-natal and post-partum health services. Through its Children's Emergency Relief International, it provides humanitarian aid for children living in impoverished conditions in Moldova, Mexico and Russia.