Help Line to Help (the ones who have nothing)
Dear friends!
It's not so hard to make the world a better place. I will make it easy for you ☺
On my first trip to Sri Lanka, my attention was drawn to an amazing building on a mountain side facing the ocean.
I asked a little bit and found out that this was a senior home (with mentally ill children and women). This was surprising when I had heard that such centers were redundant in Sri Lanka, since in Sri Lanka they take care of each other. Neighbors, family and friends - everyone takes care of each other. This is how the system works.
I was very drawn to this place and had to look into myself. I built up enough courage and decided to walk in. What met me is undescribable. The heat, the flies, the dirt and the stench. The stench was the worst. It struck me that this was the home for those without family, neighbors or friends. The home for the outcasts and the abandoned. They do not have anything. Almost. They lacked everything but food. Every day there are some nice people from the village that come with food. But very few dare to put their foot in the door. They probably cannot bare the sight. I felt the same and did not go back. I just simply could not. The sight was too disturbing.
But as I left and time went by, I could not forget the stench nor the faces. I had to return. In September this year I traveled to Sri Lanaka again - determined to spend the three weeks I was there to make life a little better for at least some of these old and disabled people.
The first person I met when I walked in the door for the second time was Narnja - my second mother ☺. She was laying straight on the floor in her own stool (see photo). She was laying there waiting to die. Burning up of a fever with bedsores that scared me. I carried her out into the rain, removed her clothes and washed her clean with soap, water, tears and rain. Then I put her temporarily on a beach mattress. The next day I came back with food, clothes, diapers, mattresses, bedding and, a medically trained person with medicine who took care of the grotesque bedsores. It cost me NOK 3000, -. There is nothing for the gratitude I felt and the smile I received. Absolutely nothing. I paid the medically trained person NOK 350, - a month to make sure that Narnja is well taken care of and remains the princess she deserves to be.
I also managed to rent a bus and take all the kids from the home to the beach, play with them and get to know them.
On January 1st, I have plans to travel back. I will spend 3 months helping more people at this home. I'm going to buy mattresses, clean the house,
the walls, fix the roof (as of today it rains straight in) and fix the ventilation. I will get water tanks, washing machines, walkers, wheelchairs, shower chairs, clothes, toys, books – and list goes on as long as I have the money.
I have many good people who are ready to help and as you probably understand I NEED DONATIONS/FUNDING. You can do so much with so little here.
Please help me.
Line Thorstensen
