Engaged Buddhism: JTS Korea Brings Humanitarian Relief to Sri Lankans Hit by Economic Crisis

NEWS

Home » News » Engaged Buddhism » Engaged Buddhism: JTS Korea Brings Humanitarian Relief to Sri Lankans Hit by Economic Crisis

Engaged Buddhism: JTS Korea Brings Humanitarian Relief to Sri Lankans Hit by Economic Crisis

By Craig C Lewis
July 31, 2024

Sri Lankan JTS volunteers. All images courtesy of Jungto Society

Volunteers from the Buddhist humanitarian relief organization JTS Korea, founded by the revered Korean Dharma master and Buddhist activist Venerable Pomnyun Sunim (법륜스님), recently conducted humanitarian relief work in Sri Lanka, reaching out to low-income students and underprivileged communities who have been the most vulnerable to the fallout from the country’s recent economic crisis.

Sri Lanka is still in the process of recovering from the worst economic crisis in the island nation’s history. During the height of the crisis in 2022, Sri Lankans contended with record inflation, crippling power cuts, and severe shortages of fuel, food staples, and medicines. The Sri Lankan rupee became the world’s worst-performing currency, dropping to a historic low, while foreign exchange reserves were depleted, leaving the country unable to import basic necessities such as food or fuel. More than 54 per cent of Sri Lankan households are now reported to be in debt. With the help of a US$2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program, inflation has been brought down to 1.7 per cent as of June this year, after climbing as high as 70 per cent in September 2022.

Following four support projects in 2023, JTS’s second round of support activity this year was focused on providing essential school supplies to students and rice to the most vulnerable families. Local government officials actively assisted in the process, from surveying potential recipients to packaging school supplies and final distribution.

“Local JTS volunteers worked diligently for months in advance to ensure that this relief activity was conducted safely and fairly,” JTS Korea shared with BDG.

Rice and school supplies for distribution

Ven. Pomnyun Sunim established the humanitarian relief organization Join Together Society (JTS) as an expression of the compassion of engaged Buddhism, and based on the principle that helping others is the best way to enrich one’s own life. Charged with bringing hope, empowerment, and self-reliance to underprivileged communities in developing countries, JTS is run and manned by unpaid volunteers, who ensure that all donations benefit marginalized communities. JTS carries out relief work in countries suffering from humanitarian disasters, and has engaged in humanitarian projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. The relief organization has also earned Special Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

In Gampaha District, in Sri Lanka’s Western Province, JTS volunteers provided 500 households with 20 kilograms of rice and packages of school supplies containing new bags, pencils, notebooks, and other essentials—to the visible delight of the children there.

A happy child poses with a JTS volunteer

The next area for relief activities was Chilaw, in Puttalam District, North Western Province, home to many poor families who mostly work as day laborers at shrimp farms and for the fishing industry. Their situation is particularly challenging since the area lacks a supply of potable water, and even the groundwater is contaminated with salt. Instead, households collect rainwater or are forced to purchase water. There is also no electricity.

Compounding the difficulties of local residents, schools are located 5–10 kilometers from the village, meaning children must rent bicycles or motorcycles to attend school. Some families forgo kindergarten education as they are unable to pay the monthly fee of 1,000-2,000 rupees (US$3.30–6.60). In the wake of the economic crisis, many households, which had already reduced their meals to two a day, have pared their expenditure back further to just one meal a day.

JTS volunteers provided school supply packages to 1,100 students, and distributed 20 kilograms of rice to each of their families, as well as 31 additional households identified as being extremely poor. In cases where a family had more than one child at school, JTS provided additional support.

Children carry their new school supplies

The third area to receive aid was the town of Medirigiriya in Polonnaruwa District, North Central Province. Although this is a major rice-producing region, many residents live hand-to-mouth working on farms as day laborers with no land of their own. Heavy use of agricultural pesticides has resulted in groundwater contamination and a high incidence of kidney disease among local residents.

Households in Medirigiriya receive water rations for daily use, and must purchase purified water for drinking, increasing their financial burden. Those in extreme poverty, who cannot afford to buy water, resort to boiling contaminated groundwater for consumption.

Here, JTS volunteers distributed school supplies to 1,400 students selected from 17 schools, and provided 10 kilograms of rice each to 1,360 households. They also selected another 200 households living in extreme poverty to receive 20 kilograms of rice each.

“I feel immense pride in JTS’s activities that help the poor through a transparent and fair selection process,” one volunteer in the field noted. “We sincerely hope that with our small contribution, the people of Sri Lanka will be able to quickly recover from the national [crisis].”

Ven. Pomnyun Sunim is a widely revered Korean Dharma teacher, author, and social activist. He has founded numerous organizations, initiatives, and projects across the world, among them: JTS Korea, an international humanitarian relief organization working to eradicate poverty and hunger; Jungto Society, a volunteer-based community founded on the Buddha’s teachings and dedicated to addressing modern social issues that lead to suffering; Ecobuddha, an organization focused on environmental ethics and sustainable living based on the teachings of the Buddha; and Good Friends, which promotes reconciliation and cooperation between the North and South Korea, and provides humanitarian aid to North Koreans. Ven. Pomnyun Sunim also works closely with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB).

In October 2020, the Niwano Peace Foundation in Japan presented the 37th Niwano Peace Prize to Ven. Pomnyun Sunim in recognition of his international humanitarian work, intensive environmental and social activism, and his tireless efforts to build trust and goodwill between communities of different faiths and cultures, toward the goal of world peace.*

* Buddhist Monk Ven. Pomnyun Sunim Awarded the 37th Niwano Peace Prize (BDG)