Temples and mosques take central role in UK's aid effort

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=597164

They are bringing their offerings to the temple. Outside, a line of cars is pulling up, crammed with plastic bags full of clothes, sacks of rice and cartons of soap. Inside, saffron-robed monks, sari-clad elderly women and young men in jeans all lend a hand, packing these goods into endless cardboard boxes.

If the Sri Lankan community in London had the billions available to Western governments, it would undoubtedly give it immediately to help their homeland. But it does not, so the people give what they can from their homes and small businesses. Much of it is coming here to the Sri Saddhatissa Buddhist Temple in Kingsbury, north-west London, which over the past couple of days has transformed itself into a key centre for collecting aid.

And the dedicated efforts of their worshippers have been mirrored in countless mosques, temples and embassies as expatriates and Britons alike flood them with aid. "Almost every one here has been affected in some fashion: they have relatives or friends who have been made homeless or are missing and they all want to do something to help," said the Venerable Homogama Kondanna, one of the temples' senior monks.

Although Buddhists make up 70 per cent of the dominant Sinhalese community, he stressed the aid was for everyone: "Mother nature does not discriminate, so neither do we."