Hello to everybody

I would ask all of you to contribute with whatever you can for the suffering people of Sri Lanka at : www.theacademic.org.

Even US$5 from EACH one of us could go a long way in providing rehabilitation for the thousands who are now homeless - a report says that the death toll could rise beyond 60,000 across entire Asia.

The tsunami, caused by a 9.0 Richter earthquake off the Sumatra coast(Indonesia) has killed more than 18,000 people in Sri Lanka alone -- as my friend Udara Soysa of Sri Lanka(http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/udara2004) says, "The whole country is destroyed!".

For helping out the people in the devastated parts of Southern India, please donate generously to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund :-

Here are a few links to make donations:

Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (http://pmindia.nic.in/relief.htm),
by bank transfer (http://pmindia.nic.in/relieffund.htm),
or by credit card (http://pmindia.nic.in/formpmnrfbak.htm).

If you prefer a non-government agency:
Red Cross accepts donations online
(http://www.redcross.org/article/0,1072,0_312_3870,00.html)

An excellent NGO involved in the disaster relief is Association for India's Development. AID is a US-based voluntary non-profit development organization with over 40 chapters across the US, made up of student and professionals as volunteers. You could help the survivors from INDIA by sending your contributions to AID as well
(http://www.aidindia.org/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=63).

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST LINKS ONLINE, ESPECIALLY FOR INITIATIVES BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely
Shoubhik Purkayastha