True stories about some of our special customers. Names have been withheld for privacy reasons.

ND was one of our very first customers. He would remit money to Sri Lanka once a month to a friend to help with the eduction of his friend's children. ND is suffering from a disease that was slowly eating away the strength from his muscles. At first there was nothing noticeable, but one day, instead of coming into the office, he was standing outside banging on the door. When I opened the door, he explained that he did not have the strength to turn the knob to open the door. Soon he could not drive so he would ask a friend to drive him over so he could remit the money. Soon he found it difficult to travel, so he would ring me up and tell me he was sending the money through another person and would give me the details on the phone. Now he is unable to phone as he is totally paralysed, but now every month without fail his wife  brings the $200 dollars he sends his friend. ND is special because in spite of his illness, he could think only of helping his friend.

PS: ND passed away a few months ago (2008). His wife continues the good work he began.

SF was in the Port Headland detention centre. He had come to Australia on a boat seeking greener pastures, but was soon incarcerated as the boat he was travelling on was intercepted off Christmas Island. While in detention he has found work cleaning the kitchen and is paid a small allowance for doing this work.

He had read the Pahana news paper and had noticed the advertisement we run in that newspaper. One day he contacted Kapruka from the detention centre and wanted to remit the few dollars he had saved to his wife in Sri Lanka.

Since then, most of the Sri Lankan inmates of the detention centre have used Kapruka services to remit money to their loved ones who sent them to Australia with such high hopes.

Ms AS was a university student when the Tsunami devastated Sri Lanka. Her grandfather in Sri Lanka informed her of the plight of some children who had been orphaned by the Tsunami and were destitute. Ms. AS immediately went into action and asked her grandfather to set up an orphanage for these children. She organised various fund raising events in Australia and faithfully remits Rs. 30,000 each month to feed the 30 children who are in the orphanage. A remarkable young lady who has gone out of her way to hold out a helping hand to others less fortunate.

Mrs. K's husband is a kidney patient who has been on a dialysis machine for the last eight years. She has to constantly care for him as the drugs administered also affect him very badly. Yet she remits money to a relative in Sri Lanka from time to time. Having learned her story I asked her why she sends money to Sri Lanka when she has so many problems herself. She replied that the relative to whom she sends the money is also a kidney patient and their need is greater than hers and she wants to help them. Recently she called me to give me some good news. After eight years her husband has finally found a kidney donor.

IM is a very remarkable person. He is vision impaired. He remits money to a number of organisations supporting the Blind in Sri Lanka. He also sends money to people who are vision impaired.

One day a person from Tasmania - not a regular customer - deposited $5000 in our account and wanted it remitted to Rev. Mahesan in Batticaloa who runs a charitable organisation in the East of Sri Lanka. Rev Mahesan called us to find out who the donor was and for what the money was to be used. Apart from the brief information given to us by the remitter, we were unable to give more details.

When we opened for business the day after the Tsunami last year, the first customer who walked in was a student from Sri Lanka. He handed $100 and wanted us to remit it to any charity to help the victims. At that point, no charities had been set up in Sri Lanka to help the affected people. So the money was remitted to the account set up for Tsunami work by the People's Bank. The student still remits money through us, but to this day he has not asked us what happened to the money.

MR is an elderly lady with a daughter who suffers from Schizophrenia. She also looks after her own mother who is nearly 100 years of age. A single mother from the time she migrated over 30 years ago. In spite of all her personal problems, MR regularly remits money to her older sister who is in Sri Lanka. She also sends money to leprosy patients in SUROL.

RG is 72 years old. Veronica Hamine the servant who looked after him when he was a child is over 90 years. He has been sending money to her for sometime now. Lately he found out he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and has lost the feeling in one of his legs. He still comes - with the aid of a walking stick to remit money to Veronica Hamine.

AG is a young man who is planning to purchase a house for his parents. To achieve this he works at two labour intensive jobs every night. He has opened an NRFC account with Commercial Bank. He manages to snatch a wink or two of sleep and between jobs he rushes into remit the large amounts he has saved from his hard labours.