Insights by Anthony Jacob, TapTap Send's Canada country lead, for the TamilChangemakers monthly newsletter. Subscribe here to join our members only community to receive insights, events access, jobs & more.
Canada is home to a diverse group of diaspora communities, linking migrants to almost every corner of the world, where the flow of goods and services through informal channels has long been a common practice. The Sri Lankan diaspora is one such example.
The country is currently going through the worst economic crisis since gaining their independence in 1948, with many on the ground struggling to make ends meet. The United Nations has even warned that Sri Lanka is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, as the cost for basic services rise exponentially and the government is unable to import these vital goods due to non-existent foreign reserves.
When you speak to folks back in Sri Lanka, your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends you hear the same thing. “There is no medicine in the pharmacies, no food in the stores, and no fuel at the gas stations”. The public often have to wait in long lines and pay exorbitant prices to get their hands on these essentials. If this continues, some industries will be forced to shutdown, unemployment will hit record levels and people will go malnourished, leaving Sri Lanka in an extremely dire state.
As a member of the Tamil Diaspora, your initial instinct is to help, but how? What can you do NOW?
The immediate thought that comes to mind is to send money back home to help your loved ones keep up with rising costs and many of you are already doing this. The key here is how are you sending money to Sri Lanka?
Many in our community use Undiyals, “transfer system that allows migrant workers to remit funds, usually cash in the currency they earn in is given to a middleman who in turn ensures that the person's family in Sri Lanka receives the equivalent amount in rupees”.
While the rates from an Undiyal seem attractive at first, by using them we are only making the economic crisis in Sri Lanka worse. It means foreign currency never enters the country and the government will continue to struggle to import vital goods. The Sri Lankan Central Bank together with law enforcement agencies are continuing to clamp down on individuals and entities engaged in gray market activities, making it harder to access these services.
The government simply needs more foreign currency entering the country via legitimate channels so it can continue to carry out international forex transactions. These transactions will help fulfill the essential needs of Sri Lanka, namely fuel, gas, medicine, and food. There are 3 main ways you can send money legitimately:
1) From an overseas bank account directly to an account at a licensed Sri Lankan bank
2) Formal money transfer exchanges abroad to an account at a licensed Sri Lankan bank
3) Online platforms/apps tied-up with Sri Lankan financial institutions such as TapTap Send
We just launched TapTap Send (an app that lets people send money back home to Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean quickly and at very low prices) for the Canada-Sri Lanka market and have received an overwhelmingly positive response from our users and we couldn’t be happier to be playing a small part in helping those in need back home.
We have partnered with TamilCulture.com to encourage more members of the Tamil diaspora to use legitimate channels to send money back home. Using the promocode “TAMILCULTURE20” TapTap Send is giving you $20 CAD on your first transaction using the app to send money to Sri Lanka.
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