Sri Lankan actor and musician GK Reginold rides a motorised fishing boat through Colombo's suburbs, hoping to bring food and water to those in desperate need.
Some of the families, Mr. Reginold says, have not received aid for days, isolated by the South Asian island nation's worst weather disaster in recent years.
Cyclone Ditwah lashed the country last week, bringing catastrophic floods and landslides that killed more than 400 people, left hundreds missing, and destroyed 20,000 homes.
But the deluge has also inspired volunteerism among its people, as they face what their president has described as the most challenging natural disaster in its history.
The main reason why I wanted to do this, is to at least help them to have one meal, Mr. Reginold tells the BBC. And I was so happy that I was able to do that.
More than one million people have been affected by the disaster and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency.
Sri Lanka's military has deployed helicopters for rescue operations, while humanitarian aid is flowing in from foreign governments and non-governmental organisations.
In Colombo's Wijerama neighborhood, activists who protested against former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 are now helping run a community kitchen that churns out food aid, channeling their political activism into cyclone relief.
Mr. Sahan also considers the kitchen as an extension of his volunteer work in 2016, when torrential rain and floods killed 250 people across the country.
A flurry of activity is also happening online, where social media users have created a public database to direct donations and volunteers, evidencing the spirit of unity among Sri Lankans in the face of adversity.
As the country embarks on a long road to recovery, Mr. Sahan reflected, In the end, the joy of helping someone else to save lives makes that tiredness fade. Disasters are not new to us. But, the empathy and capacity of our hearts is greater than the destruction that occurs during a disaster.
