Hello everybody. I left this year for Sri Lanka on the 18th April and came back on the 9th May. I visited Sri Lanka to see which projects we should continue which ones to stop and so on.
We had 3 companies who donated money and this time I will give a short description of what we have done with the money so far.
In Belgium the firm PACAPIME a company in cardboard manufacture donated a 1000 euro.
First of all 50 euro was put aside for transport and a further 50 euro’ was given to Gamini Perera. He works very hard on the kandyschools projects.
A big part of the money went to Dharmasoka primary /secondary school.
This was the 5th year we helped and probably there will be one more
year to go. In the past up till now we have given them English books, whiteboards, posters, shoes, clothes, computer parts, music
instruments en a new shower and toilet for the teachers.
This year we decided in consultation with the new head teacher on the
next items;
1-6 white boards ,markers and ink. So now every class has a whiteboard
(95 euro)
2- a notice board (50 euro)
3- computer parts (100 euro)
Next we helped a boys home (Sarana Sevena boys home) with their new cupboards. Here the children can put their ferw belongings in. The old
ones were eaten up by the worms. 15 children needed one but only 8 got one. Next year we hope to give the other children their new cupboard.
(400 euro )
We looked around for another new home and as the news spread around soon enough we found through a good friend of Gamini a new home, a boys home.
Called Vajira Sri child welfare center. It was formed on 17-07-2007. Abandoned children, war victims , and Tsunami children are sent here by the Department of Probation and Child Care or Courts. The children her are very traumatized. They can stay here from their 5th year till 16th year. Construction of the first floor of the building is stopped halfway through inadequate funding they are lacking even in the basic needs.
They need a lot and it was difficult to make a choice. We decided on food as that day we visited they hadn’t eaten yet.
So we will give them 4 times a year food. Food such as lentils, sugar, oil, tinned fish, rice, gramm, chickpeas, potatoes and onions. (around 200 euro for the year)
With other money we will be able to give them a big rice cooker and 3 emergent lights this year.
And last but not least another friend helped me to find
another poor home. Here we will start to help with an initially 100 euro. As Ramani is still looking into this project nothing has been confirmed yet on what their needs are for the first year.
The second 1000 euro was given by TEXPECK a branch of LC PACKAGING in Hungary. This money we spent on one project, a big project. One part (500 euro) we have put into a savings account and will be used for the roof. The roof is coming down, the rain is falling down into the classes . Parents are unhappy to send their kids to school, but to do the roof up again will cost a whopping 6000 euro, so that is why we started this fund. The English teacher appeals to everyone he can think of and hopefully in a few years time the school and the monks and us might have saved up this amount of money.
Further more another 50 euro towards transport costs and 50 euro for Gamini.
Again after some discussion about how to help this year we decided on a kind of goody bag. Ramani is the one who is leading this project for me when I’m (not) there. She bought at the wholesale for 80 children the items the children would need for school and together with her daughters and another friend they put one by one every item in each bag. That was a lot of work.
So what was in each goody bag?
” 2 exercise books, one for maths. And one for writing.
” 2 drawing books one with black and one with white paper
” Colouring pencils
” Crayons
” Pencil case with a eraser, a sharpener, one pencil and one pen
” 2 fineliners
Every class got a small whiteboard as well with 2 markers and they will get a shelf in their class ( they asked for those items). This cost altogether 250 euro. That what I call value for money.
50 euro is spent on jelly sweets for 80 children. Aftershave, soap, body lotion and shampoo for the 6 teachers.
And…. Finally we started at this school another project; ADOPT A CHILD.
If you can adopt a child for 45 euro’s a year you can make sure that this child can stay at school. ( see separate heading for photos and a lot more info.)So with this money we decided to adopt 2 children.
The third company who donated 2000 euro was LC PACKAGING. With this money we helped and continued lots of small projects of which some are still under construction
The biggest amount is 350 euro which will be spend (as the 2 years before) on a boys home, called Sarana. Here, they will phone Gamini if they haven’t got anything left to eat ( read: no donations).
Here you find the list on what we have spent so far.
” 50 euro transport
” Singiti home cars and jewellery for the boys and girls (50)
” The old man at the gate of Singita gets 7 euro
” 10 euro on shampoo, soap and a bar of chocolate for the 4 older girl of this home.
” 65 euro food for a childcenter for children who are abandoned, left alone, or struck by the tsunami .
” 65 euro provision for Succes. An orphanage . We do this every year and it is such a thrill to see those children back.
” 50 euro pocket money for 25 girls of the above home. Each child receives 300 rupees which is around 2 eurol
” 30 euro for 8 educational English games. The English teacher was over the moon,
” 80 euro for a nerve stimulator. We went back to the East and visited a lady whose husband was in prison (innocent) and helped them after the Tsunami. This time her hubbie was at home but their child had got a bacterial infection and his lag is paralysed . so we gave that money.
” 10 euro for volleyball net and bulbs. Sarana home
” 25 euro on slippers for the boys of the above home
” 100 euro for chocolates, shampoo, soap, aftershave, toothpaste for all other schools.
” 100 euro for big rice cooker. And 3 emergent lights.
” 50 euro window frame for a poor family
” 100 euro for a new home organised by Ramani.
” 500 euro of a new science room for a small secondary school in between the paddy fields.
Gamini will get stuck into a new project in the East. And we have given this (whatever it will be) 300 euro
Gamini will find out with his friends where help is needed, we are looking specially into small projects. He likes to adopt a village, or just a school or home. The Eastern province is now since one and half year free from the LTTE ( liberation of the Tamil Tigers) and is very, very poor. So this project is ‘under development’