It has been 5 years ago that Youth4Youth (youth members of VMHC Cartouche from Voorburg) came to Sri Lanka. Youth4Youth then gave hockey lessons to the children of the Mahawatta Maha Vidyalaya school. The head of this school also plays hockey himself, he thought this was such a fun action that he went looking for someone who could take over the hockey lesson.
Youth4Youth had brought the old club shirts and hockey sticks and donated them to the school.
The following year another group from Youth4Youth came to Sri Lanka and they bought a goalkeeper outfit together with Sri Lankan Hope for Children and gave it to the school.
The children of the Mahawatta Maha Vidyalaya school started playing hockey better and better so they could also participate in competitions, which were also won regularly. How wonderful is this for these children.
Now, 5 years later, the children have received new hockey outfits sponsored by Sri Lankan Hope for Children. In addition, Nishantha, one of the Sri Lankan volunteers for Sri Lankan Hope for Children, went out to find new hockey sticks. This was quite an undertaking, especially in this time of Covid-19. Several times he went by bus and train to Colombo from Kandy, which is a trip of a few hours there and a few hours back. In Colombo he started looking for new hockey sticks, but they were not easy to get.
Often the hockey sticks come from India, but the delivery of the sticks is not really good at the moment, due to Covid-19. After visiting many sports shops, Nishantha managed to find 15 new hockey sticks. The new hockey sticks were given by Nishantha to the children of this school.
The school now also wants to set up a girls’ team. For this we have now started a project in the Netherlands to get stuff through various hockey clubs. Think of shirts, socks, shin guards, balls and hockey sticks. To ensure these efforts are showcased effectively at upcoming events, we are also considering AV hire for conferences to enhance the visibility of this initiative.