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Jon Ashworth writes from Tissamaharama:

It rained in Tissa for the first time in 3 months, washing away the dust and replenishing dried-up lakes and reservoirs. In this dry part of Sri Lanka, water is a precious commodity. In some schools, tap water has dried up completely. Supplies won’t return to normal until the monsoon rains come in November.

Yala Fund’s programme ranges from the big – building a classroom at a cost of £6,000 – to the tiny: buying a £4 packet of milk powder for a girl who is recovering from cancer.

Home improvements

We are paying for electricity connections for several poor homes in Ellagala near Tissa. Many rural children have to do their studies by lamplight. Electricity connection typically costs £50 – beyond the reach of families earning £1 or £2 per day as day labourers. We are also replacing coconut thatch roofs with permanent roofs and paying for home improvements and water connections. The cost of putting up a new roof is the range from £250 - £500. The Electricity Board won’t do connections to coconut roof houses because of leaking rainwater.

Bicycles

Children often have to walk 3km or 4km to get to school. Bus services are non-existent or unreliable. In selective cases we are providing bicycles, typical cost £50, for children to get to school. Often up to three children will get a ride on one bicycle.

Books, shoes and medical grants

Children go to school with shoes that are full of holes. They cannot pay for school books or pens. We find poor families who need these things. A pair of school shoes costs about £5. Children who fall ill and are admitted to hospital often have no money for food or daily expenses. We award discretionary grants of typically £25 to help families through difficult periods.

When the new school term starts on 7th September, we will providing sports items, toys and musical instruments to various schools in the Tissa area.

Microfinance loans

With our partner Shilpa Children’s Trust we are providing microfinance loans to nearly 100 families in Hambantota district. The recipients are women, many of them from Tsunami-affected families, who use the loans to create and develop businesses as seamstresses, shopkeepers, brickmakers and farmers. The loans are repaid with negligible interest over 10 months. Poor families cannot get access to bank finance (other than pawning items of gold and jewellery at high interest rates). Shilpa social workers provide training in accounts  and oversee repayments. Recipients become eligible for larger phase 2 and 3 loans in years two and three.

Schools

Weligatta, the “Elephant School”, is in dry bushland between Tissa and Hambantota. Elephants from Bundala National Park came onto the school premises most nights, damaging buildings and tearing down fences. The school grounds were a short cut to nearby farmland.

We have built an electric fence to keep the elephants at bay. The school enlisted the help of parents to reduce the cost. They dug the holes and rigged the wires. The current is turned on at night. With the school protected, we are now building two new toilet blocks, one for girls, one for boys. The existing toilets are too disgusting to describe. We are carrying out general repairs to classrooms.

Welangahawela, near Embilipitiya: a very remote school. Children were sitting outside with no shelter because of a shortage of classrooms. We are constructing a 60ft building which will contain two classrooms, Principal’s office and staff toilet. The former Principal’s office will be converted into a Music Room.

Nedinganwila, near Tissa: a derelict school, now being revitalised by a young and energetic Principal. Yala Fund has paid for electrical wiring for the library and classrooms and bought chairs for the library – where the children were sitting on the floor for lack of chairs. Work has started on a fence and gate to protect the school. The teachers and children are making the concrete fence posts themselves to bring down the costs.

Sri Rohana, near Lunugamwehera: a rural school on the main road between Tissa and Tanamalwila. We have paid for toilet repairs, electricity connection, an irrigation system and a cloth screen to keep dust out of the classrooms during lessons.

Andaragasyaya, near Kirinda. A primary school with many Tsunami children. No working computers. Gate has fallen off its hinges. We are paying for a new gate, playground repairs, painting of classrooms and 2 new computers and a printer.

Yatala, in Tissamaharama. A hugely popular primary school with more than 900 children. We paid for a safety fence to provide an enclosure to protect the children from the busy main road. We have provide first aid boxes, games, a TV for lessons, a loudspeaker system for Assembly and an office computer and printer. The school is building a computer centre for classes and we will provide 2 new computers.

With thanks from me and Yala’s trustees to everyone who supports us so generously, big and small.

Jon Ashworth
1st September 2009