Sri Lankan Schools Sports Meets

Sri Lankan schools hold their sports meets during the first three months of the year and we've supplied several poor schools with volleyballs, nets, javelins and other items. Schools with more than 1,000 children sometimes have just one old volleyball - the extent of their sports collection! For relatively small amounts we can stock them up and give pleasure to hundreds of children.
 
We've created playgrounds for 5 poor schools. Some schools have not even a single swing or a seesaw. We have a good local metalworker who makes up a set of items - double swing, double seesaw, climbing frame and slide - for about £450. In other cases, he repairs and paints existing equipment that has fallen to pieces. Playgrounds are excellent use of charity money since the children use them all through the day and they will last for years.
 
Work has finished on planting a fruit garden at Vidyartha School. The teachers wanted to give the children practical planting experience. Bev and John will formally open the garden when they come to Sri Lanka in July.
 
We've arranged school trips and outings for 4 schools. These have been incredibly rewarding. Many children in the schools around Tissamaharama come from dreadful home situations - no parents, no water and electricity, sometimes no house - and have no money to spare for school trips. Yala Fund pays for the bus hire, maybe £240 for a 3-day trip, and the parents supply the food. They sleep free of charge in Buddhist temples.
 
About 80 children from Ranminithena school did a 3-day trip to Trincomalee, Anuradhapura and Kandy. Central Sri Lanka has many important cultural and religious sites and the children learn about such places in their studies. It is the first time many of the children have  travelled any distance from their homes.
 
The older children at Weerawila school did a similar 3-day tour and we took the little ones on a local visit to Weerawila farm. Weligatta Primary School near Bundala National Park, did a 1-day trip to the mountains around Bandarawela. The children had never seen a train so we took them all for a ride on the line from Ella to Haputale. It was a day these children will never forget.
 
Doing this in reverse, we took the children from Marangahawela school in the mountains on an outing to the coast. This is the school we like to call "Anula's school" because of the lovely English teacher there. The children travelled to Galle and went on board a ship that was captured from the Tamil Tigers. On the second day they came along the coast to Tissa then visited Kataragama temple before travelling home.
 
We've bought more than 200 school shoes since January. Many children attend school in shoes that are falling to bits or which they have outgrown. We bought bicycles for children who were having to walk long distances to get to school.
 
We've done 3 water connections for poor families at a cost of about £150 each and helped others with new roofs, house repairs and electricity connections.
 
Every month we pay the running costs for Sith Sevana Mentally Handicapped Children's Home in Tanamalwila and Ape Petau ("Our Children") Daycare Centre in Hambantota. Ape Petau runs activities for Down's Syndrome children and children with learning difficulties. This is a new project and we provided the start-up funds.
 
We have more school refurbishments planned in the coming months and will be supplying Debarawewa hospital with water filters and other essential items.
 
Thank you very much, everyone, for helping us to help the poor children of south-eastern Sri Lanka.
 
Jon Ashworth
18th April 2010