Emergency Relief

STOP PRESS…. STOP PRESS…

Today (Monday 14 June) the sea had calmed and men from the Village wanted to go out fishing as they hadn’t been able to since the monsoon started. 4 hours later we received a text saying that the fishing boat had gone down and that the engine and generator are lost but thankfully, NO lives have been lost.

In recent blog posts we reported on the terrible impact the monsoon had already had on the Village School and the Girls’ Orphanage.

After a brief lull, things seem to have worsened and as such, the trustees of FODAD have agreed to make an emergency donation to cover the cost of repairs to the school roof which covers the “library” where the computers and musical instruments are stored and to cover any other immediate assistance.

Over the weekend, there was a Tsunami warning for Sri Lanka following an earthquake in the Indian Ocean which measured 7.5 on the Richter scale. Ranmal described having to wake his family and move them all at 0100 on Sunday morning in appalling weather conditions because of the Tsunami alert. It beggars belief just how frightened and vulnerable the families and children in the fishing village are feeling.

A former colleague of Della has also just returned to the UK and confirms that much of the Fishing Village has been destroyed and the beach has all but disappeared. As well as damage to the school, the fishermen have been unable to fish for 4 weeks and Udaya has lost most of the roof to his house.

Latest News

It seems the worst of the monsoons maybe over - for now, at least - and we hear that even the girls' orphange in Colombo was flooded for the first time ever - but life at the village school is getting back to normal. They've been busy; the school choir enjoyed a slot on the local radio station called Yfm (click here if you want to listen on line) This was part of the recent "Vesak Bakthi Geetha" (cultural singing programe). These pictures show the students and Asika, the music and computer teacher, performing at the radio studios.

Also, studies continue with the students of Year 11 taking their latest computer class courtesy of FODAD; we provided one PC and the local authority another, but one of these has had its hard drive frazzled because of the recent violent electrical storms. This is just one thing, along with structural repairs, that we'll have to look in to on our next trip in September to assess the damage and see how we can help in the future

Meanwhile, we're all looking forward to going to the Village School in Hamsptead's summer fete later this month. The parents, pupils and staff have been such solid supporters over the last few years providing the bulk of the money to feed the children at the school every day - which is our single biggest outgoing each year - and without their continued help we would have to cut support in other areas.

Finally, another plug I'm afraid, as it's only 4 weeks until the the first 10k for 10k event happens. People all over are taking part - and donating - so if you havent yet, please think about it. We know there are lots of worthy calls for sponsorship at this time of the year, but very few which gurantee that every penny donated goes directly to those who need it.