Slum Dogs

According to official statistics, over 54% of the population of Colombo lives in huts, slums or unauthorised dwellings.  The city’s infrastructure was built 100 years ago to cope for 35,000 inhabitants but with the migration of people to Colombo in search of work – and particularly from coastal areas after the Tsunami – it cannot cope and many of those in the slums live in dreadful conditions with inadequate sanitation.

Dwellings often house multiple families in single rooms and when it rains, the properties can lie under water for many weeks.  Disease spreads rapidly and the conditions cause all kinds of social problems. In 1995 there were estimated to be about 10,000 children between 6-14 years old that were sexually exploited for commercial purposes. A major source of childen for exploitation are the slums and shanty towns in and around Colombo. People say that children just disappear. 

Many do not attend school and never know when their next meal will be.  So it is comforting to know that Fr Mahendra, the priest to whom Della and Don first turned to for advice on helping after the Tsunami, is now trying to make a difference in one particular slum area.  He wants to educate the children – both academically and to improve their understanding of social and health issues.  Originally 30 children turned up when he started; this number has already swollen to 70 who come every day to a building adjacent to an existing school.

We know the children at the Village School which we already support are from mostly poor and under-privileged backgrounds but these are in a different league; all are under-nourished and the school uniforms are deceiving – these kids really do have nothing.  So FODAD has agreed to fund this new project by contributing to the cost of food which will provide them with 3 nutritious meals a week.

Jungle Book

Drive for an hour due south and then another 45 minutes inland, and the landscape changes dramatically. Amongst the rubber plantations and paddy fields are a number of small remote villages hidden by thick vegetation. In the middle of this is the home for a new project which we’ve begun to support – the Jungle Nursery. During this trip visited the school twice: the first time to hand out new uniforms and the second to donate new shoes, socks, paper, craft materials and exercise books – hence the rather tenuous title of this post.

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On the first visit, some of the children were rather frightened of us as it was the first time they had seen light-skinned people; the school is well off the tourist trail. But on both occasions it was obvious that the teachers and parents were appreciative yet curious. The Jungle Nursery serves 5 surrounding villages and offers free pre-school learning for children regardless of class or religion. It is overseen by the same Monk who looks after the Village Montessori school back in Rathmalana – this one is in his home village.



We toured the school and were amazed at the artwork and crafts of the 3 and 4 year olds and even the rudimentary smattering of English. Here, there are 4 teachers and as usual, we were staggered by the distance some of the teachers have to travel each day – in one case 40km each way. Ok, back at home that’s not much but by three-wheeler or dusty bus, that’s dedication.

 

44 pairs of shoes & socks



On the second trip where we handed out shoes, I was asked to say a few words to the parents and teachers; after the initial panic, I was able to contrast the two Nursery schools: one is very small and the new one much more remote. But the things they both have in common are dedicated teachers prepared to give children the very best start in life. And it’s great to know that it only takes a little to change a lot.

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Little things..

The Village Nursery school is always a delight to visit and requires little effort from our part.  The teachers are some of the most dedicated we have met and clearly love all their children.  FODAD provides them all with a meal every day and each year, hand out new shoes and socks as these kids mostly live alongside the railway tracks and come from the poorest of families.  In return we get to spend time and play with some of the happiest children we have met, despite their circumstances.

The teachers themselves also received vouchers for new shoes and we handed over clothes for them and their own children that had been kindly donated by people back home.  A local hotel pays their wage which is very low, even by Sri Lankan standards so this year, we have decided to also help them and their families by paying for extra lessons for their children. So for just £4 a month, their children will now get additional tuition too, which seems the very least we can do given their hard work and commitment.

Meanwhile, working with the local monk, we’re continuing to push the hotel to fund alternative and more suitable accommodation for them.

Vishvan's story

Vishvan introduced himself to us while we were at the Village School.  His English is amazing so we asked where this new boy had come from. The Principal told us that he and his family had recently arrived from an area in the south of the island.  They were hard workers who had a farm but for reasons we haven’t yet been able to determine, were driven from their land and left with few possessions.  

We asked Vishvan what he wanted to do when he grew up; without hesitation he said he want to be a doctor and explained that his father’s family were doctors.  Now his English is so good, he really could give the school’s only English teacher a run for her money so we are concerned that such a bright boy who has obviously had a head start in life will miss out on opportunities in the future if he cannot continue to build on his excellent English language skills. 

Initially, we have agreed to pay for extra advanced English tuition which will cost us under £4 a month and look forward to hearing about his progress in July.

Fun Day Times

For some of us, it’s the highlight of every year’s visit and we’re sure the children get almost as much enjoyment out of the annual fun and games day held at the Village school as we do.  This is the third event we’ve held and 6 teams competed for winners medals: the Lanka Lions; Scooby Doos; Raging Bulls; Sri Lanka Sharks, Red Dragons and Kings of the Ring.  

As well as being great fun, it also allows the children to demonstrate their creativity by making a themed "house" or "base" relevant to the team name; it promotes leadership and teamwork, especially for each team captain who has to encourage and control the younger kids; and competitiveness alongside good sportsmanship.

The games this year took an unusual twist: the “find the toffee hidden in the flour with a wet face” was particularly good fun while the “eat a dry bread roll with your hands tied behind your back” probably won’t feature again next year!

Eating dry bread rolls - don't try this at home

  

Balloon Dancing

Loads of parents turned up to watch and joined in the ultra competitive musical chairs competition which was great to watch.  And the school excelled itself at the organisation of the day this year putting on a truly remarkable event.  

The victorious Raging Bulls

Four hours chanting, cheering and urging your team to win was great fun, but we were drained afterwards. However, Lawrence led the Raging Bulls to a deserved, if narrow, victory ahead of the Scooby Doos which would have won the prize for most creative “house” complete with Scooby kennel and polystyrene bone!

All sewn up

For a long time, one of the things we’ve tried to do is set up a women’s co-operative with the aim of providing a long term, sustainable income for them.  A while back we were approached by Frances at Wadham College who knew of the work we do in Sri Lanka and whose mother had visited Sri Lanka before the 2004 Tsunami and several times since.  They knew of a group of women who made clothing using sewing machines and operated outside a hotel in the south of the island but who lost everything in the Tsunami.

They asked whether we could try and find them and provide them with a new machine on their behalf.  Udaya, whose family still live in the region, made few phone calls and astonishingly, discovered that the four women were indeed still selling clothes from the same location. When told that a group wanted to provide them with a new sewing machine, they sighed “oh, another false promise by tourists?”  Two days after making the original call, the ladies got on a bus for two hours and were then presented with a new machine on which they can make their own clothes to sell on.  They were seriously overwhelmed!

With Frances we will try and help raise money for more machines - which is rather fitting given the origins of the FODAD was to provide lasting relief to those affected by the Tsunami – and give local women their own chance to succeed in business.

Si Lanka is a remarkable country, and remarkable things can happen

Painting by numbers

The tatty desk and chairs

0930 - The time we called the Principal to ask if we could come and paint the school’s chairs and desks

0.6  - nanoseconds for her to say yes

3 – the number of her children who ended up having to make their own lunch

1100 – the time painting began

34 – degrees Celsius in the shade

12 – willing children from the school who answered the call for help at short notice

10 – unhappy mothers who will have to try and scrub paint of their child’s hands this evening

10 - paint brushes

12 - litres of paint

120 - desks and chairs now re-painted in fetching lavender and cornflower hues

About 1.5 – hours drying time 

Unknown – the numbers of bottles of water consumed

5 – hours to do the job

1 - happy School Principal 

And hopefully, about 140 happy children who on Monday morning will see that the paint fairy has once again re-visited the school!

Paint me, paint me!

Only another 102 to go...

United Colours of FODAD

The final result

Growing Up

Children seem to grow up so quickly these days and this really hit home when we took the girls from the orphanage out on their twice-yearly day trip.  Four of the girls whom we remember giggling like, well, girls, have blossomed into young women.  They each achieved 3 A Levels last November and FODAD is now funding them to attend a nursery teaching course lasting four months which will qualify them to look after the girls in the orphanage in the short term and in other schools in the future.

For all the others, it was business as usual: sing, clap, dance and cheer for the entire 2 hour bus journey to the beach on what has been the hottest day so far; and run, scream, laugh and smile as they rush into the warm sea and enjoy the amazing feeling of freedom, if only until the next time. It is only when we visit that they ever leave the orphanage.

Throw in some games, singing and dancing, and all the girls seemed to enjoy a blissful day out.  And while the four older girls looked on, we played with three of the youngest girls, holding hands as we raced into the sea shouting at the top of our voices.  The youngest is now seven, and we remember how painfully shy and traumatised she was on her first trip out just 18 months ago, perhaps still haunted by the circumstances which caused her to join the orphanage. 

The two youngest girls, aged 7 yrs

Those three girls seemed not to have a care in the world on Thursday but very soon they too will grow up and hopefully, be looking out for the latest intake enjoying their first day out at the beach.

The girls who are going to college but will stay and look after the the younger ones

Pride

Sri Lankan culture is very big on the formal, ceremonial events.  So when it comes to a day to combine the award of the annual Sareth Memorial prizes, Prefects’ Day and receiving new shoes and uniforms it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that our poor, little school would have tried to push the boat out.
 

So we were met at the school gates by the Village School band and escorted in to the podium made from school chairs and banana boxes.  Given how little they have, it’s amazing how resourceful they can be.

The first part of the day was the appointment of class monitors, prefects and new Head Boy.  Each child was accompanied by a parent and it was impossible to tell who was brimming with the most pride.  Gihan, the outgoing Head Boy took his O Levels in December and should get the results next month. He is our best hope in getting good results and going on to further education and we hope his successor, who lives in the Village on the railway tracks does as well.

The new Head Boy receives his blazer and pin badge

And then, to mark the handover of Band leader, the band marched with the rest of the school in an astonishing display of pride.  For some, it’s hard to understand how significant a school band is, but for Sri Lankan schools it is very important.  So we were all almost moved to tears as we witnessed the progress the band has made in the 12 months or so since we first provided them with instruments. 

The 2011 prefects take their oath

The Sareth Memorial prize was conceived last year to recognise achievement and encourage attendance.  This year there were 3 prizes up for grabs for those who met the criteria.  The two younger winners chose bicycles as prizes whilst Aseena, the older girl and a winner from last year, chose instead an equivalent amount of money to be deposited to her education bank account which she cannot access until she is 18. Very shrewd and we think she will do very well. We managed to get the winners to pose momentarily for a picture before they whizzed off with huge grins.  And interestingly, we heard how a new boy to the school asked a teacher, "How do I get to win a prize" and when told, vowed to work hard so he could be a winner next year!

The 2010 Sareth Memorial Prize Winners

Finally, and after 3 hours under a hot sun, we handed out the new shoes and uniforms for every child.  The fact that some of the children had obviously borrowed shoes for today’s event highlighted how worthwhile this is so we’re indebted to those who make it happen.

Contemplating 135 pairs of shoes to hand out

Pride – to see the school children and parents proud of their school, acknowledgement of their achievements and appreciation of their smart new uniforms was amazing. And also, for FODAD, just to see how far the school has come in recent years was overwhelming but looking around at the smiling faces and across to the school, we allowed ourselves just a little bit of pride, too.

Monday 14 Feb

First day at school

First stop was a short walk down to the Village Nursery school, or Montessori school as they are called in Sri Lanka.  Regular readers will know that “school” is rather a grand name for what is basically a single room. We introduced our friends to the teachers and soon balloons and bubbles which Lisa had brought with her, were causing great excitement.  We caught up with the two teachers who told us that this year, they had 23 children registered on their books.  We also learned that one of them, got up each morning at 4am and travelled for 2 hours from her home to start work each day – and then caught two busses back at the end of school.  Della had also established that she was paid very little and had only recently been re-housed into Red Cross supported accommodation.  Given her talent as a teacher and her obvious devotion to the kids , we were all moved by her dedication and hard work.

And so we hope that at some stage later this year, a new school will be built in the grounds of the existing school to house them in a joint venture with the local nearby hotel and the Buddhist monk.  He himself is keen to see progress made and it is him who runs the Jungle Nursery in the village where he was born.  We really hope to be able to get down to see it next week; Della, Don and Tess visited last week and handed out new uniforms to the children, many of whom we’re rather surprised and somewhat alarmed to see white faces for the first time which isn’t perhaps so surprising given its remote location.

The final act was delivering over 20 soft toys to the children.  The little ones, especially those for whom it was their first day at school, were comforted by the bears, dollies and other furry creatures and their tears soon dried up.

Furry Friends (thanks to Jan and friends)

Next, we went to the Village School. In the bright sunshine and strong tropical heat, it was hard to imagine the really poor weather the region has recently suffered. But we desperately wanted to see for ourselves the new roof and guttering which was completed last month via our kind supporters who “Raised the Roof”. It is a really good job, well done and tops off the old building which we painted to freshen it up on our last trip.

After some initial shyness, Callum soon made friends and started playing cricket with the boys in the playground – by the way, Sri Lanka is going Cricket World Cup crazy. We meanwhile spoke to the Principal about lots of different issues which had arisen since our last trip in September.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to address many of them but, with a new roof and metal grilles on all the windows, the school will very soon be completely safe and secure.  

And there were lots of other preparations to do for the next fortnight which will involve handing out new uniforms, shoes, painting desks and chairs, games days… it’ll be lots of fun but a lot of hard work.

Sunday 13 Feb

Having arrived late on Saturday night we caught up with Della and Don over breakfast to discover all the hard work they and Tess (a fellow trustee out on her visit) had been doing the previous week – no wonder they were exhausted.  As well lots of preparatory work for the next 2 weeks, they had visited two new projects which we feel compelled to support: one is the Slumdog Street Kids of Colombo and the other the Jungle Nursery.  Both are in desperate need of our support and we’ll write about them later in the week and include lots of heart-wrenching pictures.  And it wasn’t a complete rest for D and D either as they had to go and source the bicycles for the prizegiving ceremony on Tuesday while we took our friends Lawrence, Lisa and their youngest son Callum – on their first visit to Sri Lanka – down to the Village.  Despite their trepidation, they soon relaxed in the company of Udaya the fisherman, his family and the rest of the community, but it certainly opened their eyes…

Callum trialing for the Cricket World Cup

Latest news update

First of all, we did it!  Thanks to so many many of you for buying a tile on our virtual roof, we've been able to raise all the money we needed to fund a new roof for the village school that we support.  It's now in place along with new guttering and means the school is now completely water-tight. See more pictures on the website. 

Della, Don and fellow trustee Tess have just arrived in Sri Lanka and report that the roof couldn't have come at a better time because, despite what should be one of the best times to visit, the weather continues to be horrendous.  Roads beyond Colombo are flooded and the high winds are causing significant damage.  They were hoping to get away for a day out this weekend but this looks impossible now. 

Even more worrying is the fact that the fisherman in the village haven't been able to launch their boats for the last two months and are very desperate. This is supposed to be the quiet season before the next monsoons hit.

With Della, Don and Tess now firmly settled on the ground, we hope to be able to provide more reports on what they've been up to next week.

Finally, another thank you to those who turned up for the Moonrakers concert and raised an impressive £400 for FODAD.