Success: the next 10k event is completed successfully

Saturday, September 4th and Don and his trainer, Tess were up bright and early to start their challenging walk on Shotover.   Luckily it was an absolutely beautiful morning and after the mist had lifted and the sun broke through, the walk was too pleasant to be a real challenge.    Although they had been training for 5 months, Don had never actually completed 10k.  Both he and Tess had badgered their friends and family into sponsoring them so there was a lot at stake. 

They finished the walk in well under 2 hours, a major achievement  in Don's case as he  could not walk around the block at the beginning of the year.

On the walk the met lots of dogs some of whom they knew from their training sessions and a horse and its rider.  Della, managed to do the first half of the walk but then sat in the car on the pretext that she needed to send some text messages.  Thanks to everyone who gave both moral and financial support.  "The lines are still open"  

The next event in the 10k for 10k challenge moves on to London and  is on September 14th when NPG take on BioMedCentral  in support of Friends of Della and Don.

£10k for 10k - the Next Event

The next event in this year's £10k for 10k calendar takes place on Saturday.  Don and Tess, having been in training for months now, take to the hills in Shotover, Oxfordshire and embark on their own 10k challenge.

Tess has been a (mostly!) patient trainer for Don whilst he's made steady progress on his fitness.  Considering this time last year Don was just undergoing the first of three major operations, the size of the challenge shouldn't be underestimated; 6 months ago he had only just regained enough strength to walk and neither have done more than 6k so far.

Lots of people have already been really generous supporting both Tess and Don; if you feel you'd like to show your support you can do so by visiting their justgiving page.

And keep an eye on the blog - we hope to bring you pictures of them both in action!

Schools out... but the roof goes on

The kids at the Village School are now out for a couple of weeks - nothing like the 6 weeks in the UK - but during this time, the School roof is being completely replaced, thanks to all the kind donors to the Friends of Della and Don.  If you remember, the monsoon struck particularly early and with such force back in May and we reported on the terrible conditions that were affecting all the villagers: rain pouring through during lessons and the fishermens homes practically destroyed on the beach. 

With your help, we've funded a completely new roof for the school which should not only stand a better chance of withstanding future monsoon periods but ensure the children can continue lessons even when it's raining and mean that the computers and instruments which we've already provided won't get damaged.

The pictures hopefully show just how bad a state of repair the roof was in and the work which started today.

In the meantime, just because school's out, it doesn't mean that learning stops... these pictures also show members of the school band coming in to continue their band lessons. 

We're really looking forward to hearing the progress they've made since our last visit in February and will look to see what else we can do to improve the school environment when we visit again in September.  One idea on the cards is a mini-makeover to decorate the shabby classrooms and add more light to the dreary school.

New engine & new school roof

We reported recently on the difficulties faced by the fishermen this year over the extreme monsoon conditions which had prevented them from fishing for more than 5 weeks. In a desperate attempt to earn some money for their families they took the boat out during a lull in the bad weather. Unfortunately the storm returned unexpectedly and the boat capsized leading to the loss of the engine and generator. Luckily there was no loss of life.

 We have just sent out money to pay for a new outboard so that the fishermen can once again start earning and support their families in the village. Also, money has now been sent to replace the roof on the Village School as it was clear that they would have a long wait for the local authority to act. This will not only mean the students can learn in a dry environment but willl ensure the longevity of the instruments and computers we have already provided.

One of the great things about FODAD is we provide support and assistance throughout the year and we aren't restricted to just to the times we visit.

FODAD assists in life-saving Op

One of the pleasures of supporting the Nursery School is seeing the happiness and innocence of the kids - they're too young to know just how difficult their lives will be growing up in a poor village - and they derive happiness by playing with the little they've got. The school is in pretty poor repair too; despite a number of promises to provide a new building, nothing has yet happened and this will be one of the priorities for our next trip in September.

One of the kids which has always stood out with his beaming smile was Gihan.  But on the very last day of our visit in February, his parents told us that he needed urgent heart surgery. His father is a road-sweeper and earns next to nothing and couldn't afford to pay the 25,000 Sri Lankan Rupees to pay for the operation. The Government had agreed to pick up the remainder of the bill. It was a no-brainer and over the last few months we obtained the medical reports and sent the money for the op.

I'm pleased to say that Gihan has now had his surgery and is making a full recovery. Without the supporters of FODAD, who knows what would have happened to this little lad. £150 to save a live...? Priceless.

The 10k race

Team FODAD - Gav, Dan, Beck, Danielle and Tom - completed the Frampton 10k event last night.  After a hot weekend, the conditions were perfect and with large crowds gathering on the village green, there was a sense of anticipation as we warmed up at the start line.  Some were contemplating setting personal bests; others just finishing. 

We set off and waved as we passed all our followers - if there were a prize for the best supported team, we certainly would have one that!  As the race continued, experience began to show with Dan and Beck striding forward and up there with the leading pack.  For those of us who had never done 10k before, we were now regretting our lack of preparation!

Meanwhile, the supporters started munching on a picnic, the scale of which drew envious glances from many around.  But 40 minutes later, the smoked salmon had to be put aside as Dan entered the finishing straight and, despite having been ill, was the first team member across the line followed closely by Beck.

A while later, Gav put in a final sprint to cross the line in a time much better than he had ever expected followed closely by Danielle and Tom who had put in a herculean effort and had to run the last mile with no trainers.

It was a great evening out for both runners and their supporters.  There are too many people to thank individually but thanks to the generosity and support of our sponsors, we expect to have raised well over £2,000 for The Friends of Della and Don.

And there's more to come... Don & Tess doing their 10k walkathon and David and the gang at Nature.com with their 10k in September!!

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.

Monsoon Crisis

One of the great things about being in email contact with the Village School is that we get regular updates about what is going on rather than having to wait 6 months to see for ourselves. Therefore we were pleased to see that one of students has been rewarded for his hard work by being selected as a prefect. More shocking, however, was the impact the seasonal monsoon is having on school life although we had already heard that the fishermen were experiencing a very difficult time as they were unable to fish and not generating any income.


These pictures show that the heavy rain is now pouring through the roof of the school creating deep puddles in lots of areas. During our last visit we learnt that the school was built in the 1920s and noticed that it was shabby but the photos clearly illustrate the impact of the twice a year monsoon on the fabric of the building.

Unfortunately, there is little we can do from here but we have urged them to try and get the local authority to make repairs; in our experience, though, such requests will probably fall on deaf ears.

But this story just goes to show how difficult life remains for a large number of people in Sri Lanka. Some of us may be experiencing leaner times, but we still enjoy a standard of living beyond the imagination of the Villagers.

Village School update

One of the things we agreed to investigate before we left Sri Lanka last February was the erection of new partitions in the main school hall.  The teachers felt that installing moveable walls would create a much better atmosphere for learning and limit distractions from the adjoining classes.

Since then, thanks to your continued support, we've funded 5 new partitions and these have now been built and installed and are already being put to use. 

And are they making a difference?  Well, thanks to the computer which we provided to the school, we are now in regular contact with the staff and this is what Asika, the teacher to whom we provide a small salary had to say: "...as a result of the partitions, we can see an improvement of all the sections of the school. Actually we see a different level of teaching & learning after separating classes."  

And in further news, Asika reports that because of the rise in interest in IT since we installed the computer,  the school has been provided with another one from the local education authority.  Asika continues: "Again and again, we would like to thank you all for the service you have provided for our pupils."