A Shoe-perb Day!

At the heart of FODAD is the belief that all children should benefit from an education. In Sri Lanka, if you don’t have a uniform or shoes you cannot go to school. So, we try and remove any of the obstacles that might prevent a child from attending by providing shoes and uniforms for everyone.  On Friday we did just that, handing out uniforms and shoes to every pupil at the Village School and 25 pairs of shoes to the children at the the Village Nursery school. We also provided shoe vouchers for all the teachers, too.

Della handing out shoes at the Village Nursery

Another one of the 25 pairs handed out at the Nursery School

Della and Don handing out uniforms

In order to provide an incentive to actually attend, four years ago we also set up an annual prize for attendance and good behaviour in memory of the Sarath de Mel, who was Della and Don’s guide during their trip when the tsunami happened in December 2004. Sarath believed in the importance of a good education and so on Friday his widow and son joined us in handing out prizes to those who had excelled over the past 12 months.

All the winners of the annual prize

One of the prize winners

The day also marked an important day in the school calendar when the new prefects for the forthcoming year are chosen and the prefects’ blazers are handed over to them.  Proud parents also attended and beamed with joy and pride as their sons and daughters donned their blazers.

Prefects taking the oath

It was a long day but one very worthwhile. We reflected later on how much has been done to build the strongest foundations for a child’s education.  By removing the reasons for non attendance and providing incentives to actually go – a daily meal, annual prize, a good environment – we’re sure Sarath would approve.

The SLashes - (Sri Lankan Ashes)

An expectant crowd gathers

A highlight of any trip is the annual local village “tenty tenty” cricket match which takes place on the beach at the Fishing Village.

A new trophy was up for grabs this year – after Lehiru, last year’s winning captain and our tuk-tuk driver, refused to hand it over, so proud was he of his accomplishment. So Della and Don had gone out bought a new trophy which is even more “bling” than the last. The match was hotly contested with two captains each keen to lift the new trophy.  Steve, Harry and Gav joined  Lehiru alongside 8 other villagers and were pitted against Udaya and his side. 

As is usual, there were fine displays of dodgy Sri Lankan bowling and iffy decisions by the umpires but with an accomplished over by Harry and despite Gav’s fielding, Lehiru’s side was  victorious to bring the score to 3-3 in the series – it’s amazing that this event has now been running 6 years – and this was probably the best supported ever.

Della did the honours and handed over the new trophy to Lehiru and his team, wondering if we’ll ever get that one back.  It’s a great afternoon of fun, and helps bring the community together and in such a wonderful setting.

Harry tries a yorker

Della challenging the umpire

Local hard-hitter

It's a Six

Della presents the trophy

The victorious team

A Picture Speaks a Thousand...

They say a picture speaks a thousand words so these pretty much capture the spirit of the Orphans’ day out.  But for any new readers, thanks to the dedicated efforts of some of our supporters we are not only able to provide vocational and academic studies for a girls orphanage but give them with their only trip outside of the orphanage twice a year.

Clearly, on this visit, we had nearly as much fun as the girls themselves!

90 girls - standing room only - for 2.5 hours

Ritual Humiliation

Chicken or Monkey?

Harry Della-Fonte

Lots of laughs

So glad to be out for the day

50 Shades of....

Too tired to write up all the latest but two images stood out when reviewing all the photos...

50 Shades of White Shirts

(from the Village School)

United Colours of FODAD

(from the annual village cricket match)

An amazing transformation....

It’s been 7 months since the last FODAD visit to Sri Lanka.  With everyone now in country, we went along to the Village School to see for ourselves the work which had been done whilst we’ve been away, thanks to the many donations and grants.

As we approached, it was eerily quiet. Normally, there are children scattered around the classrooms and the playground but this time, they were all in class, being exceptionally well behaved and you got a real sense that there was a lot of learning going on.

We went first to the back of the school which houses the primary children and which has been subject to the most building updates over the last 6 months.  Regular readers will know just how dilapidated this part of the school was but the transformation has been amazing. We’re still talking about a very basic school, but the classrooms had new ceilings, cupboards and desks and chairs, as well as a completely new roof and gutters. Three nights ago, there was probably the worst electrical storm that many could ever remember; the school remained dry and water-tight, even through this, which is something we're really proud of!

Then we visited the new computer room.  Again, this is so far removed from what we might think of as a computer science lab, but there were three laptops, one connected to the internet with students doing research online.  It was a great space to see, and very conducive for study.  We pay for a teacher to teach 3 days a week but unfortunately some of his time is spent teaching maths as there is currently no teacher for that subject.  There is some work we need to do to try and speed up the laptops which were donated to us as they're struggling in the heat despite the desk fan mounted to the ceiling!

Walking back out through the rest of the school it struck as just how much had changed over the last 6 months.  We still have reservations about the quality of English being taught and will have to investigate that further but it was a really positive visit and we left feeling real progress had been made.

Vocation,Vocation,Vocation!

When we visit Sri Lanka one of the highlights of the trip is our day out with the girls from the orphanage, which we have supported since 2005.  Since 2008 FODAD has supported vocational studies at the orphanage.  The aim is for the children to be able to leave and earn their own livings.  We employ teachers for dress-making, cookery and home economics classes and the girls are doing very well indeed.    

This afternoon Della cut the ribbon to a new cookery classroom.  We then looked at an exhibition of handiwork before Don helped give out the prizes for the best students and we then  watched a wonderful exhibition of dancing.  The money we spend is a really worthwhile investment. 

Admiring the handiwork

Don giving out prizes 

The girls dancing

Looking at the photo album, made by Toby

Another 65th Birthday!

Hot on the heels of my 65^th Birthday, Don and I attended the 65^th Anniversary of the Independence of Sri Lanka.  For the second year running, our school band had been invited to march in the Civic Ceremony.  We did not understand any of the speeches but we were as proud as any of the parents as we watched our small band march by. 

Due to the public holiday, we have not had a chance to visit our school yet but we are eagerly looking forward to seeing all the changes that have been made since we were last here and will be blogging!

Our school band! 

End of Year campaign launched

On December 26th, it will be 8 years since the Asian Tsunami when Della and Don were on the beach in Sri Lanka, and Della was prevented from drowning by a fisherman.

Since then, with the support of so many people, Della and Don and their friends and family have returned to Sri Lanka over 20 times to help the people they met during that awful time.

After 8 years they are still doing what they can and now have a number of projects all of which some of you have helped support and about which you can read at www.fodad.co.uk

Our original aim at the end of this year was to launch an appeal to buy a new boat for the fishermen and we are very fortunate in that Della’s publishing colleagues at ALPSP have already collected over half the money we need to purchase and equip a fishing boat which will help keep the village self- sufficient.  With your help we can reach the remainder of our £1,500 target.

This year, most of us have either experienced or witnessed how nature, in no time at all  can play havoc with peoples' lives and we understand how  difficult it is to make choices about where to donate money.

If you do help us, please be assured that every single penny we collect will go directly to the people who need it and will benefit from it. We pay all our own costs; have no staff, no middle-men, just us and a fisherman who does everything for us out in Sri Lanka.

Wherever you are, we hope you have a happy and peaceful holiday.

Della & Don 

More progress at the School

Fran showing the Principal and staff the new laptops

Frances, a colleague of Gav's, has been out in Sri Lanka for just over a week now and has been helping out at the Village School.  Her primary job has been to set up three laptops which were donated by Cleeve School near Cheltenham in the newly created computer room, funded in part by the Dragon School in Oxford and their Dragon Sale in 2011.

Pupils getting to grips with technology

The school now has three laptops, internet connectivity (anyone fancy sponsoring the ongoing monthly commitment to pay for the dongles? - £10 a month would do it!), and web cams, and we are now paying for a part-time IT tutor. The pupils now have the best chance of studying for IT exams and of course, improve their English skills at the same time, which is a major step forward in terms of the kids' education and their future career opportunities.

We also hope the connectivity will improve regular communications from the school which has been understandable difficult being 6,00 miles away.

Fran has also spent a lot of holding conversational English classes with children as well as introducing them to IT and from what we hear, the kids adore her.

Learning is fun!

In her first email, the Principal said "This is my new e-mail address, I am so happy to have the opportunity to create an e-mail account, with the help of Frances. We are so happy about her visit, and the children are so happy with the new computers. Today the children have worked together with her happily."

So, as ever, thanks to all those who have helped make this remarkable achievement happen.

A Bunch of Thanks from the Village School

We recently received the following email from the Principal of the Village school in Ratmalana. 

Note from the principal: 

To Dear Don  & Della,

Hi How are you... Hope you are doing good. We are very pleased with the renovations and repairs done to our primary section. It was such a ill ventilated room, often getting wet for the rain. There was very little security. In short it was not a pleasant place to work in. When the School reopened for the New Term the Children were thrilled when they saw a clean class room with the nice furniture and clean walls. The Teachers too were very pleased.

Not only that, we were able to arrange a section for the Science room and the Library. Now everything is kept neatly in its place and the Teachers are maintaining the place well. We were able to separate a section for Dancing too. The computer room is ready and we are waiting for our computers. The Directors who came on inspection were very pleased with the maintenance and security of the School. They made a very good remark in the Log Entry. So Thank you so much, all this is because of your help. The attendance too is good and because of the extra Teachers we are able to keep the children occupied when there are absent Teachers. The Teachers paid by you are doing a good job of work and the Children too love them.  

Our Children took part in a Drama Competition at Zonal level and got the First place. They also took part in an Art competition organized by the Municipality and they won Prizes. There were places for recitation and speech. We were very encouraged by these achievements.

So Thank you so much, all this is because of your help.

Hope to see you all soon.. Tc... May God bless you !

Principal

St. Marys Village School