I’ve been visiting the young trainees on their placements in the hotels. They look so smart and every one told me they were very happy, and were determined to make a success of it. Kirthina, a young woman who we’ve known for years, is working at the Mount Royal. If you’ve been on one of our trips you’ll know that as the hotel near Tropic where we go for a swim, and Kirthina is the girl who always does the classical dance at Sister’s shows. She has been snapped up by the hotel, who have offered her a permanent job even before she completes her training. Her father is a vegetable seller and her mother works only occasionally, and she tells me they are very pleased at her securing a good job.

Sudharshan will also be familiar to anyone who’s been out here – he is the boy from Punyakami School who is a talented drummer. I remember seeing him use the school dustbin to lead singing sessions at breaktime. He is at the Concorde Hotel in Dehiwala, and his manager tells me he is learning fast, but needs to trim his hair! It’s all very strict. Sudharshan’s father used to work as a tailor, but became ill and is no longer able to work. His mother is a carer and the family only manage because his older sister has gone to the Middle East as a domestic worker, and remits money to support the family. I asked him about the drumming, and he told me he plays for his church every Sunday. He’s invited me to his church youth group on Saturday morning, where some 50 children from Athidiya attend, he tells me. I’ll try to go.

Sister and I have also been visiting the young trainees with poor attendance. One has stopped going because the manager asked him to get his hair cut and he doesn’t want to! Sister spoke to him very sternly and he agreed that this was a sacrifice he’d have to make. Sister warned him that if he did not get himself occupied, he’d be at risk of getting caught up in the drug dealing which draws in so many unemployed young men in this community. He did seem to understand. One of the young women told us that the training salary was too low, and that was why she had stopped going. It reminded me of conversations I had with Year 11s at Tom Hood who used to say that it’s not worth going to work for less than £300 a week. Sister and I had a long conversation with this young woman, and all the time there were four or five younger siblings in the room. “Did you bring any money home to help your mother today? Are you going to bring any tomorrow?” she was asked. After two months, the trainees will receive a proper salary, but two months is a long time in the life of a 17 year old. She promised to go back and Sister will keep an eye on both of these young people.

The team feel that the biggest issue for both these young people is that their parents are not able to offer them the kind of support they need to persevere when the going gets tough.

The teachers are having a great time at the school. They have taken a day off today and gone to visit Kandy.

I went to see the Centre in full flow today - the children were clearly loving the space. They played games and even danced. The special needs session was happening too, Three teachers from RCCI, the special needs school we support a few miles away, helped to run an inclusive session, where all the children sang and performed together, before leading activities with the six children with learning difficulties. When the two groups separated, the main group went upstairs to the first floor, which is still a building site – years of health and safety consciousness made me rather anxious at this point. Sister sat them down in what will be an office, on mats and benches constructed of planks and buckets... and they had their “life education” class. This only happens twice a month, when the special needs group needs the main space.

I’ve also had a meeting with the team from the hotel school, who are delivering our employment training programme. Our trainees have now completed their classroom phase, and are on their placements at hotels. Things are going well, most of the young people have settled into their placements and within two weeks, one young woman was offered a permanent job by her hotel. Anuja, Hiran and Harpo who are running the programme were confident that all who complete will be offered jobs. Unfortunately there are a few, mostly girls, whose attendance has been sporadic since the group separated and they were placed in separate hotels. We did know the level of commitment required on this programme would be challenging for these young people, who have little experience of regular work in their families. Many of their parents and neighbours have casual work – they earn by the day, which must engender a different mindset. I have the names of the poor attenders, and will be visiting these young people with Sister or Mrs V in the next day or two. Stern words will be spoken. Sister will express her disappointment – she is confident we can get them back on track.

We have realised that our training programme for employment in the hotel and restaurant business is not always appealing to young women. One of the suggestions for addressing this problem is to explore another industry, perhaps hair and beauty. We are a little hesitant to embrace a stereotype, I know that many schools and colleges in the UK have found that hair and beauty courses enthuse some of the most disengaged young women . Yesterday I was introduced to the woman who runs one of the most successful hair and beauty schools in the country. The wife of a relative, she trains about 75 young women a year, and every one has secured a good job with one of the large, reputable salons in Colombo. She tells me that there is a real shortage of well-trained staff for the industry, and that she is regularly asked by the salons for trained staff. She told me she has been looking for a way to “give back”, to do something meaningful with her business. Having achieved commercial success, she said she longs to make a real difference. She has been trying to take her course into prisons, as a way of giving young women an employment skill on release. She is keen to take on a cohort of our young women. We’ll discuss this with Sister and the team, and talk to the young women in Athidiya – its early days, but very exciting.

New Centre in use!

Radhika
I’m out here in Sri Lanka helping some teachers from Murton Primary in Durham to set up a link with one of the schools we work with out here. More about that in a moment.

I visited the new centre today. I could scarcely believe it – all those discussions, plans, fundraising and more fundraising has resulted in this wonderful place – bright, airy and so much bigger than the room they had. Sister is beaming. I haven’t met the children yet, but she tells me they absolutely love it. They dust, sweep, and have brought plants for the front. Flowers, chillies, a few vegetables. The children had done the move – carrying all the tables, chairs, books etc from the old space to this. The first floor is yet to be completed – we’re still fundraising – but we are hopeful that the whole building will be in use by the Summer.

The main reason for my trip is to support this school link between Murton Primary and St Mary's College Dehiwala. Murton secured some funding from the British Council to do a teacher exchange. The British teachers arrive on Sunday, but I got here a few days early to make sure all the arrangements made by email were in place. So, I pop over to the school this morning and the Head tells me the children are having exams all next week and the Head of English who has been my main link is on a course for the entire week! The week after next would be much better for a visit...

It’s happened to us before. It’s partly connected to the flexibility here , things (like the teacher’s course) get arranged at the last minute, confounding our well-laid plans. But that flexibility has meant that they can shift the times of some of the exams so that the British teachers can spend time in normal lessons, and the Head of English has agreed to miss a couple of days of his course. And I met several other teachers who are really looking forward to the visit and will look after my group. Its all going to be all right. But for a moment there, I did get worried.