Yesterday I visited Sri Punyakami School, the one closest to Athidiya. We’ve been working with that school for six years now, and have brought teams of volunteers to work here for the past 4. 18 pupils from Eston Park are coming over in July. The school was jubilant when I got there because they had received their O level results this week, and had a great set of results – with two pupils achieving 9 passes, including Singhala, Maths and English. There’s a new banner up with the star pupils’ pictures and results displayed for all to see. Unfortunately, the numbers sitting the exam continue to be very low – only 9 this year. Most leave by the end of Year 11.

I also met Hiruni, a young woman who’s been attending Sister’s after school for several years and had the Asha funding for extra classes. She proudly told me she passed 9 O levels including 3 As and 3 Bs. Now she’s going to do A levels – the first in her family to do so.

Sam, Ellen and Louise, the teachers from the Murton Primary school in Durham have been at St Mary’s School in Dehiwala –a school where about a third of the pupils are from our patch in Athidiya. They’ve been amazed at the warmth and hospitality here. The pupils at St Mary’s have loved meeting them and the local teachers have enjoyed watching the different approach of the British teachers. Sam, Ellen and Louise’s enthusiasm is contagious – they’ve been a real pleasure to be with, and we are hoping to build a strong partnership between their school and Asha.

When at the Sri Punyakami school, I showed Ms Silva the Head the pictures of her ex-students at work in the hotels. She was so pleased to see them in their new role. I also told her about the possibility of the Hair & Beauty course, and she told me she was confident that a number of her ex-pupils would be interested. She spent that afternoon and the next morning going door-to-door around Athidiya, inviting interested young women to come to a meeting with me this morning. I met four young women at the school today – they were finding out for their friends too, who could not come this morning. They ranged from 17-20, none had done well in their O levels, and when I asked them what they were doing now, they said they were all “at home”. They had filled in application forms for a few jobs, but nothing came of it. The 20 year old had done a sewing course, but that too had not led to work. One of them had worked in a “hair dye place” in Athidiya for two months but had left because it was “a bad place”. The physical conditions in these small local places are often very poor, so I don’t doubt her. I told them about the course and made a big issue of the level of commitment required – its a four month programme and they have to travel to Colombo . Its only about 4 miles away, a 40 minutes bus journey, but as often in these communities, its a world away. We’ll meet their travel costs but I know that’s only part of the challenge, the biggest issue is leaving the safety of their close community. I gave them all the information, told them to discuss it with their families and if they are still interested, I’d to meet them and any of their interested friends on Monday, to take them across to the training centre to meet the course leader and see the place. Fingers crossed! I leave on Tuesday morning.