Visit to Sri Punyakami school

Last week I visited Sri Punyakami  school.  Sri Punyakami is attended by many children living in Athidiya  and Asha Trust supports several projects at the school.  Asha Trust supporters who have come to Sri Lanka will be familiar with it having visited or volunteered there. 

Having been a frequent visitor to Sri Lanka over the last few years and not just as a tourist, I have got used to the high levels of poverty in many areas and it is sometimes difficult to look at it all with fresh eyes and remember what it was like the first time I saw families living in makeshift houses, near dirty water and trying to eke out a living with very little.

Then occasionally, I see or hear something and I am reminded of the stark differences between some peoples’ lives here and my own.  Halfway through the visit as Ms Silva, the headteacher, was showing me around, a dustbin truck arrived and there was a bit of commotion as Ms Silva directed the children to empty their classroom bins.  One child from each class diligently took out the class bin and put it in the rubbish truck carefully ensuring no rubbish was left on the ground.  Can you imagine us doing this in the UK when we were at school?

 

Ms Silva showed me how Asha funding is supporting the children that attend the school. For example, the shoe project pays for shoes for children who don’t have any.  Ms Silva advised me that in the past children have not been able to attend school due to not having shoes.  Ms Silva and the classroom teachers have so far this year identified 43 children who were in need of proper footwear and these have all been provided.

Asha Trust also supports a breakfast club where children are given rice and curry every day.  The government pays some funding towards this but it is not enough to ensure children have a healthy, nutritious meal every day.  I was saddened to hear that sometimes this is the only meal that some children have during the day.  Clearly, education is really important for breaking the cycle of poverty and according to Ms Silva, the breakfast club has really got parents on board with sending their children to school.  Parents know that if they send their children to school, they will be guaranteed at least one meal a day.

Ms Silva knows Athidiya well and is in contact with many ex-students so she will also be speaking to the young people in the area about the employment training programmes that Asha are currently funding and organising.  It looks like we finally have enough potential trainees for the hair and beauty course and I am meeting with them today along with Sister Concepta, Cheryl, the trainer and another member of her team.  The training will last 3 months with the trainees attending the centre in Athidiya initially before moving to Cheryl’s training salon in Colombo.  Trainees will be given the chance to learn about all aspects of hair and beauty from hair cutting to sari drapes – it all sound really exciting!  The training will hopefully start next week, I’ll keep you posted!

Katherine

The trainees receive their certificates in food and beverage service!

There was an atmosphere of excitement when I arrived at the centre in Athidiya last Thursday.   

People were busy bringing chairs to the centre, making garlands and preparing the traditional oil lamp that would be lit at the start of the ceremony. The trainees had all arrived smartly dressed and we waited with anticipation for the arrival of Harpo and his team and the mayor of Dehiwala/Mount Lavinia who had been invited as the special guest for the ceremony. 

 

Harpo and his team arrived with a refrigerated lorry full of food and drink.  Three waiters set up a trestle table outside and provided all present with fresh papaya juice – what a treat!

The mayor then arrived and after brief introductions the ceremony started.  Harpo and the mayor made short speeches and the trainees were presented individually with their certificates by the mayor. Sister Concepta rounded off the ceremony with a thanks  to all involved.

Renuka, one of the trainees, had a made a beautiful cake so we had photos around this.  We then got the chance to taste the cake (delicious!) and also eat the food that Harpo and his team had kindly provided.

Unfortunately, not many of the trainees’ parents were able to attend.  It appears that one of the reasons why not many were able to come was that they felt that they didn’t have appropriate clothes to wear for the occasion.  Things like this really make one realise what a difficult life many people living in the area lead and why it is so important for these people to continue to be supported.   I did manage to speak to a couple of the trainees’ mothers who were able to be present and they told me with huge beams on their faces how proud they were of their sons!

It was a lovely afternoon for all involved, the trainees looked so pleased with their certificates and I was honoured to be part of the celebration!

Katherine

Latest update from Sri Lanka

Hi, this is Katherine.  After volunteering for Asha last summer and supporting with their disability project, I am now back in Sri Lanka indefinitely and at present helping in the co-ordination of some of the work Asha do out here for 3 days a week.  It has been an exciting few weeks finding out about the work that Asha does and planning future developments!

The first cohort of hospitality trainees are coming to the end of their 3 month training and sat the written test last week.  I am pleased to announce that they all passed and are all very excited about the awards ceremony that is taking place in the Asha centre in Athidiya on Thursday of this week.  It will be a great opportunity to celebrate the trainees’ achievements and encourage further young people to take part in future training.  Each trainee has been asked to invite 2 friends who they think might be interested in the training in the future.

All the trainees who have completed the course have been offered work.  In fact some of them have multiple job offers!  We had a feedback session last week where the students met with myself, Sister Concepta and Anoja (one of the team from the hotel school).  We had some very positive feedback from the students as well as some ideas of how the training could be improved in the future.  For example, the use of spoken English has been a problem for many of the students and as a result the training providers are going to include English classes as part  of the training programme next time.  

On Saturday, I went to see the disability session that takes place twice a month in the centre.  As usual, the teachers started off with a mixed singing and dancing session with the children/young adults.  Then, the teachers did a painting activity with the children/young people with disabilities.  There were 2 new faces at the session, Poojani, who is 4 and has Down’s Syndrome and Priyanka, who is 29 and has a learning disability due to a fall on her head when she was a toddler.  I was able to meet with Poojani, Priyanka and their families in order to look at what support Asha can offer.  Both Poojani and Priyanka have huge potential and hopefully specialist support at the centre will help their development.  

Attendance at the disability session is sometimes low and my plan is to meet with some of the children and their families and see how we can encourage them to come along every time to the session.  In the future, we want to expand the sessions to weekdays so that those who have no access to school at present are still able to learn and develop.

So I am looking forward to another eventful week with the Asha team, I’ll keep you posted on what happens!

Katherine