...Sister Concepta is back from a well deserved
break on a retreat and lots of exciting things have been happening at the
centre and with Asha Trust projects!
The most exciting thing by far this week was
the filming of the hair and beauty trainees in Cheryl’s salon for a television show to be aired this Sunday on 'Derana TV' at 11am! I went along to see some of
the filming and was amazed at the transformation of the trainees. Look at the photos to see for yourself. They looked professional, confident and
relaxed in their surroundings. 
Cheryl, the trainer, advised that she continues
to be pleased with the commitment and enthusiasm of all the trainees. Some are already earning money in Athidiya
doing hairdressing and beauty work from home whilst others wish to work in a
salon in Colombo. Cheryl is busy looking
at potential opportunities for those who wish to work in salons. A real success story!
The young women finish the course in 2 weeks
and Cheryl and her team are busy planning the awards ceremony that friends,
family and the team in Athidiya will be invited to.
We already have a list of people who are
interested in being part of the second cohort of trainees. Word has clearly got around about the
training and we hope to offer further training in this field within the next
few months.
In other news, we now have enough young people
interested to start a second cohort for the hospitality training run by
Harpo. Harpo and his team will meet with
them on Monday.
Millennium IT, a Colombo based IT company have
got in touch as they wish to run a computer project at the centre, providing
computers for the centre in Athidiya and running lessons for children and young
people who use the centre. They also
wish to train someone locally who can continue with IT classes long-term. This
is great news as this is something that the local team has raised previously as
a need within the community so thanks for your enthusiasm and support Millennium
IT!
On a final note, I would like to give a special
thank you to Mrs V with all her support with the disability project and her
relentless energy at supporting me with the ‘hard to engage’ families. She has been a real asset with regards to engaging
these families and the work is slowly paying off with attendance levels
increasing week by week as well as new children with disabilities in need within
the community being identified and assessed.
That’s all for now but more news soon!
Katherine
