Last post this trip

These are my last couple of days – I fly out tomorrow evening – and I’ve been trying to get through that list of tasks I arrived with. Had another meeting with Sister to discuss current projects and then went back to Punyakami school to feed back some of the decisions Trustees had made at last week’s board meeting. All good. I then went to visit another school Asha supports: Koralawella School serves another poor community and we got involved when we met a teacher who told us that a few children regularly faint in school, due to hunger. We provide a drink of milk for half the pupils and a meal for the 50 of the most deprived children. And no-one faints any more. We also funded a small group to attend tuition– it's very common, apparently essential, for children to attend these after-school exam preparation sessions – and the Head proudly told me today that they had the best results in years last year, so much so that they were featured in the newspaper. Five pupils passed their O levels, four of whom had benefitted from the Asha-funded tuition, and all these young people were now doing A levels– a first on both counts. Last year only one person passed, but her family needed her to go out to work so she was unable to continue her education.

This afternoon, we went to open a bank account for the building project. To be honest, opening bank accounts for charities and community projects in the UK is a bureaucratic process, and of course it’s no different here. But after 2 ½ hours of form filling and answering questions, Sister, Beulah, Anukshie and I emerged rather jubilant that we had done it!

Tomorrow I will meet the architect to collect the BOQ (bill of quantities, an itemised breakdown of the costs for the building) and make one last visit to the Centre in Athidiya, to say goodbye to the children and the team.

It has been a wonderful trip, and I can’t believe I got to be here, working with these amazing people. Steve is coming across at the end of March, and we are bringing a group out here in July – lets hope the building is well underway by then.

Laying the Foundation Stone

This morning I went to the Municipal Office with Anukshie (my cousin in whose name we bought the land, as Asha was not at that stage registered in this country), to submit the plans for the building. There we met someone from the architect’s office and we began the process of going from desk to desk. Steve knows this process well – he’s spent many hours similarly going from desk to desk when trying to get Asha registered. Eventually Chinthaka (the architect) advised that Anukshie will need to come back in a few days with yet more papers. In the meantime, Sister, Mrs V and the builders were waiting for us at the site, so we decided to defer this rather miserable bureaucratic process.

The Foundation Stone ceremony was lovely. Sister said a prayer, and then we cut the soil, the builder dug the hole, and each of us laid a brick – Sister, myself, Anukshie, Mrs V, Chris, Alison, Chintaka, and the builder. No singing or dancing involved! We then ate Kiri Bath and bananas, and shared it with the builders and the neighbours. There was a young girl watching all this from the house opposite – it was Asha, who has been part of Sister’s work since the beginning, who happened to be off school today. We had already named the charity when Steve met Asha on the streets of Athidiya as an energetic 7 year old, back in 2004, but she has been present at all the shows and events ever since. Back in 2005, during the first trip, we suddenly discovered it was her 8th birthday and I remember us singing happy birthday to her in a very hot, airless building in Athidiya and someone in the group finding a bracelet in their bag as a gift. Her father is in prison and Sister told us last year that her younger sister is malnourished. But Asha is as enthusiastic and bubbly as ever – it was great that she was part of today’s ceremony.

This afternoon I visited St Mary’s College, a school nearby where we know the Head Teacher. A primary school in Durham have approached us to help them to find a link school in Sri Lanka, and I went to discuss it with the Head . This school is better resourced than Punyakami, the school we support in Athidiya, has a more mixed pupil body, serving some very poor families from Athidiya and surrounding areas as well as some from less challenging backgrounds. They have computers and internet, and will be more able to take on a partnership, I think. The Head was keen, and I was able to hand over lots of information about the Durham school. I’ve agreed to go and speak to the staff and pupils in Durham in February, so I took some pictures and tried to gather some details.

Tomorrow, I’m taking a day off the Asha stuff to visit my elderly aunt in Galle, 3 hours away, catching the 7am train. You may remember that the railway line hugs the coast all the way down, making for a beautiful view of blue sea, golden sands and palm trees on the beach...

Progress on the building

Great progress with the building of the new centre – I think. Met the architect, Chinthaka, yesterday morning, and we got the paperwork organised in order to make the submission to the planning department. Tomorrow we are taking it to the council offices, and Chinthaka is sure that it should take no longer than 4 weeks to get approval. He also introduced me to the “baas” - the site manager who will organise the build. And tomorrow, we will go straight from the council offices to the site, where we will lay the foundation stone. This foundation stone business seems to carry some weight around here – I have no idea about these things – but Sister, Mrs V, Chinthaka and everyone else seems excited about it. I’ve said “ we’ll keep it simple, wont we?” to everyone concerned, but I am a little dubious. I know there will be “kiri bath” – the celebratory milk rice that Sri Lankans eat at New Year, birthdays, graduation events etc. And it is just wonderful that we are formally marking the beginning of the building process.

At Sri Punyakami school they enthusiastically showed me all the science equipment that Asha has recently provided (thanks to Eston Park School). In case you’re wondering, the odd shapes in the picture are bright plastic body parts – and they‘ve also got a large circuit board, which the children clearly enjoy – but as it needs electricity (of course), the class have to crowd into the head-teacher’s office for that lesson, as there’s no power in the science room!
Chris and Alison are doing conversation classes at the school for the next few days. We agreed with the Head yesterday that they would do 3 classes a day, but by this morning, they were being entreated to work with another two – there’s no doubting how keen the school is are to improve pupils’ spoken English.

And this afternoon I took the bus to the Sioll Centre, where we have been funding a nursery and after school clubs in another poor community. Beulah, who leads this project, has started to work with a local midwife, running baby weigh-ins for the families that use the centre, and also for other young mothers in the area. She has great plans to develop this into a nutrition project and use these sessions as a way of offering parental education sessions.

Off to buy bananas now for the Foundation Stone ceremony tomorrow - an essential accompaniment to the Kiri Bath.

Great to be back in Sri Lanka

NB If you get this in a tiny, barely legible font, you might want to click on the link which should open a new window on the Blogger site... Dont know how to change the font size on the email version.


Having arrived in Sri Lanka for my brief week on Saturday evening, it was great to meet Sister and Shyamini on Sunday. As always, I am struck by the impressive work done by the team here as well as the huge challenges faced by this community
. I heard so many positive stories. The children had been on a trip to an amusement park and the elephant orphanage (funded in part by local donors). A local family had also funded Christmas gifts for each of the 60 children. The young women’s group had spent December making Christmas cards, producing 2000 hand-crafted cards which they sold through Laksala (the government-run craft shop) and a large bookshop in Colombo. They made over £400, which was shared between the 12 young women in the group. Given that these families often earn £2 a day, this extra income would have been significant. Its so good to see that the team here are helping these young women to develop skills, confidence and bring in much needed income.

On the other hand, Sister is very concerned that there have been 5 suicides in this community in the last year or so. All men, fathers, whose sad deaths have left 5 widows coping with raising young families on very limited incomes. One woman earns Rs 250 a day (£1.40) and is struggling to feed her 3 small children. The team have plans to run small enterprise training in the new building, to help women like this to increase their earning potential. In the meantime, they are working to offer what support they can.

The main purpose for my brief visit this week is to help to progress the building project, and I’m off to see the architect this morning. And then a visit to Sri Punyakami school, with Chris and Alison from Forest Gate who have a few days here.
Radhika

Last blog for this trip

Everything’s now drawing to a close: Eston Park are avoiding their packing, the last few exposures are being snapped and the aeroplane seating plan is the topic of much debate. We’re winding down the trip at a beach resort on the south coast, a lovely chance to walk on the beach, splash around in the pool and get a bit of a tan (or turn really pink...).

The last few days at the school went incredibly well. The mornings were drawing themselves to a natural close but the afternoons just got more exciting. Our ambitious decision to put on a play – Giraffes Can’t Dance – felt a bit daunting when we sat down to plan it but when we got going there was no looking back. It definitely wasn’t easy, especially for Team Giraffe where teenage moodiness resulted in a dramatic rebranding of ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ to ‘Warthogs Can’t Dance’, especially problematic as we could only explain ‘warthog’ via the Lion King... Nonetheless, by the day of the performance all of the teams: Rhinos, Monkeys, Giraffes, Lions and Warthogs had rehearsed dances, learnt lines and made fantastic masks. On the Friday we gathered all the children together on the stage and they managed to produce an amazing performance. It wasn’t complicated and a few bits went wrong but everybody had such a great time doing their various dances and cheering each other on. It was amazing to see how much difference having a goal made to the structure and feel of the afternoons. Working towards something kept everyone motivated and we were able to produce something really special at the end (get ready to YouTube ‘Warthogs Can’t Dance’ and be impressed!)

As always, leaving the school was really sad, for both us and the children but, as always, it doesn’t end here. There will be more trips that this group can return on (and new people... hint hint hint) and loads of Asha stuff to keep up with and get involved with. It’s been a great trip, especially for me and Shyla who got to do in twice in one go! And it’s been so good because of the group’s enthusiasm; Katie, Glenn Jan, Andy, Danielle and Daryl’s ability to keep everyone smiling whilst still keeping them in line; Steve and Radhika’s dedication and passion; and especially because of the inspirational example set by people like Sister Concepta, Mrs V and all the team on this side of the ocean.

‘til next time...

Katherine

PS - the blog done by the young people from Eston Park has had 1600 hits in the last two weeks - http://www.estonpark.co.uk/blog.asp

Penultimate days

Radhika:
If you've been on one of these trips, you'll remember that the last few work days are exhausting, both physically and emotionally. Yesterday we all went back to the school in the morning - finishing off some great pieces o f work - the group working on the link with Columbia Primary have done excellent writing and drawings about themselves, their school and their world. The English teachers at this school were amazed by the quality of the work - I think the children were really motivated because they understood that their work was going to be shared with children in the UK. The group doing "Scrapbooks" about themselves, with the photos from the disposable cameras we gave them, have also produced gorgeous work. They have loved having photos of themselves, their families and their friends, and have done excellent writing to go with them. All the other groups too have been learning songs, games and a fair bit of geography, thanks to the great games the Eston Park group created with maps, animals, cards etc.

In the afternoon we returned to our "production" - which has evolved from Giraffes Cant Dance to Warthogs Cant Dance - over 100 children have been involved in learning a few lines and some incredible dances! We had a run-through yesterday - it was awesome - we've promised to video today's performance and screen it at assemblies, meetings etc.... and put it on Youtube! Katherine has been instrumental in leading this - stunningly.

And then we went to see Sister for a show. I'm going to ask one of the young people to blog about the show - but needless to say we were all very moved by the energy and enthusiasm of the children and of course Sister's speech had everyone gripped. Several people needed tissues during the proceedings.

We got back after 7, tired but everyone so glad of the experience. Today is our last work day - taking cakes, drinks etc for our party and performance .

I said a couple of days ago that we were holding our first Partners Meeting - it was great, really positive - so glad we did it. We had 9 people there (a fair sprinkling of nuns), everyone participated, had some very good discussions and they have agreed to meet three times a year.
Sister said something moving about the seed that was Asha's first endeavours in Athidiya growing into a tree under which so many projects now shelter.

Got a meeting with Mrs V this morning, before going to the school, and one with Barbara and the elders this evening when we get back after our Warthogs show - as happens to me every year, I cant believe we get to do this!

R

Wider Asha stuff...

Radhika:
As well as the wonderful opportunity to share the work with the young people, Steve and I are also spending a bit of time working with our local colleagues, developing the plans for the work of Asha more widely.

Today we have our first ever partners meeeting - we're bringing together the leaders from all the projects we fund, as a step towards further collaboration among them where appropriate, and also to go through some of the practicial stuff about monitoring and communication. Some of our key people do have strong relationships with each other, but it would be good to explore possibilities for further collaboration. Its new territory - Steve and I run meetings regularly in the UK, but I'm not sure how useful all that is in this context.

Another great development has been that we've had two London doctors with us for 2 weeks, David and Mary. David did an amazing job of redecorating the Asha Centre (those tiny rooms) - painted, created notice boards, beautiful displays - utterly transformed the place! Additionally, we asked Mary to do some investigating about healthcare provision and how the families in Athidiya access it. She visited 5 families with Mrs Vellupulai (Sister's excellent colleague), and interviewed them. She also spoke to a local health worker. We are planning to use Mary's learning to help Asha to develop a plan for health interventions - its not something we do much on at the moment. David and Mary also went to the Centre daily with their 3 boys and ran English games, singing and activities with the after-school club. They left yesterday, after a show (of course), speeches and a few tears.

This morning, Steve, Shani and Katherine are going to visit the RCCI centre for children with disabilities. We got them the funding for their Cookery Sessions through See the Difference, and they want to show off their new purchases - no doubt there'll be much messy cooking! Another 6 young people are off to visit Athidya with Sister, and the rest of us are off to the school.

R