Trauma Relief
:
Update 10th December 2006
Project Update

Latest News:

The Rainbow Centre

The Rainbow Centre’s new bus! A big thank you from the children at the Rainbow Centre! Our new bus taking the children home at the end of the day.

Great news! After struggling for a year to transport 60 children to and from the Rainbow Centre in our dilapidated 12 seater van, our bus driver has managed to buy a 45 seat bus.  This has had a huge impact on the school run. Previously three trips were required in order to ferry the children to and from the day centre and now only one trip is needed.  We are now able to concentrate all donations on the day to day running of the centre including extra tuition, karate lessons, yoga lessons and educational day trips. As you can see in the photos, the children are delighted with their new bus!

ASL is now firmly committed to funding this wonderful project that attempt to support the under privileged and marginalised “Street Children of Sri Lanka”

The Rainbow Centre is a project for children suffering the effects of extreme poverty in south western Sri Lanka and has been open since December 2005.  It now has 54 children under its care, made up of 22 pre-schoolers, nine infants and 25 street and working children.   An additional 35 children from the local area come to the Centre for free after school classes.  Its focus now is on improving the standards of care given to the children and their families through expanded medical programmes and education and training.
The Rainbow Centre is seeking permission by the Sri Lankan authorities to open a residential centre for 20 children.  The Rainbow House will be opened in 2007 to address the needs of some of its existing children who cannot be safely returned to their homes on the street at night.

This is Pooja, aged three.  She is one of the Rainbow Centre’s new pre-schoolers. She lives in a flooded hut by the railway.  Her mother has just had a baby by a new father – an alcoholic who takes his anger out on his family. Without the Rainbow Centre, Pooja’s playground would be the railway and she would have no hope of school. (Right pre school class at Rainbow)

Since April 2006, several new children have started to come to the Centre from slum housing alongside the railway line, an area which is flooded after recent heavy rain and has no access to clean water.  They suffer from the same problems as all the street children at the Rainbow Centre – neglect, abuse and no access to education.  They love coming to the Rainbow Centre and have already settled in well and adjusted to a daily routine of classes, good food, medical care and loving support. For further information on the Rainbow Centre click here

Weligama Orphan Sponsorship Programme for 40 Children

ASL’s Trauma Relief team implemented an Orphan Sponsorship Programme in April 2006 for 40 children in Weligama that will run for two years.  Our team set up the programme and monitor it monthly. We want to be sure that the children are the beneficiary and not their guardians. We liaise with the schools, the bank, the Government Social workers the Monks and we visit the homes monthly to check on how things are going. It is another way of us keeping a close eye on a very vulnerable sector of the community.

Two of our young children on the ASL sponsorship programme in the Weligama 
 
EVENTS
 
Art Competition
 
In August 2006 ASL ran an art competition at the Agribodi Temple in Weligama for the benefit of the orphan children. It was attended by every child and below is a sample of the work achieved. The subject was “Sri Lanka’s endangered turtle species in their natural habitat”. The children had a wonderful day and produced some outstanding results. See the winning pictures below.
 
 
 
Creative Writing Competition
 
In April 2007, ASL organised a Creative Writing competition for the orphans and then, whilst the stories were being judged, the children watched a traditional puppet show from Ambalangoda. We met at the Agribodi Temple in Weligama. The children were split into two age groups and each age group had a different topic to write about:
 

7 – 12 year olds – These children were given a sheet with 5 pictures on it and they had to make up a story based on the pictures

12 + yrs – These children were given the title: If I were president of Sri Lanka, what changes would I make to the country?

All the stories were marked by the local Monk who runs the Agribodi Temple. The children worked hard on writing their stories before tucking into a lunch packet which we all ate together in the community centre. This would have been quite a treat for many of the children. We then moved to a hall next to the centre, where the children roared with laughter at the amazing puppets.
 
Children hard at work, writing their creative stories. 7 – 12yrs old on left and 12yrs + on right.
 
 
Enjoying their lunch packets.   A cheeky smile from Jeewanthika during the puppet show.
     
 
All the orphans watching the puppet show.   The puppet show!
     
Many of the guardians of the children remained with us for the day giving the day a community feel. These families and children are linked through very sad circumstances; all the children lost one if not both parents in the tsunami, but it is very encouraging to see how they are developing into happy and well adjusted children. Our Field Officer has specifically said that he has noticed an improvement in every single one of the orphans, although some of the children are still finding it difficult to adjust to their new lives. These are mainly the children who lost both their parents in the tsunami.
 

Hambantota Orphan Sponsorship Programme for 100 children:

 
Adoptsrilanka is sponsoring 100 orphaned children in the Hambantota district. The programme is run along the same lines of the Weligama Orphans Sponsorship but in this programme, the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorder under the stewardship of Chairman Mahinda Gunawardena runs all of the administration and our team monitor the outcomes.
Sharron Ward & Subodha on a visit to Hamabantota to meet the children
Kalutura Children’s Hospital

ASL has donated £27,000GBP toward the building of Sri Lanka’s second only children’s hospital. The project has taken 18 months to get all of the legal frame work set up and will take a further two years to complete. The land has recently been cleared in preparation for building to commence. We will continue to update the ASL website with three monthly progress reports.

To view this project please visit www.chtaf.org