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Ceylon Christian Care |
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News |
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April 11th, 2009 Update about Sri Lanka |
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Nagapuram |
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Volunteer Visits During March and April Annie van Werven and Hilda Roeland again visited Sri Lanka. They spent 4 weeks at the day care center for disabled children in the village Periyaneelavanai. They concluded that good progress was made. The staff had picked up the knowledge transferred from last visit very well and was practicing what they had learned. Look for more information about the work they did at their weblog. In the second half of this year other volunteers will also visit the project. In September Nick and Maaike Rosendal will stay on the projects for 4 months. Maaike worked in the past already several months on Sri Lanka and we are happy that she is willing again, now with her husband, to spent time on the projects. See also their separate news article. In September also Anne Westmaas from Woerden, The Netherlands, likes to work as a volunteer on the projects of Ceylon Christian Care on Sri Lanka. Anne finished this year her study SPW4 with specialty in care for elderly and disabled people.
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Scheduled meetings in the Netherlands In June there will be an “End of Poverty” conference in the Netherlands. Staff from organizations working on community development projects in Africa, India and Sri Lanka will meet together, share their experience and discuss if a common project approach is possible. More information about this conference can be found on the “End of Poverty” website. From Sri Lanka Rev Dr Jeyanesan, Ms Shanta and Rev Sounthi will visit this conference. From Canada Dr Ambalavanar will attend. During the time they are in the Netherlands we will also have a boardmeeting.
We are happy and thankful that all projects are running fine and help many people. At the same time many people fight everyday for their live. They do not know if they live the day after. We pray that soon peace may come for this country and that the government will take steps to establish a durable peace and development situation for both the Sinhalese and the Tamil community. It is also our wish and prayer that the Lord may bless the work we do, that we may be able to help many people and that through this help many people may hear about Christ, and will receive through His blood forgiveness of sins and eternal live.
With kind regards, Herman van der Weerd Ceylon Christian Care |
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Mother with her baby for the hut |
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Half finished house |
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Evert de Blok and the staff of Murokkodanchenai before the new hall |
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Cutting the ribbon |
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Opening ceremony |
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Teacher and children |
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Laurens van der Tang with the boys in the vegetable garden |
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Periyaneelavanai The projects in this village run very well. We have visited the children in the homes, looked at the evening classes, the day care center and the disables children project and found that everything did run very well. It has also become a beautiful place now. Everything is green and many trees are growing on the compound. At the backside of the project manager Sounthi started a vegetable garden. The boys of the boys home care for the plants and the fruits. Everyday they harvest all kinds of vegetables and fruits and use them in the homes. The micro credit program for the widows have worked very well over the last years. We have come to the conclusion that the income of the widows have grown in such a way that new loans are not needed any more. Each widow has its own business and generates enough money for their livelihood. The extension of the Boys Home was finished. The money for this extension was donated by the Eben Haezer school in Opheusden. The boys and the staff were very happy with the results. |
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John’s Academy In February this year our education specialists Wijbren Jongsma and Elly Kroon had their second assessment visit to John’s Academy. They spoke with the staff, joined in the lessons and gave advise. They found that the points discussed during the prior visit were taken serious and that good progress was made. Over two years the first children will go for their exam and this will be the real test of the quality of this school. Wijbren and Ellie discussed many new topics with the staff and will do in future regularly of these kinds of assessments. |
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Murokkodanchenai In the village of Murokkodanchenai we started in 2006 our first community development project. Here 450 families benefit from this project. This project runs now for 3 years and many things have been achieved. Most of the families got a water well and a toilet. Every evening there are evening classes for the children to provide extra education. Several youth were sent to the VTC and they have got now a better job. Almost all of the villages received a micro credit and have raised there monthly income, etc. Al together we have made good progress. The coming two years we will focus on sustainability. During the visit of Nov 2008 we have opened the new community hall. This hall is a multifunctional hall and will be used for community meetings, celebrations, evening classes, health care center, office and more. |
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Dear friends,
It is 6 months ago that a last update was published on the website. This does not mean that nothing has happened during these months. Several visits to Sri Lanka and board meetings have taken place, a new project has been started and new activities are scheduled. Here an update.
The situation on Sri Lanka Over the last months the political situation have been changed drastically. The Tamil Tigers lost almost all of their territory and are, at the time I write this update, pushed back in a small piece of land of just 20 square kilometers in the north of the island. Here they live with tens of thousands of refugees who they use as a human protection shield. During last visit we found that the Sinhalese people are happy that the war is (almost) over and the Tamil Tigers have lost their power. At the other hand the Tamil people were concerned about the future. They are a minority in the total population of Sri Lanka. Who will take care for their rights? Will the government help the Tamil people or will the future still be difficult? There are also sorrows about the Tamil community outside Sri Lanka. Many of them support the Tamil Tigers. They have created enormous funds. What will they do? Live on the east coast for the normal men is not easy. Traveling is difficult due to the large number of check points. Finally the prices of many products have gone up drastically during the last year. Costs of living have gone up with 50%. Many people do not have enough income for normal livelihood. Poverty is growing. We do not know how the future will be. We have to pray for the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters who live under very difficult circumstances in the final Tamil Tiger controlled area.
Nagapuram (New project) There is also good news. A new sponsor came to Ceylon Christian Care and we decided to start a new community development project in the village of Nagapuram. This village is 5KM north of Periyaneelavanai (see map at the projects tab). The villagers of Nagapuram have faced many difficulties over the last 20 years. In 1990 many youth of the village were forcibly taken by the Sri Lankan army and killed. In 2000 again many youth were abducted and also they never came back. Finally the village was heavily hit by the tsunami of 2004. After the tsunami an organization started building houses. However, after the start they ran out of money and stopped the project. Many houses are half or less completed. The people do not have the money to finalize the houses and still live in huts. As a first step we started with an analysis of the village to look how we could help the people in the best way. Over the last weeks we have registered the information of 200 families and were able to draw down the first conclusions: - The majority of the families earn money with cloth washing, fishing and labor work. Some youth left the country and work in the Middle East. Here they do all kinds of “uneducated” work. - 10% Of the families are “widow” families. Most of these widows do not have a job and because of this no regularly income. They seriously struggle. - Another 10% are single parent families. Also here we found often that the person who should generate the income for that family has no job. - 25% out of 500 children do not go to school. They are drop outs or work because their family need their income. - Most of the children who go to school do this only for 4-5 years. Then they stop and start working to earn money for their family. - There are no health care facilities in the village This week we purchased a land of almost 3.000 m2 in this village. This land will be used to organized our future activities and to start a church. It is our aim to start in this village a 5 year community development program. During these years we try to help the villagers with education, health care, work generation, micro credits, clean water and sanitation. New information will follow in the future. |
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Annie, Thaliny and Hilda |
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Anne Westmaas |
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Staff and children of Boys Home Samuel and Herman’s Girls Home |
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The extension of the boys home |