Child sponsorship update from Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka from Summer 2008.

Dear Friends,

It is this time of the year that we share our achievements and setback with our partners, our dear sponsors. It would be difficult for us do what we have achieved, without the support and commitment of you our sponsors and donors. I believe that you share our joy and our tears as we share our lives at the SOS Children’s Village Anuradhapura during the first half of the year 2008.

At present 95 are living in the 14 SOS families at the SOS Children’s Village. 7 children were brought home to the SOS Family during the first half of the year. At the same time many of our older children were integrated and they are doing well. We are happy to mention that the children who perform well in sports were able to tour India. 3 boys travelled to India with their school football team. One of them, Amila Gayan, captained his team and it is in deed a great achievement fo rAmila as well as for all of us at SOS Children’s Village, Anuradhapura. Efforts were made to find admission for Nadeeka who excels in athletics, at the reputed P.T. Usha Athletic Training School in Karalla, India. She did travel to Karalla for the initial trials, but failed to get admission. Nadeek did have a lot of hope, but the good news is she has not given up her ambition of representing her motherland, Sri Lanka in athletics and continues her training under her local coach.

Our annual activities, New Year, SOS Day Celebrations, Death Anniversary of SOS Founder Father, SOS Mothers Day, “Vesak”/”Poson” religious programmes were celebrated in the usual customary. Celebration activities are organised to cultivate the traditional values which are fast demising in this material world.

From children to teenagers

We continue to organise various seminars and programmes in education, career guidance, awareness programmes in health & personal hygiene and sports for the benefit of our children, mothers and co-workers. We do realised the importance of education of every child under are care and with the hope to make an impact on all stakeholders, a national level decision was made to mark the year 2008 as the Year of Education in all the SOS Children's Villages in Sri Lanka. Special educational activities are carried out to uplift the standard of education of all our children. At the end of the year an evaluation is to be carried out in this regard and necessary steps will be taken to ensure a higher standard of education for all our children.

24 youths are taken care at the Youth Facility for boys and all of them are schooling. At the beginning of this year 5 youths moved to the Youth Facility from their Family homes at the Children’s Village. Sugandha and Salitha Madusanka passed the general certificate of education (ordinary level) examination which they took in December 2007 with very good grades. Because of their high grades, they have been qualified to apply for admission in renowned schools in Kandy and Bandarawela to continue their advanced level studies. They have moved to their respective school hostels and would come to the Youth Facility for their school vacations. The boys join their families in celebration of all the main festivals as well as family functions.

The Youth Facility for girls is now in full operations with 11 older girls who are attending employment training/employment are in residence. Though we did face this facility for some time now, due to the small number of girls attending training, it was not possible to operate this facility until now. Here the girls live with minimum supervision where they will have to prepare their meals as well as do the housekeeping. These girls too join their SOS Families for festivities as well as other family functions.

Projects for children at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

A total of 138 children attend the Nursery School where the students are divided into two grades - Upper Nursery and Lower Nursery. Each grade has 2 classes and 4 Nursery teachers with the help of the trainees manage these classes. Celebration of the entire national and religious festival are included in the Nursery syllabus and the children, their parents and the staff actively participate in all these activities.

Though the main function of the medical centre is to provide medical attention to the SOS Children’s Village community, the Centre continues to provide its space to be utilized by the Public Medical Offer for the area to conduct Family Planning, Maternity and Immunizations Clinics to the neighbouring community.

The Vocational Training Centre is doing well. As we mentioned in our last letter we have achieved National Vocational Qualification levels for our vocational training centre. We have more good news for you and that is we have been informed by the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, that our VTC has been upgraded to a “A” Grade Training Institute in Sri Lanka. In early April this year, we laid the foundation stone to build a Lecture Hall for the Vocational Training Centre. The construction work is in progress and it is hoped to complete work on this project by end of August. This would enable us to have lectures and seminars not only for our trainees, but also for those trainees in the other VTC in the area.

The Family Strengthening Programme is progressing well reaching out for more children in disadvantaged families of our neighbourhood. 173 children and 94 care givers are served under this programme in 6 remote areas whilst survey has been completed in 2 more locations. The FS Programme will commence in these 2 locations shortly. It is in deed a privilege to be able to reach out to so many children and help them not only to remain in their family environment and live as independent unit, but also to help them materially, emotionally as well as in terms uplifting the standard of education.

The above are some of the main activities that took place in the SOS Facility you continue to support financially. It is also our belief that all our activities at SOS Children’s Village Anuradhapura continues to remind us as to what could be achieved through co-operation of people form all over the world. Thank you for supporting the work of SOS Children.

With best wishes
Yours Sincerely,

K. K. Hettiarachchi