The annual report done by the international acclaimed accountancy company Ernest and Young is available on our web site.

We are very glad to hear that our 2 free of charge English schools and the free of charge Kindergarten are acknowledged and regarded as exemplary by the authorities, Pradeshiya Saba and Urban Council. 

At the last meeting the German Charity “Hilfsbruecke” has unanimously decided to finance the free of charge English school for 50 children furthermore. This school was inaugurated in 2001. Children from poor families between 11 and 15 years from 3 villages are attending this tuition school twice a week. 

Up to now 10 out of this 50 pupils have got the “year 5” scholarships, which enable them to attend a better government school in the next big town. Furthermore another 10 of these poor children were able to choose the English medium at their school. For them a dream has become true and they are now hard studying, because they want to obtain best marks at school to achieve access to University and to get scholarships to study medicine, computer science etc. They really take the chance and make the best out of it for a better future.

Those poor village girls and boys are so enthusiastic that they come to the English school even during their school holidays, on Full Moon Pooja Days and Sundays. Their quest is huge to learn much more to gain more general knowledge and to start special literature lessons.

The children take part at debates, creative writing and recitation competitions at their respective schools, which was unthinkable before. Even in their villages these children speak English with their friends and teach them while playing together. 2 years ago the social service officer has formed the “Muthuhara children’s club” in Jayawickremepura where the children who attend our English school meet those other children who don’t have a chance yet to attend a free tuition school so that they can learn from their more fortunate friends.

More and more government schools in rural areas are to close down mostly due to lack of facilities, as there is no money to develop these schools. Out of 9736 schools in the country, 565 were closed down by 2003. So far this year over 650 schools (around 7% of the total number), most of them in rural areas, have been closed while over 5000 schools are functioning without permanent principals according to Education officials.

Last year the Education Inspector Southern Province made the request to the Jayawickreme Foundation to renovate and refurbish neglected rural schools to encourage the children to continue to go to school and to prevent schools from closing down islandwide. 60% of the pupils in the age between 9 and 13 years leave school. They are easy prey for child labour, pedophiles, drug dealers, etc. 

But money is not only needed to help the children for a better future. The old people are very much neglected as well. There is no special community center to address the needs, worries, fears and joys of old people in Weligama. Nobody really cares. There is not one special project for old people, but countless ones for children. Food for thought, isn’t it?

The sufferings and burden of the old generation is neglected and ignored by most of us. It is this generation, who not only lost children and grandchildren, husbands and wives, due to Tsunami they lost every single thing they have owned and worked hard for so many years of their life. They are the ones along with the smallest of children who were physically unable to escape the enormous waves. They were totally helpless.

In Sri Lanka more and more older persons are left behind in rural areas while youth and working adults move to cities and go abroad for greater financial opportunities. Rural-urban migration has left many older persons alone, poor, and without opportunities in the countryside.

It is high time to create awareness, to care for a better future and set a landmark example for today’s elderly, which will be benefiting our children as well as they are the ones who might care about us tomorrow.

The clearance of the 1.2 acres for a Tsunami housing project given to us by the Government will start soon followed by the lay out plan and blocking out of land.

The Government has released the paper, which discloses the various buffer zones for the different areas along the coastline.

Weligama is earmarked with a 60-meter buffer zone.

After the publication of the new buffer zones there are now many requests by Tsunami survivours who want to resettle on their old properties close by the sea. Many more houses are needed to give all those families a decent home again.

We would like to thank the German photographer Bernd Weisbrod very much for making photographs from his collection available for the presentation at the UN in New York and our web site. www.bernd-weisbrod.de

Our thanks also go to Susanne Paul, President Global Action on Aging, Susan Erb, Emergency Coordinator Help Age International and Juergen Stetten, Director Friedrich Ebert Foundation UN office New York and all their tireless staff members who made the recent “UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004 Tsunami” a success indeed. The presentation of Susanne Loos-Jayawickreme was very well received. Presentations, list of speakers and more on this UN Roundtable are on our web site.

Please consider giving a donation to the Jayawickreme Foundation so that we can continue to help the needy and poor with our projects. We depend largely on contributions from dedicated individuals like you.