Due to the economic crisis in the country, many parents are forced to work abroad. The children stay with their grandparents, who are often overwhelmed. Many grandparents do not regularly send their grandchildren to school. As the grandparents themselves have never left their village, they usually see no point in sending their children to school.
The more remote a village is, the more difficult it is for teachers to motivate children to attend school. Quite a few children drop out of school after the 3rd grade. According to the school management, more and more children are being sent to families in Colombo to work as maids and servants (as was the case around 30 years ago).
Poonugala / Wewelthalawa
The distance between the school KG/Dehil/Poonugala Tamil Maha Vidyalaya in Poonugala and the home of 32 school children from Wewelthalawa is 8 km and more. The road to the school was built by the British in colonial times, but nothing has been done to it since then.
It is therefore in a desolate condition and only passable by three-wheeler or motorcycle. Even by three-wheeler, it takes the children an hour to get from home to school. For the parents of the children (all plantation workers), the costs of Rps 3000.00 (approx. CHF 16.00) per month are not affordable, which until now has meant that the parents had to take their children out of school.
Lankahelp was therefore asked by the principal whether it would be possible to cover these costs. Lankahelp has decided to pay the costs of transportation to school of these 32 children.
Lankahelp is also covering the costs of two temporary teachers who give extra tuition to all the pupils after school and at weekends.
Meals and lunch packages for children in Moratuwa
Moratuwa is a large suburb of the capital city Colombo. Only the poorest of the poor children visit Roman Catholic School in Koralawella/Moratuwa.
The goverment provides one meal a day for the students level 1-5. For these children its the only meal of the day and the main reason to even visit school.
After the goverment decided to exclude the children enrolled in level 6 to 11. Lankahelp decided in 2010 to provide these 160 children with a lunch package.
Lunch costs 35-45 rupees a day. The children receive a meal for 5 rupees every school day. This is an amount that most parents can still afford. The remaining amount is paid by Lanka-Help. There are a few families whose children cannot pay even these 5 rupees. These children naturally receive the sandwiches free of charge.
Additionally all students (more than 199 students), level 1-11, receive once a week a glass of milk and a fruit.
Bathgoda School Haldummulla
Haldummulla is a small town in the Badulla district in the province of Uva and has a population of around 48,000. Various hygiene products such as soaps and disinfectants were financed and distributed as part of the “Corona aid” in 2021. The Vipulananda Tamil Maha Vidyalayam school can no longer cope. For this reason, the teachers often have to move their lessons outside. This school is attended by 620 children. Haldummulla is located on the southern slope of the Massif Central, which means it is affected by the east and west monsoons and therefore has many rainy days per year.
During the rainy season, it is relatively cool and damp, which makes outdoor lessons unpleasant. To ensure that the children from this area can go to school in a regular manner, we started building the 3 classrooms for 40 pupils each in March 2021. Due to the pandemic measures and the shortage of cement and petrol, construction was repeatedly delayed. High inflation has significantly increased the construction costs. The extension was officially opened on December 20, 2022.
Nagastenna Teachers Accommodation
This school is on the way to Kandaloya School. This means that the road is partly in a terrible state and can only be travelled at walking pace. The 12 teachers need about 2 hours each to drive to school and back to their home. The trip to the city costs LKR 1800 per person per day in a shared three-wheeler.
In order for female teachers to be able to teach at the school in this rural area, it was absolutely necessary to build an accomodation so the teachers can live there during the week.