PROGRESS REPORT FOR 2005
Dear Supporters
We are happy to let you know that the Rahula Trust has had another successful
year. We have engaged in different projects which are benifitting children
in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Kenya.
Tsunami projects - With the help of Key Line Brands Limited we have donated 5 cupboards, more than Rs75,000.00 worth of books and a Sinhala typewriter to the Peraliya Sri Jinaratana Maha Vidyala, where the libray and school were totally destroyed by the Tsunami disaster in 2004. We have also responded to a request received from SERVE (an NGO in Sri Lanka) for computers, cupboards and books for a daycare centre in Moratuwella for children affected by the Tsunami.
Viharamahadevi Children's Home
As last year, we are sponsoring teachers to teach mathematics, science
and English for girls in the Viharamahadevi Children's Home in Biyagama
with provision of continuing education facilities.. According to the report
we received from the teachers, there is considerable progress among the
children. Also we have donated Rs. 10,000.00 to provide uniforms for the
girls' band. In the last year we have spent Rs.106,000.00 (£600)
on this project
Nepal Project - As a new project we started sponsoring the educational needs of 12 girls in Metta Centre children's home in Dhyankuti Vihar, Benepa, Nepal. It is an orphanage managed by the local Buddhist temple. £800.00 was donated for one year's educational expenses. For the fourth year running, we are also continuing our child sponsorship programme in Nepal.
Kenya Project - We have donated £500.00 to furnish a class room in their new Nyumbani Village. The children whom we are supporting are doing their studies well and we have received excellent reports.
Sponsorship in Sri Lanka - We increased the number of sponsored children to 268. On his visit to Sri Lanka in November and December 2005, Ven. Bandula visited many children in different districts in the country. He managed to visit children in Puttalam, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Matale, Galle, and Kandy districts.
In the year ended September 2005 the Trust's income increased to over £50,000.00 which is a magnificent figure. We benefitted from two large donations. One was a legacy from the late Mrs. M. MacPhail of £10,000 and the other was a donation from Mrs. Rupa de Alwis of £2,000 in memory of her late son, Tyrone. As always we are deeply grateful to all our sponsors for their generosity. We pride ourselves on keep our administrative expenses to an absolute minimum, so that the sponsor's money goes directly to benefit the children concerned. We look forward to next year with confidence that with your support we can continue to make a difference to lives of so many children.
I wish you all good health and happiness.
Ven. Dr. M. Vajiragnana
Chairman
.
Most Ven. Dr. Medagama Vajiragnana, the Chairman of the Rahula
Trust, has been awarded the O.B.E .- Order of the British Empire – in
the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2006. This prestigious award is for
Most Ven. Vajiragnana’s tireless contribution to interfaith dialogue and
co-operation. The picture shows his investiture at Buckingham Palace on
22 February 2006
PERALIYA SCHOOL PROJECT
In 2004, Peraliya Sri Jinaratana Maha Vidyalaya celebrated its centenary, but a few months later due to the tsunami disaster most of the buildings and the library were destroyed. Many children and teachers who lived in surrounding area died. This school is very close to the place where the many hundreds were killed in the train when the tsunami struck. When we enquired about what help we could give, the vice-principal of the school requested us to donate cupboards and books for their library which was totally destroyed. They submitted the list of books immediately needed for the library.
With kind and generous help from the Keyline Brands Limited in UK, the Rahula Trust donated the cupboards and the library books. Mr. Tom Kariyawasam coordinated this project. In a simple ceremony held at the school those books and cupboards were handed over to the school. The secretary of the Trust Ven. Bandula and Mr. Tom Kariyawasam attended the handing over occasion. The teachers and the students were delighted to have these very much-needed items in their school.
MORATUWELLA DAY CARE CENTRE
SERVE is a non-governmental, non-profit, service organisation based in Uswatte, Moratuwa in Sri Lanka which works for and with needy children. They have set up projects to provide immediate short term and thereafter medium and long term support for the psycho-social needs of those children who were affected by the Tsunami. At the moment they have 3 centres, located in Moratuwella, Angulana and Uswatta catering for needy children in the coastal belt affected by the tsunami. These centres are open from 2.00 to 6.00pm during school days and from 9.00am to 6.00pm during Saturdays and school holidays. The children who visit these centres are able to use their leisure time and free school hours in a productive manner, enjoying the facilities provided for self-study, reading and indoor games. The children are also able to seek the assistance of a social worker who visits the centre to overcome or minimise the day-to-day psycho-social problems faced by them. The children visiting these centres also enjoy art sessions, which give them an opportunity to exhibit their inborn artistic talents, as well as express their feelings and thoughts through art.
As a new project SERVE requested financial help from the Rahula Trust to start a computer training centre at the Moratuwella, with a view to enhancing the children's job skills, as well as providing computer training. The Rahula Trust donated £2,500.00 for SERVE to buy 3 computers, school books, uniforms, library books and indoor games for the Moratuwella day care centre. Dr. Robert Parsons, MBE, donated these items to SERVE in a simple ceremony which was held at the centre. Ven. Bandula also visited this centre on his visit to Sri Lanka this year.
INTRODUCING A VILLAGE IN SRI LANKA
MAPAKADAWEWA - KESELPOTHA
(Mahiyanganaya District, Uva Province)
This village is situated 23 km away from Mahiyanganaya in Badulla district.
This is an old village which has a history connected with the King Dutugemunu
(101-77 B.C.) It is a very poor village in a rural location, the people
are all farmers who grow their own food and manage to sell any small surplus
for cash. This is a dry area, and the people depend completely on the
annual rainfall to make their crops grow. They have no access to any irrigation
facilities. The Rajamaha Vihara in this village dates back to the time
of King Dutugemunu. The chief monk first made contact with the Rahula
Trust, seeking our support for some children. For their higher education
they have to travel 8 km each way to Mapakadaweva School, a daily journey
which many of them have to do on foot, even when it is raining. This year
we have started sponsoring 10 children in this village.
METTA CENTRE
AND
CHILD SPONSORSHIP IN NEPAL
The METTA Centre in Nepal is a non-governmental organisation which was started in 2000 to help the development of poor children. They have opened an orphanage which provides housing, education and training to orphaned girls. It is located in Banepa in Kavre district, 25 km east from Kathmandu. At present Metta Centre provides facilities for 12 children.
We have received a request from the organisers to support this worthy project. They needed money to provide these girls' school fees, books and stationey, tuition and language fees, and to set up a library. The Rahula Trust started sponsoring these children one year ago.
This year the Rahula Trust has also continued to support other children in need in Nepal. This is done through the Samyak Youth Group in Kathmandu. 13 children are receiving our help, without which they would be unable to go to school. The Samyak Youth Group is run by some monks who oversee the distribution of our funds to the children and send us regular reports on their progress.
If anyone would like to sponsor a child in Nepal or help any of our projects, please contact the Rahula Trust secretary for further information.
Grim projections show that by the year 2010 the HIV/AIDS orphan population in sub-Saharan Africa will be 30 – 35 million, of whom more than 18 - 21 million will be desperately destitute.
For several years the Rahula Trust has been giving some support to the Nyumbani Children’s Home in Nairobi, which looks after orphan children who are also HIV+. They have now started a new enterprise, Nyumbani Village, on a piece of land about 50 miles from Nairobi in the Kitui district. There is a “missing” generation in Kenya. Elderly people who would have expected to be looked after in their old age by their adult children are finding that they are having to look after these adults while they die from HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, these grandparents are having to raise their grandchildren. Often they themselves are sick, weak and disillusioned, having had to nurse their sick adult children all the way to the grave. So the Nyumbani Village has been designed to bring together both the elderly and and very young to live in a community of mutual self-help. It aims at housing and nurturing 160 families, comprising around 1,000 children and 200 elderly grandparents.
It is being constructed with great attention to sound ecological principles. Everything, with the exception of the steel, cement and glass is produced on site. When this project is completed, virtually everybody who has worked here will have a skilled trade to offer. This will in turn enable them to get a decent job as a mason, tile maker, blockmaker, surveyor, etc. In many ways, this concept is as important as providing orphans with homes. It should also be self-supporting agriculturally. Permaculture is the concept of planting a variety of crops in a canopy format. Food crops of differing types and heights are interspersed in such a way as to form water vapour retaining canopies. This method is much more effective in retaining rainfall. When the moisture undergoes evaporation, it evaporates upward through each layer of growth rather than evaporating into the air. This type of agriculture works very well in areas that have limited rainfall.
The Trust has recently donated £500 to Nyumbani Village to buy desks for their school.
The two children also being sponsored are doing very well. Joan Mutuku is studying hotel management and completed a 6-month secondment to one of the leading safari lodges with outstanding results, scoring mostly “excellent” and nothing less than “good”. Her younger sister, Mary Mutuku, has completed her secondary education at Taibah College School where she was “commended for excellent results over the last 2 years.”