July 2009 Visit

We last visited Sri Lanka at the end of June 2009 to see how our projects are progressing, hand-out further donations from the UK and US and see what else we could do.  Although we were there for 18 days, the time flew by and we were busy almost every day.

A lot was achieved and you can read a day-by-day account in the Friends of Della and Don blog. 

These are just some of the things we managed to do thanks to our generous supporters all over the world:

• Arranged payment for meals at St Mary's Village School and the Nursery School
• Agreed to buy new shoes for all the children attending the Nursery School
• Handed out every child with a soft toy and supplied toys, crayons and books
• Bought and handed out a new uniform for every child at the Village School
• Provided new cricket bats, balls and badminton equipment for the children to use
• Made arrangements for a new prize of a bicycle for the child that achieves the highest attendance at school
• Took over 80 orphaned girls out for a day at the beach; their only trip outside since our last visit in December 2008
• Provided additional English lessons to the pupils at St Mary's
• Ordered new musical instruments to establish a new band at the school
• Agreed to fund weekly music lessons at the Orphanage
• Provided funds to continue to support the Medical Clinic so that they can employ a doctor, buy drugs and pay for additional tuition for hard-hit families
• Organised a cricket match with many of the villagers
• Distributed the contents of 15 boxes and 2 suitcases to children at the School, people attending the clinic and the villagers. Contents included bedding, clothing, soft toys, games and books
• Handed over letters to some of the orphans from Pen-Pals in the UK
• Provided funding for the children unable to afford the coach fare for a school trip 
• Made arrangements for a girl to receive extra tuition and be looked after whilst her recently-widowed father works
• Hosted a Sports & Games Day

Sports & Games Day

The Village Fishing Boat Gets Launched

Beach Cricket

The Village