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Ceylon Christian Care |
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News |
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Jun 5th, 2008 Sri Lanka Visit Report April 19-24, 2008 |
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The new community hall in Murokkodanchenai |
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Central Camp On Tuesday we went to the area around Central Camp. Central Camp is located west of Kalmunai and is in the middle of the rice fields. The farmers were busy with their ox's to plow the soil and to sow the seeds. On invitation of a Christian family Rev Sounthi visits every Friday this area and gives Bible study and prays with the people. For us a special meeting was organized. It was surprising how many people came to join this meeting. All these people are Hindu’s. This is how a new church starts. During our visit we got an invitation from a Singhalese lady. People had told her about the work of Rev Sounthi and now she told that she had a piece of land where he could build a church for the Tamil people. This was amazing. On the way back we met two man driving on a motorbike. This bike was donated by a pilot project two years ago by Ceylon Christian Care. Goal was to give people access to medical care, children access to school and the family access to better jobs. During the fights in this area for the last two years we were not able to monitor this pilot project. However now we could speak with one of the owners directly. He was very happy. He told that his children go to school now everyday and that his income had increased. Due to the motorbike he could travel to the next village for a better job. We found also that a motorbike is a reliable transport vehicle, the maintenance costs were almost zero.
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Meeting in Central Camp |
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The projects in Periyaneelavanai Rev Sounthi is the pastor of the church in the village Periyaneelavanai. He is also the manager of the projects in this village. It is a pleasure to see how these projects are managed. The harmony between staff and children is very good. We have also great respect for his mother, who lives on the compound too. Her contribution is enormous. During our visit the volunteers Annie van Werven and Hilda Roeland from the Netherlands were working on the compound. Both of them are experienced care workers. Annie’s specialism is working with disabled children. Rev Sounthi was very happy with their contribution. On Sri Lanka there is less attention for disabled people and due to this lack of experience how to help them. We hope that their stay of almost 4 months will help the staff to increase the quality of their work with these people. On the last day of our visit Annie and Hilda organized a game competition for the children of the homes. They had games like tug of war, eating cake and after this blowing a balloon, bagwalking, water games and more. We and the children enjoyed it! In the evening the children were singing for us and we had a special meal. It was a pity that this evening the mother of Rev Sounthi did not feel well and had to go to the hospital. She had pain in her chest. After this she have gone through several researches but not clear is the real cause of the problem.
Traveling back home Thursday morning we finished our visit. It was a good visit. Although there are every day attacks and killings the projects perform well. This is a blessing. However, also for the future the staff and the children need the help and protection of our Lord. Annie and Hilda joined us on our way back to the airport, a trip of almost 10 hours. They had to go to Colombo to extent their visa’s. We made a stop in the village Habarana were we had a jungle tour on the back of an elephant. It showed us again how beautiful this country is.
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Warm regards, Herman van der Weerd Ceylon Christian Care |
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Rev. Sounthi and the Singhalese lady |
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Herman talking with a motorbike driver |
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Plowing the land |
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Jungle tour - Annie, Hilda, Herman and Dick on the back of an elephant |
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Staff and children thank the Johannes Calvijn School in Veenendaal in the Netherlands |
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The new building |
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The science lab |
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The library |
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Opening by Herman and Wijbren |
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Annie van Werven hands over to one of the students her certificate |
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Dear friends,
During the months April and May several visits have taken place to the projects of Ceylon Christian Care on Sri Lanka. From Saturday April 19 till Thursday April 24 Herman van der Weerd and his business partner Dick de Jong visited the projects. From Tuesday April 22 till Tuesday May 6 a visit was made by Wijbren Jongsma and Ellie Kroon. Goal of the visits was to look at the progress of the projects, the opening of the new library and science lab of John’s Academy and an assessment of the progress and quality of John’s Academy as a school.
Situation on Sri Lanka The east coast is under control by the government forces today. However, almost every day there are attacks, bomb blasts and killings. In addition to this there are conflicts between the Tamils and the Muslim communities. During our visit some Hindu people dropped a couple of dead pigs in a mosque in the village Kattankudy. This gave an enormous consternation in the Muslim community. The day after the Muslims responded by taking a cow, a holy animal for the Hindu’s, which they brought into a Hindu temple where they slaughtered it, which gave an enormous consternation at the Hindu side. To avoid conflicts and attacks the government has set up check points in many places. Effect of this is that traveling is almost impossible. We had to stop at many places however as foreigners we could most times continue our journey without problems. In the North of Sri Lanka, which is under control of the Tamil Tigers, serious fight go on every day. As a result of this war there are regularly attacks in the capital Colombo too.
Murokkodanchenai On Monday we went to Murokkodanchenai, a fishermen village north of Batticaloa. The projects are making good progress. Many families received already a water well, a toilet and micro credit. The good progress was also possible due to the donation of almost 28.500 Euro we received from the Hoornbeeck College in the Netherlands. During the school year 2006 and 2007 the students performed several actions for the benefit of the people on Sri Lanka. The money is used to built toilets and water wells, issue micro loans to the villagers and to help the children. The building activities for the new community hall were just finished. This facility will be used as a church on Sundays and through the week as a meeting place, training centre, medical post and more. The official opening will be done during our visit scheduled for the second half of this year by board member Evert de Blok who sponsored this building. During our visit we were invited to issue the certificates to a group of girls who finished their sewing and stitching training. We gave them also the opportunity to receive a micro credit to purchase a sewing machine and earn income with this machine. |
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John’s Academy Tuesday evening Wijbren Jongsma and Elly Kroon arrived in Periyaneelavanai. On Wednesday we opened the new library and science lab for John’s Academy. This facility is sponsored by the Johannes Calvijn School from Veenendaal in the Netherlands. The students of this school performed several actions and brought 28,000 Euro together. The opening of the new facility is performed by Wijbren Jongsma and Herman van der Weerd. As board we were surprised with the result. Both children and staff were very happy with this facility.
Assessment van John’s Academy door Wijbren Jongsma en Ellie Kroon Wijbren Jongsma and Elly Kroon spent a full week with an assessment of John’s Academy. Both have a long experience with teaching and managing schools. They joined daily the lessons and had many discussions with the staff. For future they will visit every half year the school. Goal is to help the staff to increase the quality of John’s Academy. Some results of the assessment were: - The staff is serious and very motivated. In some areas teachers need extra training which will be organized. - Lessons in English medium is for the higher grades a point of attention. The children did not receive proper English training in the past. For these grades it is better to have part of the training in Tamil. The children in the lower grades do not have this problem. They adapt English more easily. - We were surprised about the computer knowledge of the children. In one year time they have learned how to operate the computer and to work with MS PowerPoint, MS Paint and games. A next step will be to get them familiar with MS Word and MS Excel. |