ABOUT US

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHILD AID LANKA
1998-2006 


Child Aid Lanka (CAL) is an Association of expatriate Sri Lankans living in the UK. It is a cohesive, apolitical, multi-ethnic, multi-faith Association of enthusiastic members, and their friends and associates. The Association has raised funds not only in cash but also in kind, such as computers and accessories for education in IT, and books in English for schools and libraries, for the use of deprived children in the Island of Sri Lanka. Also collected are medical items, children's clothes, toys, items for vocational training such as car maintenance, handicraft, and preparing young women to work in garment factories, one of the biggest employers in the Island. 

The funds and items raised in the past years were sent to carefully chosen established charities, caring for the welfare of children who are orphaned, abused, abandoned and underprivileged. The members of the Association subscribe to the principle that parents and other adults of our times owe a duty of care to children who have been disadvantaged either from birth or traumatised through undeserved circumstances. 
The Association was set up initially as an effort to help children who were abused in the city of Colombo by unscrupulous organisations preying on street children, those from poverty-stricken homes with little or no income for their families. This situation was publicised in the media not only in Sri Lanka but also in the UK. The Methodist College Old Girls Association in the UK invited members of other Sri Lankan Past Pupils Associations to a joint fund-raising effort to help with this charitable venture which had been set up by the Prevention of Child Abuse Trust, sponsored by the ABN AMRO Bank in Colombo. With the support and organisational abilities of the participating SLPPA schools, a fund-raising event was organised on the 29th of November 1998 at the Wandsworth Banqueting Suite, for a Soiree of Dinner, Dance, Music & Fair. This event was a great success not only as a fund-raising venture but also enabled participants to meet and socialise with the various Sri Lankan Past Pupils Associations that supported this project, crossing all divides of our politically fragmented community. Seeing the enthusiasm and friendship shown during the process of organising and executing this event, it was unanimously felt that an Association of this nature where friends could gather to promote and help with underprivileged children's welfare would bring about a welcome sense of amity among the participants across the board. This was the beginning of Child Aid Lanka, an Association born that has over the last few years pioneered aid to deprived children in Sri Lanka. 

Further fund-raising events held over the past years have helped children in institutions, orphanages and homes caring for disabled children, those affected by disasters not only man-made but also by nature, such as floods and cyclones, and now by the deadly tsunami on the 26th of December 2004. 

The main items collected for distribution are from educational institutions in the UK discarding usable books, computers and IT course material; and from hospitals being upgraded, disposing of items still in fair condition such as medical equipment. Members of the association have carried out the collections. They have then been freighted to a registered charitable organisation recognised by the Sri Lankan authorities for distribution to those who had requested help for their institutions in the Island. The Association has for future reference recorded a list of proposed beneficiaries, as the need is greater than what we can supply. The Association will hopefully continue the appeal for items and funds to support those with the greatest need, till deprivation and despair are eliminated as far as possible in Sri Lanka. 


Soon after the tsunami disaster, those Committee members on a visit to the Island pooled the resources of Child Aid Lanka to extend its support in every way it could, to further aid, in particular, to the distressed children. The proposal made by the elected Committee at the past CAL AGM in the UK to make an alliance with the Rotary Club of Colombo was carried out by two of its members. An introductory presentation by a founder member and past President of Child Aid Lanka, was made to the Rotary Club of Colombo members at their weekly lunch date, in December 2004, presenting CAL as a charity orientated association that wished to closely work with the Rotary to further their cause. This was to channel the funds they raise to deserving institutions, with the help and support of the Rotary Club of Colombo identifying projects, reviewing and recommending their donations, and through them to fulfil the request for aid that CAL wished to satisfy for the benefit of the deprived and now traumatised children worst hit by the tsunami. The President of the Rotary Club and a representative, met the CAL representatives, and agreed on how to proceed with this mission of building an alliance. A cheque of £1,000 was donated by CAL initially towards the tsunami-affected children's needs. Further donations were made for underprivileged schools to have fresh drinking water, sanitation, boundary walls, libraries and science laboratories, as their joint projected proposal on a long term basis. Funds were also released on the Rotary nomination to provide a drinking water supply system to the Weera Vijaya Wimalarathne Maha Vidyalaya, Inamaluwa, Dambulla Project, costing £850. Other areas of concern, deprived and destroyed by the tsunami, schools that are selected for carrying out similar projects from the funds available and funds CAL would raise, as an ongoing partnership of Child Aid Lanka and Rotary Club Colombo. These projects will have the support of CAL, to collect educational and vocational material to equip the libraries and science labs with books, computers, etc., recreational items such as musical instruments, sports items such as cricket bats, balls, etc., and items for play areas to help those working with traumatised children to free them from their emotional burdens. The aim is to get those children back into a routine of a near normal life. 

Child Aid Lanka has also funded Zonta Club 1 of Colombo, a women's organisation in Sri Lanka caring for children in a convalescent and rehabilitation home and school in Ragama. This charity cares for children brought in from the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children in Colombo and the Ragama Hospital, as babies and toddlers, as their mothers had no means either to keep or care for these children due to abject poverty. There are carers and teachers who teach, paid for by the Zonta Club 1 of Colombo. The children live there, and are schooled from the age of two till they can fend for themselves. A request by CAL to Zonta to also support children affected by the tsunami has been made. 

A donation by CAL was also made to the Canaan Children's Home in Jaffna on a request to help children affected by the tsunami. 

Child Aid Lanka has supported the Mudita Children's Home in Galkande, Munihirigama, Hettipola, to further their facilities to the orphaned children and others regardless of ethnicity, creed or culture. 

The Tamil Health Organisation UK donated eight anaesthetic machines, ventilators and dental instruments to help improve health standards in deprived areas of Sri Lanka. 

The Medical Institute of Tamils was also given two anaesthetic machines, other medical items and computer books in English, to jointly with CAL fill a container freighted to Sri Lanka after the tsunami to alleviate the desperate situation prevailing in the Island. 

These are some of the major projects Child Aid Lanka has committed itself to from their organisation in the UK. The success of their venture lies in their ability to fundraise, collect as before, items in cash and kind, to further help underprivileged children as they have done before, to have the basic human rights humanity can provide in a turbulent world. 

Child Aid Lanka deeply appreciates the support of their Members, Associates and Friends.