Sans fuss and fanfare
The “Chethana” Foundation which links France and Sri Lanka has been one of the organisations helping Sri Lankans in their own way sans fuss and fanfare for many years. The foundation sponsors more than a 100 handicapped children around the island, providing support in their daily lives.
“We started as a small association in 2007,” says Colette Remond, President of the Foundation. “We support handicapped children living with their families because we believe that handicapped children living in homes are given reasonable attention but those living among their families are ignored.”
Their most recent efforts though have been reaching out to other overlooked segments of society.
(Left to right) Committee member Gino Spirli, Sri Lankan representative Indrani Mendis, President Colette Remond and member Muriel Deschamps. Pic by Athula Devapriya
“We conducted a health camp with the help of the Army in the North recently,” said the foundation’s Sri Lankan representative, Indrani Mendis explaining that the camp was conducted with four doctors in Chulipuram, a village off Jaffna. They distributed dry rations to 150 families and school bags to 150 children at the Katukulam Vidyalaya in Karainagar. Each family received a 10kg hamper of dry rations. From the money they received recently they were able to bring around 120kg worth of medical supplies which they have donated to the Kurunegala and other hospitals. Curtains were given to the Ragama hospital maternity ward and they also distributed more than 1000 spectacles in Galle and equal numbers in many other areas as well.
So how does this foundation find their funding? “We have a membership of more than 150 members mostly in France and also in Switzerland. We have donors and sponsors as well. Each sponsor is helping a child here. They give 15 Euros a month for the expenses of these children to the foundation and this money is given to the child’s family every six months.So each family receives a total of 90 Euros every six months for the expenses of their differently-abled child,” says Ms. Remond.
The foundation raises funds across schools in France where schoolchildren are asked to contribute to put a smile on another child’s face in another country. These children have been saving their pocket money and conducting their own little charity programmes to do their bit. The organization is also affiliated with CERN, a nuclear research facility in Switzerland from which they receive donations.
They have even gone to Settikulam and Menik farm IDB camp in the north along with the local foundation ‘Tharunyayata Hetak’ as soon as the war ended to provide relief service to the villagers there.
Mrs. Remond who has been doing charity work around the globe for more than 30 years working in Madagascar, and Indonesia has a personal connection with the country. “I adopted two daughters from Sri Lanka and fell in love with the country. I realised that there were many opportunities to help different communities in this country. That’s why I thought we should start our foundation work here,” she says.
The foundation has a day school in Gonapola for handicapped children where 11 children are taught by two teachers. They are currently lookin for donors for the school. They believe if each school can have about two sponsors, they can go ahead and start more such schools. Dr. Kasun Vithana, who works with the organisation visits the families of these children every month.
“This country is certainly very different from our first visit in 1985,” says a committee member Gini Spirli. “Everything is improved and everything is modern. Even in the north we were free to walk and we are very happy for Sri Lanka. We are very thankful to the army who has helped us,” he says.
While they hope to continue their good work in Sri Lanka as long as they can, the ‘Chethana’ Foundation also welcomes donors or sponsors from Sri Lanka as well. They even welcome any other charity foundations who like to work alongside them. For more about the foundation, they can be contacted on gino.spirli@gmail.com.