Driving into a verdant garden full of trees and flowering plants, with buildings scattered around an elegant traditional home, almost a century old, the visitor’s eye is drawn to the delicate wooden filigree work above its doors and windows. This is the Peter Weerasekera Children’s Home at Dambuwa in Buthpitiya, just 21 miles off Colombo, which we were visiting with Singha Weerasekera and his wife Mala.
This is the ancestral home where Singha Weerasekera grew up as the only child of Mudliyar and Mrs Peter Weerasekera. In 1959 it became a home for needy children when he gifted it to charity. The first batch of ten children has now increased to almost eighty and the home has expanded into a sprawling complex of separate independent units.
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| Ancestral home, now haven for needy children |
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The home is a government approved charity which works in collaboration with the Department of Probation and Childcare under the Ministry of Social Services. It is maintained chiefly by private funding which though minimally sufficient for the present is inadequate for its developing needs.
Apart from the older children who live in the Main House, there is a Nutrition Centre, nursery for infants, a Toddlers’ Home and a Junior Girls Home. The Nutrition Centre inaugurated in 1980 is supervised by a qualified nurse and cares for 24 abandoned malnourished children from 4 weeks to 3 years. Seeing these bright-eyed, well cared for babies it is difficult to imagine they were rescued from cesspits, rail tracks and other such outlandish locations.
The older kids from the Nutrition Centre nursery are a merry gaggle of 20 between 2-3 years, recalling to mind a flock of chirpy babblers. An open grill fence too high for them to climb out of keeps them in check but their colourful toys… bats, balls, dolls, bowls etc.. lie strewn around on the grass outside. Although their dining room is furnished with gaily painted tables and chairs arranged in restaurant-style, they are fed individually being too young to eat on their own.
The Toddlers’ Home is spacious, airy and bright with a neat little dormitory.
At the “Little Flowers” Montessori Pre-School the cheerful kids were crowded around their English teacher and dashed off to bring their writing books to show us with proud smiles. The pre-school is open to children from the neighbourhood as well, for a nominal fee.
The girls attend leading schools in Gampaha and several had completed the G.C.E. (O/L) examination in the past. One was awarded a scholarship by the Government of India to the University of Bangalore where she completed her MBA. She is currently employed at leading company.
Another asset is the vocational training given to the older girls. This embraces diverse fields like sewing and dressmaking, cookery and gardening, childcare and nursing. This foundation helps them to go in for further training or find employment when they leave the Home at 18 years as required by law.
Jobs are found for them where possible along with board and lodging. Some of the girls have fitted well into society whilst others miss the ‘sisterhood’ that gave them emotional stability, and feeling estranged and lonely in the harsh world outside opt to return to the only Home they have known.
Each unit proudly displays a collection of colour photographs of their activities and special events - a sensitively conceived approach to create a sense of loyalty and pride in their environment and achievements.
Sport also plays an important part with the children participating in athletics and games like netball and volleyball. A new netball court has just been constructed in the complex.
A separate building houses the computer room a very popular venue for the enthusiastic girls. The home garden familiarizes them with the rudiments of agriculture in relaxed enjoyment. The flower garden, attended to by a professional gardener, undertakes outside orders thereby bringing in much need income.
Leaving the complex we strolled down a shady peaceful country road to reach the farm a few yards away where fruits and vegetables are marketed at the local weekly fair. This is another income generating project.
Religious activity is bonded into their lives with the children attending the Daham Pasala, 'observing sil' and participating in the religious activities of the Temple.
Each unit, with its own Matron and staff is run independently of the others and monthly reports on progress and expenditure submitted at the regular monthly Committee Meeting. The members are mainly retired school teachers from the area who are an invaluable asset to the running of the home.
The Peter Weerasekera Home has in recent years been named as one of the best run homes in the country by the Department of Probation and Childcare, as we saw for ourselves but there is yet more to be done and not enough funds to cover all their expanding services.
The very pleasant chief Matron, Mrs. Namawathie is an old girl of the home, having entered at the age of 5. She passed the G.C.E. (O/L), found employment, married and returned to run the home with her personal knowledge and experience, doing an excellent job taking overall responsibility of this expanding complex.
The staff and management of the Peter Weerasekera Children’s Home have to be congratulated on their commitment to a worthwhile venture which is very much in need of financial contributions and help in whatever way it can be given.
Visit it, see for yourselves and be moved as much as we were.
How to get there
Proceed from Colombo on the Kandy Road and turn right at the Yakkala junction on to the Radawana Road. Proceed 1 ½ miles to Batagolla Junction and turn right. Proceed one mile and arrive at the Peter Weerasekera Children’s Home. Tel: 033-2222095 |
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