Fresh-faced and pretty, they are ready to take on the world. Having sat the Advanced Level examination in August and anxiously awaiting the results, two want to do law, one wants to pursue a career in computers and another in administration.
Yes, the world is at their feet, thanks to the Shilpa Children's Trust though early in life they faced a few setbacks. The Trust has fed, clothed, sheltered, educated and equipped them with life-skills to go out into the world, secure employment, get married and join society as responsible adults.
These are just a few of the 50 girls in the 6-18 age group who have currently found a home away from their original homes to blossom out.
Based at Narahenpita, this is also not the only silent service the Trust has been rendering since 1987, at the height of the war in the north-east when they took under their wing about 25 terrified and traumatized children from border villages, some of whom had seen their loved ones cut down by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and by twilight crept out of their humble homes to hide in the scrub jungle, trembling at the sound of a twig-breaking or a faint footfall.
Setting up a make-shift residential facility for these children in a garage at Kotte, with hardly a donation, the efforts of the core group who were mainly teachers had paid off when the government gave them a block of land at Narahenpita on a 33-year lease and the European Union promised them funding for the buildings if they ventured into a community service project.
March 2001 saw the Vocational Training Centre opening its doors to underprivileged women and school-leavers to secure a skill such as cookery, tailoring, hand embroidery, crocheting, computing to enable them to engage in self-employment while carrying out their daily chores as well as looking after their young children.
Some are single mothers, others are unskilled. We started by training 45 women per year but now that number has risen to 300, says Trustee Chandini Tilakaratna, adding that though the training was free of charge, after the grant money ran out in 2004, they were compelled to charge a nominal fee of a few hundred rupees.
The stamp of approval for the centre came when we got NAITA recognition in 2008, says Ms. Tilakaratna, adding that they also conduct skills training for women prisoners at Welikada.
As the eastern and southern coast began recovering from the tsunami devastation, the Trust was called upon to help out with the children in the Hambantota district. Recruiting two social workers, the Trust embarked on the project in earnest, going door-to-door and taking on the welfare of 350 tsunami-affected children, opening savings books for them and depositing Rs. 3,000 per month for each for food, clothing, education and medicine.
"Some of the children were with their parents who had lost their livelihood, while others were with grandmothers and guardians, all of whom were finding it difficult to meet the cost of feeding and educating them," says Trustee Swinitha Coswatte. The children were of all ages, from babies to teenagers and the project went on longer than the envisaged three years with the Trust opening up an office with 12 social workers. "Even now some individual sponsors are still helping these kids," she says.
The Trust was not content with sending money into the savings books but also organized counselling sessions with Sumithrayo for knots of people at temples, schools and community centres. imultaneously, they brought 25 mothers for skills training such as embroidery to the Vocational Training Centre for a week, once again to empower them to begin income-generating work.
Initially we gave them the material, thread and designs and then bought their work, says Ms. Coswatte, explaining how the Trust got into providing micro-finance for 300 women in Hambantota district.
They paid back the loans in full, she smiles, adding that brick-making, poultry, home-gardening, sewing, food products were some of the things that the women tried their hand at.
As the social workers of the Trust were in and out of the homes of these beneficiaries, another acute need stared them in the face. Some mothers just could not leave their homes, because they had to look after children with disabilities.
The 'Ape Pattaw' special education school at Alokapura which saw the light of day in 2009 with just five children now looks after 42 (from five-year-olds to 30-year-olds) and doubles up as a skills development centre four days a week. Speech therapy, physiotherapy, interactive education, performance arts therapy, sports and fun activities, the list is long.
It was not only at Hambantota that the Trust made their presence felt through dint of dedicated work, but also in the Kalutara district where in 2007 they initiated self-employment projects for the tsunami displaced who had been built homes far away from the coast and their livelihood of fishing.
Eight-three women who have poultry, small boutiques, are engaged in batik-making, sewing etc benefit from the Trust's micro-finance scheme.
There were no schools as well and in December 2009, a pre-school begun with nine tsunami-affected children has now in its fold 25, with others in the area joining up.
The Trust's favourite project is the Art therapy they carried out soon after the tsunami of which the art still keeps blooming which resulted in them organizing a Festival of art in September this year.
The entries that were submitted from across the country, Suriyawewa to the displaced camps in the north, were "amazing" revelations, says Ms. Tilakaratana, explaining that those from Hambantota were full of colour and beauty and those from Jaffna sparse and austere.
Art could be a bridge-building exercise, she says, adding that they hope to identify young painters, hold workshops for them, exhibit and sell their work and re-channel the monies to an Endowment Fund to help the children themselves.
Twenty-three years on, if the track record of the nine-member Trust of whom only one is a male, is studied, it is evident that any project they undertake they will carry out to the best of their ability.
However, the best compliment comes from one of the smiling girls they are looking after. When she says, "This place is better than home," what more is left to be said.
Charity Christmas sale
Décor, jewellery, wooden toys, paintings, linen, children's clothes, books, craft items and food items will be on sale to raise funds for the Shilpa Children's Trust on Saturday, December 4 at the Girls' Friendly Society, Green Path, Colombo 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Anyone who wishes to help may send in their contributions to Sampath Bank Account No. 0040-6000-0277. For more information, please contact Phone: 011-5344613 or 2501668 or e-mail: shilpatr@sltnet.lk |
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