Assist Resettlement & Renaissance புனர் வாழ்வும் புது வாழ்வும்

On 17th July 2016, a cataract surgery camp funded by Solihull Junior School was conducted in Mullaithivu. Eighty elderly and vulnerable patients benefitted from this camp. Head of Solihull Junior School, Mr Mark Penney, and his family joined us at this event. He was moved by the stories of the beneficiaries and was glad that he and his family were able to witness the benefits of their school’s donation. The surgeries were conducted by Dr Dias Jeyasiri, who has been providing a great service to the needy and vulnerable cataract patients. He has already voluntarily carried out more than 1000 surgeries that were funded by Assist RR in the north and east. The camp was organised by Vision 2020 and supported by Mullaithivu General Hospital. Assist RR would like to express its gratitude to Solihull Junior School for their donation, Dr Dias Jeyasiri for his selfless service to the mankind, Vision 2020 for their hard work in organising the camp and Mullaithivu GH for providing the necessary support for making the camp a successful one.

Assist RR  built Kanthan Pre-School in Kaively, Puthukudiyiruppu in August 2013. The school was funded in memory of Late Mr Vigneswararajah Rajaratnam of Toronto and Kondavil, and Late Miss Maheswary Velautham, Attorney at Law, from Karaveddy. Mr Vigneswararajah’s parents Mr Aarumugam and Mrs Annapooranam Rajaratnam, who live in Canada, visited this pre-school on 02 June 2016 to hand over three play equipment donated in memory of their son Mr Vigneswararajah. The education director responsible for the pre-schools was present and told us that the play equipment will significantly improve attendance of the children to the school. We ourselves witnessed the happiness of the children when they were allowed to play in these equipment. When we were building pre-schools in 2013 (6 in total), we concentrated only on the buildings and toilets, as we had limited funds. All other 5 pre-schools that we built do not have any play equipment yet. Hopefully, we will be able to provide play equipment soon. The cost of the three play equipment is £875.

Shri Murugan Primary School together with Sampoor Maha Vidyalayam (MV) were functioning in the hostel of Chenaiyur MV following displacement in 2006 due to the civil war.  Finally, these schools were allowed to return to their homes in early April 2016. When they returned, there was nothing at Shri Murugan Primary except the land. The school started functioning in a house opposite to the school land. When we visited Sampoor on 24 April 2016, we were invited to the Primary School by the principal and the zonal director. Assist RR have been assisting these two displaced schools over the past few years in many ways. They asked whether we could assist them with a temporary building to educate the children in a decent environment. After witnessing their plight, Assist RR couldn’t say no to their request and arranged to construct a temporary building. The building was completed in middle of May 2016 and was ceremonially opened by the principal on 20 May 2016. Henry Amalraj and members of Building Blocks, UK, participated in the event. I attach some photos of the temporary building. We generally identify the need, raise funds and then start the projects. But this project is different. We had to agree to do the work even without the funds. I am sure we will somehow raise it.

We would like to inform that we have successfully completed our mass cataract surgery camp on 3rd June and the surgeons from India and Singapore have restored eye sight, at least in one eye, to 486 patients. There were many patients who came blind and returned home being able to see the world after long time. When many of them were thanking us, the surgeons and the donors, they couldn’t control their emotions and were in tears. The patients were full of praise for all those involved in the camp. It was very touching and heart-warming to see their happiness after their eyesights were restored. It is very difficult to describe this feeling by words. Many of them come from very poor background and have been waiting for months and years to restore their eyesights. They told us that they couldn’t do the surgeries due to their financial situation and that they have now undergone the surgery because of the free camp organised by Assist RR in partnership with Vision 2020, Sri Lanka, The Vision Mission, Singapore, and Rotary Club of Mullaitivu. Thanks to our kind hearted donors, 486 elderly and vulnerable people are now able to see the world. The donors are as follows:

Assist RR have now organised, with the support of many organisations, and completed more than 2100 surgeries in Sri Lanka. In addition to organising these camps, Assist RR have also funded a part of the 2100 surgeries. We are hoping that The Vision Mission, in partnership with Assist RR, will continue to provide surgeons to help the needy in Sri Lanka. We would like to thank all the donors as listed above, the surgeons, The Vision Mission, Vision 2020, Rotary Club of Mullaitivu, wonderful staff of Vavuniya General Hospital, sisters from Colombo eye hospital, and many others who have made this surgery camp a very successful one.

As you are aware, nearly 1000 families, who were displaced in 2006 due to the war and were languishing in four camps and with friends and relatives, were finally allowed to return to their land from August 2015. The IDP families needed support and their desperate needs included shelters, toilets, water, livelihood support and school shelters.  Following a request from the GA of Trincomalee, Assist RR agreed to build a pre- school and approached Building Blocks,UK, which is a registered charity in the UK and run by our second generation. Building Blocks agreed to fund construction of a pre-school in Sampoor at a  cost of £7000 and, in addition, agreed to fund play equipment and fence around the school and furniture at a cost of £1660. The construction has now been completed and the school was ceremonially opened for use yesterday. Members of Building Blocks, who are on a field trip in Sri Lanka, participated in the opening ceremony. This project wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of Building Blocks, UK. Assist RR would like to express it gratitude to Building Blocks for their kind support to Sampoor IDP families. Assist RR has been approached by the GA’s office and the ZDE of Muthur to provide one more pre-school, as the 2nd phase of resettlement of 546 families started on 25 March 2016. The pre-school would assist mothers in the area to be involved in livelihood activities without worrying about looking after their children during school times. Please kindly consider supporting this need. 

To view more photos, please click this Facebook page link.

Manatkadu village, along the east coast of Jaffna peninsula, was badly affected by the 2004 Tsunami. 72 villagers were killed including 19 school children. J/Manatkadu CTM school and all the houses were destroyed by the Tsunami. The school has been functioning in a building built by the parents, a temporary shelter that was built after the Tsunami, in the corridors of the next door church, and under trees. Sadly, even after 12 years of Tsunami, the temporary metal shelter is being used for classrooms. The school is near the shore and within the Tsunami zone. A land outside Tsunami zone has been identified and the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) want to build a school in this new land. People have already move out of the Tsunami zone and are living around the land identified for the school. The locals desperately want to have this school in their new settlement, as the children are walking a long way in very hot conditions and without wearing shoes. The temporary metal shelter is also proving to be too hot and is not conducive for learning.

We hope you are aware that 546 families were resettled in the 2nd phase of Sampoor resettlement on 25 March 2016 following the release of 216 acres of land occupied by the navy and others. We have been informed that no commitments have been received so far to assist these families apart from the hand out of Rs 35,000 by the government towards the resettlement. We were asked whether we would provide some temporary shelters as we did in the 1st phase. I am sure you are aware that we built 55 shelters and toilets with the financial assistance of Shri Kanagathurkkai amman temple Ealing, TTVK Singapore, Sivanarulillam, and Assist RR. We hope we can do more temporary houses to assist some of these families with the help of the Diaspora. Importantly, we were asked whether we would provide some toilets as a matter of urgency, as there are nearly 1000 women and girls in this latest resettlement, who have no access to toilets. They are also living in a cram condition. In order to help these unfortunate people, we were asked whether we would provide at least 20 toilets as a matter of urgency so that they all can share them until they get their own toilets in the future. We can build semi-permanent toilets at a cost of £125 (Rs 25,000). Please kindly share this with your friends and family and encourage them to help these people, who are back in their lands after nearly 10 years.