Assist Resettlement & Renaissance புனர் வாழ்வும் புது வாழ்வும்

During April/May 2014, Assist RR visited many remote villages in Trincomalee district including Sampoor. There are nearly 850 families still living in camps.  Assist RR visited Kunithivu and Sulaikuda, where 350 families were resettled recently, and saw the issues facing the recently resettled people. They also visited the school in the village, where two schools are currently functioning in a small building built by an INGO. People of Kunithivu and Sulaikuda are facing various difficulties in normalising their lives. Many houses are still without roofs and many are jobless.  When Assist RR spoke to the this villagers, they asked Assist RR to provide livelihood support. They also need support to rebuild their houses. Assist RR also met some residents of the welfare centre in Kaddaiparichan. Even though they have been struggling to survive, they asked Assist RR to help their children to learn.  There were two schools including Sampoor MV, which served this village before the war, and are now functioning temporarily in the hostel of Chenaiyur MV. Assist RR went back to Sampoor MV next day and provided exercise books and pens worth Rs 50,000 to O/L and A/L students. Desks and chairs suitable for primary school children are being used in these temporary schools for the secondary students, which create Knee Joint pain and make it very uncomfortable for them to learn. Assist RR believes that they should be helped by donating new desks and chairs. Assist RR also learnt that some of the A/L & O/L students, including 4 girls, have been walking to the school from Kunithivu, which is nearly 5 kms. Assist RR went back to Kunithivu and donated 10 bicycles to these students from Kunithivu.

       
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After 5 years since the end of the war in 2009, the first in-patient ward (medical), which was built by Assist RR, was declared open by Mr Vethanayagan, Mullaithivu GA, on 07 May 2014 at a simple ceremony attended by the hospital staff and local development society representatives. Assist RR initiated, managed and completed this ground floor of a two-storied ward complex project using funds raised by Assist RR and Serendip Children’s Home at a cost of around £30,000.  Assist RR has contributed nearly £20k and Serendip Children’s Home has contributed £10k through Keiran Arasaratnam’s long walk fund raising event in Sri Lanka. Assist RR also provided furniture to the ward and arranged medical equipment worth Rs 2.5 Million through Australian Medical Aid Foundation. Local residents appreciated the assistance provided by Assist RR and said that Assist RR has been helping the war affected people in Vanni in many ways, which also help them to forget the war, as traces of war are being removed by the infrastructure projects carried out by Assist RR.

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Click here for the youtube link of the opening ceremony

Please click here for “Athavan TV” news item on the opening ceremony

Members of Assist RR have been travelling between the districts of Kilinochchi and Amparai to carry out basic needs assessment. They have managed to cover many remote and elephant roaming villages including Koddaikaddiyakulam in Thunukkai, Sampoor in Trincomalee, number of colonies in Batticaloa and Alikambai in Amparai (Alikambai village has an interesting history and deserves a special report). Although people in these villages struggle for survival, their main requests have been to help their children to learn. Assist RR learnt that nearly 95% of children from these villages choose Arts/Commerce subjects due to science teacher shortages and their inability to have private tuitions to improve their knowledge of maths/science subjects. Please kindly read the attached full report below. The children from remote villages need to be helped. Assist RR believes that this is a serious issue and there will be consequences, if we do not help them now. Assisting the current generation would eventually help the future generation and improve their chances to succeed. Assist RR hope some of you would consider supporting helping these children and the 42 boys, who are boarded at Kalmunai St Mary’s Boys Home, as detailed below.

        

This school is located in the vicinity of Puthukudiyiruppu hospital and was badly damaged during the war. It started functioning in September 2012 after the end of war. Currently, there are 445 students, from Year 1 to GCE O/L, learning here. The school infrastructure included a temporary shelter built by UNICEF, a permanent building recently built by Child Fund, and the badly damaged building, in which six classes were being conducted. Following Assist RR’s visit towards the end of Jan 2014 and appeal for funds to renovate this school building, a generous and kind-hearted Malaysian family with roots in Urumpirai pledged funds around Rs 2.2 Million to renovate this school building. Assist RR would like to thank the family for their kind support. Assist RR started the project in March 2014 and the school was re-opened by Mullaithivu GA, Mr Vethanayagan, on 22 April 2014 at a ceremony attended by Mr Navaneetharajah representing his family. Northern Provincial Education Director, Mr Selvarajah also attended the ceremony. The donors provided meals to all school children and to the guests at the re-opening ceremony at their expenses.

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Click here for PTK RC School Opening Ceremony video

There are many villages in Mullaithivu district, which are not connected to the main grid for electricity supply, and students are struggling to learn using kerosene lamps due to their financial situation. It is estimated that a family needs to spend nearly Rs 22,000 per annum to use kerosene lamp.  When many families struggle to feed their children, kerosene is not their priority. This can be resolved by providing solar powered lamps, which would save money on kerosene and enable the children to learn at home in the evenings. Following Assist RR’s appeal, Anbaalayam and Tamil Engineers Foundation, both charitable organisations from Australia have provided funds to import 450 lamps from China. These lamps were distributed to villagers in Mullivaikal and Ambalavanpokkanai and to needy O/L & A/L students in remote areas of Thunukkai on 20/21 April 2014.  In addition to this, a second shipment of clothes was sent again in March 2014 after Assist RR collected them from kind hearted people in the UK. These clothes were distributed to nearly 75 families in Valayarmadam, which is located between Mullivaikal and Puthumathalan. People were very pleased to receive these clothes and thanked Assist RR, which has already started collecting more  clothes to be given to people of Puthumathalan.

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Since the creation of  our charity in November 2012, and making our first fact finding mission to Vanni in March 2013, we have completed a number of projects worth £100k (Rs 21.1 Million) with funds raised by Assist RR in the areas of Education, Livelihood and Healthcare in the East and North. These projects have been implemented with the assistance of Mullaithivu District Educational Development Trust Fund headed by Mullaithivu GA, Mr Vethanayagan, and Assist RR’s Sri Lankan coordinator, Rotarian Henry Amalraj on a voluntary basis. Not even a single penny or cent was used on any overheads or expenses including travels to Sri Lanka by the trustees of Assist RR. Funds raised are used 100% on assisting the needy. Detailed reports on each project are given in this page of our website.  Two sets of photos are given below: one for the very first pre-school project completed in June 2013 in Mullivaikal East; the second set for the recently completed 8th school project in January 2014 in Mullivaikal West.  Please click the link below for full details.

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Assist RR has been funding an “After School Tuition” programme to assist GCE O/L & A/L students in Mullaithivu district since June 2013. Serendip part funded (Rs 100k per month for 5 months) and stopped funding since the end of last year. Tamil Forum Malaysia has now agreed to pay 50% of the cost of this programme from the beginning of this year. Hartley College Past Pupils’ Association of NSW, Australia contributes Rs 25,600 per month for one year towards the A/L tuitions in Mullaithivu Zone. Assist RR endeavour to fund the rest of the cost through our existing Standing Order donations and Money Box collections from shops in the UK but would still need more funds to run this. Assist RR believes that it should keep supporting these war affected students. Recent evaluation process indicates that the programme is helping the students. The results also show that they need more help and support especially in Chemistry & Physics. Following Assist RR’s appeal, Anbaalayam and Tamil Engineers Foundation, both charities from Australia have provided funds to import 450 solar powered lamps from China.  These lamps will be distributed to needy A/L students in remote areas of Thunukkai and villagers in Mullivaikal in April 2014.

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