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Batticaloa
Impaired Hearing and Speech Community Project
This project focuses on helping the children of families where at least one parent has impaired hearing and/or speech difficulties. Their condition means that it is often more difficult for these parents to find work in the local community. Ocean Stars tries to help these families by finding sponsor families for their children who are able to support them financially. The money that the sponsorship scheme provides goes towards education and maintenance costs. It is hoped that this in turn will provide the children with the building blocks they need to progress in life and therefore ultimately provide a better standard of living for their families.
Women’s Livelihood Project
This project focuses on training women in the skill of glass and textile painting. The women then sell their artwork as a means of generating income for themselves and their families. Ocean Stars supports this project by paying for the teacher and the art materials needed to run the class.
Nursery schools
Ocean Stars currently supports thirteen nursery schools and over 200 children in the Batticaloa area. These schools are situated in very poor communities and without Ocean Stars would struggle to provide meaningful pre-school education to the children in this area. When Ocean Stars first became involved with the schools, they often had little or no resources for the teachers to work with. Ocean Stars has helped to provide real tangibles such as play equipment, furniture, stationary etc. It has also provided funding for teacher training and enabled link schools peer support schemes with teachers in the UK which helps with the sharing of best practice between the countries. This has proved hugely beneficial to both to the teachers and the children alike.
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We have also fortunate in being able to set up lunch projects in some of the nurseries such that the children are provided with a nutritious meal each day, which is often the only cooked meal that these children receive during the week.
You can read more about the situation and how Ocean Stars is helping a few of these schools in the following locations Addachakal, Kirankulam, Kurumunvely and Little Stars Playgroup.
St. Vincent’s School
St. Vincent’s is a comprehensive, all-girls school providing a good basic education for their students who are aged between 11 and 18 years. The girls come from very diverse family backgrounds, and work to gain the GCSE and A Level qualifications, with some girls going on to university at the end of their schooling. Their achievements are largely thanks to the extra tuition after school provided by Ocean Stars which helps these girls to reach their potential. Tuition and associated books are expensive, and many families simply cannot afford it. At present, 18 girls are sponsored to the value of £10 per month by OST supporters and there is currently a waiting list of other girls who would like to benefit from this help.
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When the Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 struck the coast of Sri Lanka I was working as a Methodist Minister at Nawatkudah church, Batticaola. After the tsunami I was inundated with relief work for tsunami victims. In October 2005 I met a lady from England name whose name was Dilanee, She had got my address from Rev.David Jeb who had visited Sri Lanka after the tsunami to do relief work in the east. Dilanee told me about her charity Ocean Stars and why she wanted to work in Sri Lanka. We began by working with 5 nurseries in and around the town of Batticaola. We supported the teachers and provided the nurseries with resources. We also set up the Kalladay sponsorship scheme for the children of 18 families. The parents of these 18 children are hearing impaired. As Ocean Stars grew in the east I asked for an assistant to help me manage my work load. Ms.T.Thevaranjini (Ranjini) joined us as field assistant. Ranjini has been a valuable member of our team. In 2010 we appointed our second field assistant Miss Kugathasini. Our Kalladay sponsorship programme now has 27 children. We have also set up a second sponsorship programme with Vincent’s Girls School Batticaola. We have 18 children who are being sponsored on this scheme. We also run painting class for young ladies and we support the mental health unit in Batticaola General Hospital by providing them with resources for Occupational Therapy. In 2009 Ocean Stars Lanka was formed as an independent organization with Ocean Stars UK their main funding source. OSL Ocean Stars Lanka is now in the process of being registered as an independent NGO in Sri Lanka. New for 2011 is the construction of our first ever Ocean Stars Nursery called Little Stars. Dilanee and Shona laid the foundation stones when they visited us in April 2011. We hope to have completed building the playgroup by September 2011. We are also focusing on building wells and toilets for some of the playgroups, and repairing playgroups that have were damaged by the floods of January 2011. We look forward to working with Ocean Stars for many years to come. We hope to continue to grow as a team. I thank God for guiding us in various ways to fulfill our dreams. Thank you and God bless you. |
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