The Children's Play Park Project

at Karuwapankerny Batticaloa

Naomi Booth :: Friday 5th August 2022 :: This Story

Ocean Stars Trust UK and LANKA have just completed a playpark project in Karuwapankerny, Batticaloa. From initial talks to the final opening ceremony on Saturday 23rd July the project has taken a year. Nobody could have anticipated that the country was going to run out of foreign currency, experience an unprecedented fuel crisis and electricity shortage, that imports were going to be restricted and the currency was going to be devalued. All these factors could easily have made any project manager and funder decide enough is enough!

We are so grateful to the Mahadevan family for being with us all along the way and for supporting us when the budgets kept changing due to the economic situation in SL. We are also so grateful to our Ocean Stars Lanka staff for working tirelessly to make sure that every stage of the project was monitored and completed to a high standard. We are also grateful to the local DS Office for donating the land to Ocean Stars Lanka so the project could go ahead and impact children who have no access to a playpark.

Seeing the joy, laughter and delight on the children's faces and hearing the squeals of children as they come down the slides or go round the merry-go-round has been heart-warming. The resilience, fortitude and determination of everyone involved has been an inspiration. Spiralling inflation currently at 60%, lack of cooking gas, 3-hour daily power cuts and queueing for up to 6 hours to get fuel means life for people in SL is unbearably difficult and challenging. The arrival of a beautiful playpark with equipment imported from Hongkong has been no short of a miracle.

The opening ceremony was a happy event with speeches from government dignitaries and OSL staff. Trees were planted and the traditional oil lamp was lit.

We hope that the children of the village and surrounding area will enjoy hours of fun, play, laughter and joy.

If you would like to find out more about our work or make a donation then please visit our donation page.