ABDF

We’ve had a great last couple of weeks here at ABDF. We have progress to report on three fronts, all of which bode well for the future.

First, I’d like to announce that ADF has its first volunteer teacher! As you know, the Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development requested our assistance in bringing native English speaking teachers into Estate Tamil schools in the Hatton area. You can read about the project here.

Will these be Anna's students next year>

We are thrilled that Anna Britton has decided to teach at the school in Kotagala. Anna has years of experience as a social welfare worker in the UK, working primarily with children, and recently taught English in a school deep in rural Nepal. Anna is currently in Sri Lanka traveling and has already been to Kotagala to talk with administrators, teachers, and the principal, as well as with our partners at the Ministry. She is very excited about her assignment, and will return to London next week to begin getting her UK life in order, financially as well as logistically. She will return to Sri Lanka in time to start off the new school year in January and will stay for a minimum two terms (about 6 months) and, if she can manage it financially, for the full school year.

Obviously, it’s a huge commitment for someone to take six months or more off from work, and pay their own way. It speaks volumes about Anna’s love of Sri Lanka and how much she enjoys teaching kids, not to mention her commitment to improving the lives of the Estate Tamil community, that she is eager to do this work. ABDF applauds Anna, wishes her the best while in the UK, and looks forward to her return at the end of the year. Thank you, Anna! Yer a gawdess!

Abi, genius First Grader

It has been a month since my last letter to, for which I must apologize. But really, it wasn’t (entirely) my fault; for two of those weeks I had little internet time, and for the other two, well, it’s been real busy.

I first spent two weeks out of Batticaloa; a week and a half in Colombo, and four days in the Hill Country. The last week or so I’ve been in Batti, dealing with work issues. As most of you are probably more interested in our work, rather than my tales of travel, I’ll start with that first, although it’s in backwards chronological order.

Upon my return to Batticaloa (see below) I first had to spend a day cleaning and washing, but the next day was spent running around in town, mostly catching up on project payments that were due while I was gone. So, for example, I had to pay the tuition for Abi, the tsunami-affected First Grader we support. Fortunately the folks at her school know me well, so the late payment was not a problem. The devil in the details, or so it is said, and it’s these little but important things that get backed-up so easily.

Yesterday (June 22nd) I went into Mamunai West Division with Prabha, our local partner in the area. Our goal was two-fold; to inspect all our water tanks to assess how they’ve been holding up, and to visit the school in Navatkadu, site of our 5th Grade Scholarship pilot project. Here’s a brief update on both:

Our water tanks have all held up very well, structurally speaking. The tanks themselves are intact. The flaw in our design, however, turns out to be the pipes and spigots. Both are made of plastic rather than metal, which reduced the construction costs. Well, stuff happens, and now we need to replace about a quarter of the spigots, and two of the pipes. Reasons for damage include, in one instance, a cow scratching herself on a spigot, which snapped off (Shalampailkerny tank) and a road crew backing an earth-bearing tractor trailer into another, taking the whole pipe off (Mankikkadu tank). I’ve yet to get the estimates, which I will have in a couple of days, but I think the solution is to replace all the pipes and spigots with metal, a more durable solution.

Our tank in Mangikkadu also needs to be repainted, as one candidate in the recent parliamentary elections decided to plaster it with political posters. After villagers complained to him, he tried to remove the posters and, when he couldn't, he splashed black paint on it. It looks really ugly, and a coat of paint will be cheap, so I decided to go ahead and repaint it.

Have a look at some of our water tanks; they can be found on our Projects page.

Fifth Graders are spending two hours a day, for days a week, in extra tutoring.

We then visited the school in Navatkadu. The teacher in charge of the project, Mr. Paththinathan, has been working very hard at making the program a success, and thus far parents have been supportive. Continued support for the program in the future will depend on the results of the exam, which takes place in August, with results released in September. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

To get the low-down on our pilot project in Navatkadu, and see more pictures, visit the Testing Project page.