ABDF

Manuela Nayantara, future author.

Hi everyone!

Meet Manuela Nayantara. She’s 13 years old, and a 9th grade student at St. Cecilia’s Girls School.

Although she doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, she has three best friends at St. Cecilia’s, from whom she’s inseparable. Which makes the fact that they are in the same class all the better. Right now, Manuela is taking math, English, social studies, health science and as an elective, Western Music. She plays the piano, which she likes, and is learning the clarinet, for which she’s not quite as excited. She also likes to play badminton, but her real passion is reading and especially, writing.

• Location: Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
• Recipients:2,100 female students
• Objective:Supply English Lab
• Final cost:$455 US

St. Cecilia’s Girls School.

St. Cecilia’s is the oldest girls school in Batticaloa District. It serves the needs of approximately 2,100 girls of junior- and high school age. Although run by nuns under the auspices of the Catholic Church, the school accepts students of all religious denominations, even offering religious instruction to the girls according to their personal confessions. There is no attempt made to convert the students, and the school celebrates the religious holidays of all attendant religions.

St. Cecilia's chapel.

Let me tell you a story.

When I first arrived in Batticaloa almost three years ago, it was only a few months after the tsunamis had hit. One day, after watching a van drive by sporting the flag of a well-known American aid organization (that shall remain anonymous), my friend Jesu turned to me and said, "All they are doing is cheating us!"

"How so?" I asked.