ABDF

The heat must be addling my brain. My last post was on the day before my half-way point in this years’ season, and I didn’t even realize it. It would have been an appropriate to step back and summarize where we stand thus far this year, and to compare it to last year. It also would have been a good time to ruminate on the future, and the goals we hope we achieve.

Well, better late than never!

• Project Completed Update! (See below)
• Location: Valachenai, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
• Recipients:1 family
• Objective:Leak-proof roof
• Final cost:$190 US

Mrs. Sinnathampi stands in front of her house.

ABDF was shown this house by the Valachenai Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) at the same time we saw the house that has become ABDF's Valachenai SVP Roof Project #1. In fact, this home is right next to that home. It is the residence of Mr. Kanthapar Sinnathampi, his wife Vairaththai, and their 16 year old son, Vijikaran. Mr. Sinnathampi has a series of health problems which keep him in and out of hospital (he was in hospital when ABDF visited the site), leaving Mrs. Sinnathampi to keep things at home in line. Vijikaran is currently in 10th grade at a local public school.

Pushpakaran’s great-aunt, one of the few family members to stay behind in Shalampailkerny after the massacre in 1985.

Project Director, Bennett Hinkley, was taken to Shalampailkerny by his friend Pushpakaran, as it was his friend's birthplace as well as the location of a minor massacre in the mid-80s, Pushpakaran’s father having been one of the victims. But in addition to showing the Project Director his ancestral home, and the place from which his family fled during the height of the violence, Pushpakaran also wanted to help his village. He wanted to know if ABDF could build the village a water tank.