EACT educating our children

Nipuni WIMALAPALA

Sandy smooth beaches are a paradise to enjoy time at leisure. However the hidden burden of people who live in coastal areas go unnoticed. Beach boys are a famous scene in almost all the beaches in Sri Lanka where tourists are attracted. Children from poor families are easily victimized. This is an ongoing issue in Sri Lanka for a long time.

Dr Pramilla Senanayake, Honorary President, Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, Chairperson of the Concept Foundation located in Geneva, Switzerland, Trustee of the AIDS Foundation of Sri Lanka and holding many other significant positions in many humanitarian organizations is dedicated to help resolve this issue.

The project, Educate a Child Trust (EACT) was started in Kalutara in1984, helping two little boys who were hanging around on the beach. Next year it was increased to 29 boys. Every year the number of children was increased. In 2004, the year of the Tsunami, the number of children was 872.

The fundamental purpose of the project is to provide all the necessary facilities to the children from poor families where their parents are unable to provide the necessities. Children have a lot of needs when they are schooling. So it is really essential to provide them these necessities. Otherwise these children hang around the beaches and are subjected to various abuses including prostitution and drugs.

Living conditions of these children are very poor. Their parents struggle to earn their living. They are unable to do anything rather than just living. Fathers are fishermen and earn a little amount of money while mothers also engage in some small industry from which they earn a very little. What they earn are not enough to even sustain them. So they easily give up education which they feel is an unnecessary burden. This has a long term negative out come on the whole society.

As Dr Senanayake mentioned, it is our responsibility to help them out to make use of the country’s free education. She has been engaged in this charity service for 22 years. She started the project herself and developed it gradually with the help of her own family members and friends. Now more than 800 children are benefited. They are provided with all the necessities such as books, shoes and stationery.

The project is providing all the necessary education facilities to the poor children and they are especially concerned about providing English and IT knowledge to these children.

To compete with the current world they must be armed with English and IT. In year 2008, 58 of these students sat for the grade five scholarship examination and 21 of them got through. Those who sat for the O-L examination were really good that three of them got eight ‘A’s while many others also got through very well. There are excellent achievements in A-L examination that many students could enter University last year.

“These children are very aware of what they are provided and they try their best to do their studies well. There are some students who have excelled in studies and are very enthusiastic,” says Dr Senanayake. As she explains these children are competent in different areas. Some of them are very good at mathematics, while some students are good at music, art or some other subject. “I am really happy that these children take the maximum benefits of the service we provide.” In 2004 coastal areas were heavily affected by the Tsunami. The poor were left homeless.

Most of them were displaced. Dr Senanayake was determined to help to resettle these people. She understood that building 98 houses is not an easy task and it is hard to do it her own. Consequently she started to get help from her own family and friends. She set up a charity in UK as well as in Sri Lanka. She could collect enough money through them and finally she was able to rebuild beautiful houses for those who lost their homes. It was a big achievement.

“Now the project is proceeding really well and many people are helping out,” says Dr Senanayake. On the August 3 they are planning to launch an Endowment Fund at Cinnamon Grand Hotel to increase their service to children who are in need. All companies, individuals, institutions interested in this cause are invited to the event.

“We are asking for only one time donations and no need to continue it monthly or annually. Only the invitees are welcome for the event and if anyone is interested in helping us please contact, [email protected].”

Constructing a health facility which would serve the health needs of the 650 families of the project, allocating a space for a play-ground for children and equipping and designing the play-ground, continuing the school supplies programme whereby the most needy children (about 800) are provided the wherewithal to attend school, continuing the support for extra tuition classes for the most promising children (about 80), continue teaching of English and IT classes are some of the goals they hope to achieve in 2011.