A home for helpless boys

Nipuni Wimalapala

Children are the buds that bloom in the pond of innocence to make a brighter day in a beautiful world despite where and how they are brought up. Though most children are cradled best at their own home with parents and siblings, there are some ‘buds’ left behind in certain places without proper care and attention. We strongly believe that whatever the social background they come from, all children must be given equal rights and what they deserve as children, and more over it is our responsibility as adults to make sure the earth is a nice place to live in for all children.

A relief sigh for this exclamation is well provided under the complete shade to parentless and helpless children at the Thapowanaya Temple. This place is like a blend of a monastery, orphanage and a meditation centre. About 40 abandoned boys are well preserved with love and care at the Kumara Kashyapa Boys Home, initiated in 1970 under the supervision of Mathika Matha Society with only five helpless boys. It is registered under the Child Care and Probation Department. The most Venerable Kudawelle Wangeesa Maha thero who is the founder of Mathika Matha Society pioneered this merited project.

Presently, Most Venerable Dodampahala Chandrasiri Maha Thero is in charge of the complex and responsible for looking after the boys. Everything is done under the advocacy of him. The happy news is that boys who lived with limited facilities in the temple are about to experience modern facilities in a newly built four storey building.

Chia PNG, a generous family from Singapore who are dedicated to uplift the living status of helpless children around the world donated Rs. 50 million to construct the new building while the Aerospec Suppliers Pvt Ltd co-sponsored the project. Vincent Chia Kwok, Irine Png Ai Leng and their children Bryan Chia Yu Hong, Keith Chia Jia Hong and Leon Chia Jin Hong will be long remembered by children loving all Sri Lankans for not only their financial donation but because of the humanity and true love they have extended towards needy children in Sri Lanka.

All of these accomplishments are made possible by the dedicated efforts of the Venerable Thapowanaye Mithabani Maha Thero who takes care of the children in the centre. Commenting on the new building, he said that they were in need of a new building with modern facilities. He had met the Chia Png family in Singapore and they had promised to provide a new building at their cost on the request of the Thero. Now they are really happy social workers, since the children have got an outstanding place to live. The opening ceremony of the building will be held on September 9 with the participation of a lot of delegates including the Chia Png family.

“The social attitude towards these orphans is really negative and appalling. Our main aim is to show the society that they also have a right to live as other children without being insulted by outsiders. Unfortunately most of the people look at them in a degrading manner and think that they do not need many facilities to live. They ask why they should give these parentless children a lot of facilities. This becomes worse when they grow up and try to get employed. People degrade them and never try to provide them with good employments. Therefore these helpless boys get disappointed and misguided by the society itself. Our aim is to make them confident both physically and mentally improving their talents”, stressed Venerable Mithabani Maha Thero.

The new building is named Chia Png Children Development Home and the child care centre is renamed as Kumara Kashyapa Children Development Centre. Within the building, there is a library, sick room, study rooms, gathering hall, store room, bedrooms, kitchen, dining hall and wash rooms. A CTC camera system is fixed to observe the things happening inside the building. The interesting part is the entire fourth floor is a play ground which is covered by a 20 feet high net and the floor is finished with a rubber carpet to assure the safety of the kids. They have all the facilities to play whatever sport they like. A swimming pool will also be built in front of the building soon.

Even though they have all the required things, the boys are not supposed to misuse them. They are given a time table according to which they should work. And another main purpose is to improve their English knowledge.

They hope to increase the number of boys gradually up to 150 and these children are taken from the Child Care and Probation department and courts. Everything is done very systematically and once a month Probation officers visit the place to monitor their condition. All of them attend school and some of them excel in studies, sports or music.

The centre provides a helping hand to develop their skills and after leaving the school, it finds employment or vocational training for them.