Education Sri Lanka Project #46437

Empower 240 disabled children and adults

by Prithipura Communities

Project Report | Jun 21, 2022
Your support sustains us

By Katherine De Kretser | Project Leader

Rice cultivation

There has been huge political and economic turmoil in Sri Lanka in recent months. It has been a challenging time and the impact is affecting everyone.

Record rates of inflation means eye-watering price increases in essential goods as well as significant supply issues. Frequent power cuts combined with shortages of gas, petrol and diesel mean daily struggles. Your generous support, yet again, has made things easier. The resilience and innovation of our fabulous staff team has also meant that everyone remains happy and healthy. Food production has increased at all our locations, but daily life continues and there’s still been time to celebrate special occasions and enjoy each other’s company.

The team at Cotagala School have rejuvenated an abandoned paddy field and are currently waiting for their second harvest. It’s an activity that many have been involved with in some capacity – agricultural workers, teachers and students. The students have enjoyed learning how to grow rice and then being able to see and taste their harvest!

At the Infants Home, regular pool activities have kept the children and adults with disabilities that live there happy and active. The school room is also a hive of activity every day with those that participate developing new skills through play, song and creative pursuits.

Vesak, a Buddhist celebration that commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha, was also creatively enjoyed with handmade lanterns and religious observances.

You can read more about our recent activities in our newsletter here.

Thanks once again to everyone has donated and supported our work, especially to our regular donors who collectively donate over $550 on a monthly basis!

Elisa at the Infants Home

School room - Infants Home

Making Vesak lanterns

Handmade lanterns for Vesak

Celebrating Vesak

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Feb 22, 2022
You've done it again!

By Katherine de Kretser | Project Leader

Thanks to you:

We have raised $11,300 since the start of our annual fundraising campaign in December 2021.
We have 19 regular donors who contribute $760 on a monthly basis.
Our salary fund is secure for 2022.

This is a massive achievement and it’s all down to you – our lovely friends and supporters!

In 2021, we received 2 large donations via the GlobalGiving platform, one from GlobalGiving as part of the Coronavirus Relief Fund and another from a large international funder. As these were entirely unexpected and in addition to our usual funding sources we thought long and hard about the best use of these funds.

As many of you will know, our hardworking team of carers, teachers and farm workers have played an essential role in keeping everyone safe, happy and healthy in the last two years. Many have made personal sacrifices to protect the vulnerable children and adults who live with us. We would not be where we are today if it was not for their dedication and commitment.

Unfortunately, the pandemic and other factors have meant that Sri Lanka is in the midst of a economic crisis. Inflation is at an all time high and costs of basic essentials are raising daily. This has a direct impact on many of those who work for us. Our long-term plan has always been to keep ensuring that our salaries are competitive in order to build staff retention as well as to continue to attract new staff.

As such, we have decided to use these extra funds to support a significant increase in the basic salary of our amazing team. The extra funds received will support the increase for the next 3 years.

Once again, we need to thank you again for our ability to do this. Not only have your donations meant that we can keep funding our usual activities, the fact that you have donated via GlobalGiving has meant higher exposure for us on the GlobalGiving platform, which attracts a wider range of donors from all round the world!

You can find out more about our amazing team in our upcoming newsletter – sign up to receive it direct to our mailbox:

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Are you interested in continuing to support us in 2022?

Find out more about monthly donations here.

Thank as always for your support, it truly means the world to us!

With love from us all at Prithipura Communities xxx

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Nov 1, 2021
Update on vaccination roll-out at Prithipura

By Katherine de Kretser | Project Leader

Vaccs for those aged 16-30 at the Infants Home

Yet again, your support has kept us going! Since our last report in July, we have received an additional $13,400 through those donating via the GlobalGiving platform. These funds continue to provide the essentials for the children and adults with disabilities who live with us.

Sri Lanka came out of yet another nationwide lockdown recently that lasted several months, due to an increase in the delta variant. This meant that transmission of COVID-19 increased rapidly and hospitals faced huge problems with managing capacity.

Vaccine roll-out success

In the last few months we are delighted that everyone at all our branches who is over 18 (and some over 16s) have been vaccinated. The local Ministry of Health teams have visited each branch to do this safely, so that vulnerable people have not had to go out in the community and join long vaccination queues in their local areas.

We realise, however, that this does not protect everyone. We are very concerned about those under 18 with particular health conditions, who have not yet had a chance to have the vaccine. There is no doubt that all of us at Prithipura – residents and staff alike – want to make sure we continue to protect each other, not just ourselves. We are all in this together and have been since the beginning of the pandemic and this will certainly continue! Therefore, our 4 branches remain closed to visitors and we continue with care and extreme caution when people do have to go out. Our protocol is well established and continues to work well.

Plans for 2022

With so much unknown at the moment, we know that our funding may be unstable in 2022. Furthermore, it is really important that our amazing team of carers, teachers and farm workers continue to be adequately remunerated for the work they do. Their contributions have been particularly impressive since the onset of the pandemic where everyone has pulled together to keep those at Prithipura Communities happy and healthy.

We will therefore be launching a fundraising campaign for 2022 on Giving Tuesday - November 30^th. As in other years, GlobalGiving is giving away extra funds for donations made on their platform on that day, so as usual it’s an excellent day to make a contribution and spread the word about what we do – further details to follow shortly.

Thank you!

Thank you to all those who have supported us. It really does mean the world to us. Special thanks to our 17 regular donors who in total donate nearly $600 to us on a monthly basis. This regular support is really important. You can set up a regular donation here:

Set up a monthly donation

Vaccinations at Cotagala School

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