Tsunami Projects Update

The Harrow Tsunami Relief Fund has so far raised £475,000, and specific projects have been receiving support from the Fund.

Vidyaloka College

Children from the Vidyaloka College

The work was completed before the anniversary of the Tsunami disaster. The management of Vidyaloka College held a dedication and memorial ceremony on Boxing Day. A new three-storey class room block, canteen, gymnasium, pavilion and toilet blocks were constructed as part of the re-building of the College, in addition to repairs to all other remaining buildings. The school has also been furnished with equipment and furniture worth approximately LKR 6 million.

The Hirdaramani Group presented the new three-storey building to the Vidyaloka College, Galle, at a simple ceremony held on the 12th January 2006.

Work at Vidyaloka included:

New perimeter wall
New gym
Three-storey classroom block
New staff room (to double as meeting room for OV Association)
Scout room
Canteen/cafeteria for pupils
Re-fitting and re-supplying IT, furniture and musical instruments
Renovating and redecorating all the existing buildings and pathways

The School occupies a two to three acre site close to the centre of Galle. It is close by a large bus depot where 4,000 people were killed. The superintendent of education for the region has informed us that 48 of her schools had been damaged and this was the first to be completed. Vidyaloka has 1,250 pupils, all boys.

Cricket Project, Mahinda College

Children playing in the nets at Mahinda Cricket Ground

Mahinda has 3,000 pupils, all boys. It is a traditional colonial school, British-founded in the 1870s, and nationally well-known. Several of its pupils would have been in the Galle Schools' XI due to have played the Harrow XI on Boxing Day.

It has a more extensive location than Vidyaloka. A large expanse of ground has been previously cleared from the jungle and laid out as a cricket ground making it the only school in the district to have one. The ground is dilapidated and sodden, and the 'square', a coconut matting strip, is badly in need of repair. There is a small 'pavilion' for changing, but no showers or toilets, and some other ramshackle outhouses. The ground has deteriorated due to lack of finance and maintenance.

The Cricket Project involves the renovation of these facilities, with the quality of drainage on the field being improved. The square and pitches will be replaced with new matting and areas of the ground lost to the jungle will be reclaimed. A perimeter wall may need to be built down one side.

The local cricket officials hope to increase the numbers of teams playing or holding practice sessions at any one time by using more than one matting strip at a time. The indoor net will also increase participation.

The scheme will probably include the cost of ground maintenance and security for the first year but thereafter it would have to be self-financing with the standard and the quality of the ground being upheld using revenue gained through rents or hire fees. Costs would be part-shared by participating schools through a rental system.

The Julian Ayer Indoor Cricket Nets, Galle

A new cricketing centre housing nets and recreation space for players is being built at the Galle Stadium, financed by sums raised by Mrs Harriet Crawley as a memorial to her late husband, Julian Ayer, who died in the tsunami.

Hambantota

The Hirdaramani family is supporting a housing reconstruction project to the east of Galle. Most of the fifty houses have been built so far. Funds from Harrow School, the Jones family and the Hirdaramanis have enabled ten of these to be built. Issues involving electricity, water and access have been resolved. A selection process has been set up so that families who are the most deserving hardship cases are allocated these new homes. Nikhil Hirdaramani has informed the School that the Prime Minister is due to visit this community and perform an opening ceremony.

Sivanthivu

Delivering replacement fishing boats and equipment in Sivanthivu

The fishing fleet of the villagers in Sivanthivu on the east coast has been fully restored. The re-equipping project involved the supply of four fully equipped sea fishing boats with outboard engines, 50 sea canoes and a total of 1,000 kumbalawo and anchovy nets.

The fleet will supply a livelihood to the entire population of the village of 300 families. "This will put them back to where they were before the tsunami," commented the project's co-ordinator, Alan Hutchison. "The plan is that the fishermen will pay a small monthly contribution for the 'hire' of the boats, and at the end of three years they will own them outright. At that point I will match the contributions they have made and these two sums will go towards a further community project, such as an ice-plant."

Completion of the project was held up because Sivanthivu is in the centre of the zone where there have been hostilities between Tamil Tigers and Government forces. "I chose to work on the east side of Sri Lanka precisely because the inhabitants had suffered the double calamity of a long civil war and the devastating effects of the tsunami," said Alan. "I hope our project has mitigated the latter and that Sri Lanka will find a peaceful way to settle its differences."

The Driver's Widow

A monthly pension of an adequate sum (by Sri Lankan standards) is being paid to Kusum, widow of Mr Flach's driver Lal. The payments are automatic and the Flachs have been receiving regular emails from Kusum to thank them for their support. At Christmas she emailed them to say, "We will be having religious ceremonies on 26th and 27th this month (dhamma preaching and alms giving) at our house to mark Lal's first death anniversary. I take this opportunity to extend my sincere and grateful thanks to both of you for all your kind assistance extended to me. Much merit to you and may you be well and happy."

Gap Projects

Nikhil Hirdaramani is making introductions so that three Harrow leavers this year, Charlie Pelham (Elmfield), Peter Stephens (Druries) and Gilbert Harrap (The Knoll), can undertake relief project work or teach English in Sri Lanka next spring.

The Lahiru Project in Seenigama

Milos Stankovic MBE carried out the marathon Greystoke Challenge last summer in order to raise funds for the Lahiru Project in Seenigama, between Ambalangoda and Galle in the southwest, a low-lying coastal area which suffered complete destruction.

As the reconstruction process has gathered pace, a massive amount of progress has taken place involving rebuilding and repairing hundreds of homes and reviving employment opportunities for many hundreds of villagers.

Among the projects supported are a Sports Development programme and a Centre of Excellence to increase opportunities for young people in this rural area. Click here for more information about the Centre of Excellence project.

Support for Disadvantaged Families

The following is an extract from a letter from a widow who has been supported by the Harrow Tsunami Relief Fund:

"It was my son's fourteenth birthday in May. Although we did not have any celebrations, immediate family members of my husband's and mine came to our place. My son is going to school and in the meantime I am sending him to another speech therapy class as well. He cannot talk well like others of his age. Also he is very weak in his studies. However he has a good memory and remembers very well the places he visited during holidays when his father was alive. I take him to school daily by bus. I am very much grateful to you throughout my life for your kind assistance. Both of us can live without being a burden to anyone. Although I like to do a job, the condition of my son does not permit me to do so. It is a great assistance you have extended to our family."