Givology - give to learn, learn to give

Xinxin's Posts

• INDECOS - II

  Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 08:13:03 PM by Xinxin

  Aug 10 – 17, 2009, Matara
  
  (II)
  People working here are awesome. I admit that I enjoyed being with a group of nice girl friends and gossip around :-PPP The girls are very hard working and they love working here. Everyone get along really well. I have to say female staff is INDECOS’ asset: think about WEP or house visits to parents, these girls are from the local area and can easily approach village families, especially Mums working at home. They are good listeners and advisors. The WEP Manager, a 36-year-old young lady (we think she’s 18), said women would think of them when they have problems. They think the WEP team is reliable. Building up trust is important.
  
  
  
  Photos 38&39: Girls girls girls:)
  
  Needless to say males are of equal importance :-P INDECOS director Conrad is a great person, experienced and kind. We shared and exchanged a lot of ideas, he did teach me what I’d value for life. He wants to save the poor through “empowerment” – a word that has always being mentioned by him. Given education, they can help themselves out. We need to guide them to realize their potential and the community’s resources, e.g. help students realize their dreams, housewives realize their ability to earn a living rather than totally depend on their husbands, teenagers realize they can choose a healthy sex life… and facilitate them to achieve the potential, e.g. through micro-credit, or a little scholarship funds. He wants the projects to be transparent, people to be motivated by their own intention. Even when the worst come, they don’t give up the people they care for (they have been facing shortage of funds in HIV/AIDS projects; year after year they carry it on as vulnerable teenagers need the education, esp. in rural areas). The reason I trusted INDECOS to make a difference is Conrad’s mind has every influence here, they believe in creating a change deep inside. Dr. Ekanayaka with nutrition project and Chathuranga with Star for Life are two other gentlemen with the same great heart.
  
  
  
  Photos 40&41: Conrad and Pearl; Chathu.
  
  Time to say goodbye and I wish more time could be spent with them. The good news is I’m spreading this and hopefully soon, we are re-connecting through giving and learning:)
  
  
  Photo 42: Again, GIRLS:)
  
• INDECOS - I

  Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 07:56:18 PM by Xinxin

  Aug 10 – 17, 2009, Matara
  
  (I)
  INDECOS is a mature NGO in Sri Lanka. Since commencement in 1991, it has completed 60 projects and is now doing 9 projects, big and small. The most impressive aspect, besides her high-motivated staff, is that they stretch out to the local community and give really hands-on coaching to the people – they love, and be familiar with the local people.
  
  
  Photo 33: Mr.Conrad lecturing to 15-year-old village children.
  
  
  Photo 34: WEP team surveying women in tsunami areas.
  
  Her full name is “Institute for Development of Community Strengths”. One of her label recent undertaking is the women entrepreneurship development since 2005 (the current project “Women Entrepreneurship Program” – WEP – starts in 2007), a micro-credit project targeting tsunami-affected women. INDECOS is now self-sufficient in providing loans, no longer relying on sponsors. I mentioned this project because it has convinced me that INDECOS is successful at the grassroot level. That weeklong visit to the schools made me seriously consider that awareness to education reckons on family support. Even poor families can put education at the first place when they are convinced of the power of it. We can’t just provide them money occasionally, but to empower them continuously – this is also the belief of INDECOS.
  
  
  Photo 35: Community meetings.
  
  
  Photo 36: Tree planting activity.
  
  
  Since about 5 years ago, INDECOS has conducted many projects targeting children. I have written about MCC (Matara Children Centre), which provides preschool education to kids from low-income families, skills training and scholarship to high school students and other awareness raising programs such as Star for Life. I have been spending most of my time in MCC reviewing their projects especially getting an insight into her scholarship scheme. Since they have years of experience in student sponsorship, and have built up close relationship with local schools (not only through MCC, but also HIV/AIDS projects, environment education projects, anti-abuse campaigns, and even WEP), I think it is suitable for a cooperation with Givology, to utilize its widespread Internet platform to support Matara local children.
  
  
  Photo 37: Dr.Ekanayake delivering HIV/AIDS lecture to village kids.
  
• Inside the Mountains - II

  Monday, August 24, 2009 at 01:39:54 PM by Xinxin

  Aug 7, 2009, Pussellawa
  
  (II)
  I asked about family incomes. Averagely a working labour in tea fields earns 300 Rupees (rs) a day, working 20 days, they earn 6000rs ($52) a month. When there’s plenty of rain (wet season is from May to November, to my knowledge), they might get more but not exceeding 8000rs ($70). If there are two working labours in the house (father and mother), they can expect 12000rs income per month. The problem is the increasing living cost in this country. Food expense is 200rs per head per day, and in mountain areas, unlike costal areas, they have 4-6 children in a family; some have retired parents to look after. 600rs income per day (both labours) to feed 6 or more people – this leads to very low quality of life. One-labour family is even more difficult.
  
  
  
  Photo 28: A Grade 5 girl looking out of the window.
  Photo 29: Paintings on the wall. The "Longing for rain" theme indicates an agricultural society.
  
  The school is not in bad condition, among all schools I’ve paid visit to. However, a lot of help are expected to generate, you can imagine. No lights in classrooms, old desks and chairs, lack of lab facilities, just to name a few. I met the principle Mr. Rajendiran. He showed great concern to the school and the students. As the teacher mentioned, the principle has insisted in developing their school and keep claiming their needs to the government (who distributes resources to all schools), and this is why the school is being maintained so well.
  
  
  
  Photos 30&31: The school off the road of the mountain. Spectacular views surrounded. You can see this classroom building, it's very dark inside - very dark.
  
  One day only, and I could not forget this “surprise” of the trip. During the weekend, I always saw students walking in the mountain paths, and recalled me of this small school off road of the huge mountain. They said there are 15 schools in Pussellawa area, and almost the same size in other towns. All these schools are serving very poor children – the large population from tea farmer families.
  
  From friends I met in Colombo, I also learned about poverty among tea peasant families. A gentleman working in the NGO Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has organized volunteer groups to help these children complete school, even go to universities (it’s very rare), and its Outreach Unit in CPA now is organizing exchange programs cross country. My friend Chandrika from Outreach is now initiating a scholarship plan. With Outreach’s engagement at the grassroots, I wish the plan every best – as we see, a lot of good wills are generated. They can do it, so can we.
  
  
  
  Photo 32: A classroom filled with students. There are not enough teachers in the school.
  Photo 33: Big boys.
  
• Inside the Mountains - I

  Monday, August 24, 2009 at 01:24:38 PM by Xinxin

  Aug 7, 2009, Pussellawa
  
  (I)
  Holiday break! Well the truth is that I felt sick of the heat in the south, my arms and legs were covered with strange red dots – a long weekend into the cool mountain climate can be a therapy:-P
  
  
  
  Photos 23&24
  
  It was a coincident that I stepped in Saraswathy Central College in the middle of the mountains. After a 2-hour adventure on several wrong buses (|||), I met a warm-hearted lady on a bus, (finally someone speaks English! Orz-) She told me that she is an English teacher in a primary school, and she is now going to work. “In the mountains?” “Yes, it takes me an hour everyday.” “How is the area?” “Very poor.” I didn’t hesitate and went off the bus with Renuka.
  
  This is the mountain area in Central Sri Lanka. Pussellawa, the name of the town, is right in the middle between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, where prosperous in tea planting, boomed in tourism, yet under poverty among peasants. It is a huge area.
  
  
  
  I was brought to the classrooms by a teacher. Like many times before, students were warm. Teachers were also showing extreme friendliness to me. Students followed the teacher’s “instruction” to greet me in English, and even sing a song to welcome me. As an “unexpected visitor”, I was fluttered indeed :-P They didn’t prepare for this, they just like to see you there and smile to you. What lovely people!
  
  
  
  Photo 25: You can see some shoes are totally worn out...
  Photo 26: Student attendance in Grade 12 class.
  
  The teacher sometimes told me in person a student that needs special help. I saw these children having class, playing with their peers, and innocently smiling at me. And I was told that they either lost father, lost mother, or have disable parents. In average, there are 5-6 children of this kind in one class of 30. I also noticed that over half the students don’t have proper shoes, many are already worn out (badly, you’d have thrown it away 3 years ago in the US), and some with slippers on or simply bare feet. Note that it is as cold as UK here in the mountains, unlike the rest of Sri Lanka.
  
  
  Photo 27
  
• Inside the Mountains - I

  Monday, August 24, 2009 at 01:24:38 PM by Xinxin

  Aug 7, 2009, Pussellawa
  
  (I)
  Holiday break! Well the truth is that I felt sick of the heat in the south, my arms and legs were covered with strange red dots – a long weekend into the cool mountain climate can be a therapy:-P
  
  
  
  Photos 23&24
  
  It was a coincident that I stepped in Saraswathy Central College in the middle of the mountains. After a 2-hour adventure on several wrong buses (|||), I met a warm-hearted lady on a bus, (finally someone speaks English! Orz-) She told me that she is an English teacher in a primary school, and she is now going to work. “In the mountains?” “Yes, it takes me an hour everyday.” “How is the area?” “Very poor.” I didn’t hesitate and went off the bus with Renuka.
  
  This is the mountain area in Central Sri Lanka. Pussellawa, the name of the town, is right in the middle between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, where prosperous in tea planting, boomed in tourism, yet under poverty among peasants. It is a huge area.
  
  
  
  I was brought to the classrooms by a teacher. Like many times before, students were warm. Teachers were also showing extreme friendliness to me. Students followed the teacher’s “instruction” to greet me in English, and even sing a song to welcome me. As an “unexpected visitor”, I was fluttered indeed :-P They didn’t prepare for this, they just like to see you there and smile to you. What lovely people!
  
  
  
  Photo 25: You can see some shoes are totally worn out...
  Photo 26: Student attendance in Grade 12 class.
  
  The teacher sometimes told me in person a student that needs special help. I saw these children having class, playing with their peers, and innocently smiling at me. And I was told that they either lost father, lost mother, or have disable parents. In average, there are 5-6 children of this kind in one class of 30. I also noticed that over half the students don’t have proper shoes, many are already worn out (badly, you’d have thrown it away 3 years ago in the US), and some with slippers on or simply bare feet. Note that it is as cold as UK here in the mountains, unlike the rest of Sri Lanka.
  
  
  Photo 27
  
• Smiling Angels

  Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:51:55 AM by Xinxin

  Aug 1 – 4, 2009, MCC, Matara
  
  The 4th week I came down to Sri Lanka’s south point Matara. South of Matara District is the fishery area by the beautiful India Ocean, and was caught in the tsunami; north of it is tea plantation mountain area, rich in natural scenery yet poor lives.
  
  I was introduced to INDECOS, an NGO dedicated to community development since 1991. It was thrilled to go over the 69 projects they have completed during the 18 years, and I thought, “what an accomplishment!” As I will have the last 2 weeks working in their headquarter, I may write about it later. Here is MCC show time, Matara Children Centre managed by INDECOS.
  
  
  
  Photos 15&16: They are happy here.
  
  It was of immense pleasure working here. 20 lovable sweet cute adorable lovely (…) preschool children come to school every morning. Some 20-30 high school students come in the afternoon for skills training. Filled with kids and young people, the centre is full of passion and joy!
  
  
  
  Photos 17&18: Preschool children showed me their masterpieces! Very creative work!!
  
  MCC is a place for children from marginalized, low-income families in Matara. Funded by the Swedish Friends of Children in Sri Lanka (SFCSL), she is now providing free pre-school for 20 children; free skills training, namely computer, English, dancing, music and cookery, for 180 students; scholarship for 104 poor students; and other education programs for low-income families in Matara.
  
  
  Photo 19: A girl granted scholarship whose father died, and lives in a small house with her mom and 4 younger brothers and sisters.
  
  
  Photo 20: Computer classes. There are 10 computers in the Centre.
  
  I had a close look at MCC’s scholarship program, from the budget to each student’s profile. The first impression was that it looks exactly like a “Givology profile”! These students were selected through formal procedure by MCC staff. They were firstly recommended by school principles. Then interviews and house visits were conducted by MCC. Face-to-face communication is a priority in MCC programs. Here they guarantee visits to each house, talk to the students and their respective families, not only at the selection process but also throughout the program; they review students’ study and other problems on a regular basis, as well as talk to teachers for updates. Narmada and Rasika are field coordinators. These ladies are so familiar with each student and their family members, “my students” is what they call them.
  
  The program started in 2005 with 10 students funded by SFCSL, and has supported 65 students through the years, now 60 students are benefiting (while 5 are not likely to continue study) from SFCSL funds and another 39 are sponsored by Japanese, Canadian and Australians, mostly volunteer families. From Grade 8 or 9, students are granted SLR600 ($5.23) each month until finishing A-level (Grade 13), or until they decide not to continue study. 600 Rupees is far from enough, but it made a difference; MCC is longing for more funds.
  
  
  
  Photos 21&22: Little flowers!
  
  They are also hoping to have volunteers coming to teach English on a regular basis. Anyone interested in forming a Go to Sri Lanka group? :-P I’m 100% supporting it!
  
  
  
• 55 months after the Tsunami - II

  Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 12:29:03 PM by Xinxin

  Jul 27 – 31, 2009, Galle, Hambantota and Matara
  
  (II)
  3) POVERTY AMONG STUDENTS. For individual students, it is also helpful to offer them a hand. These fishery communities are in poverty. Education is not an extra burden for them like other poor countries, as they have a free system that exempts parents from tuition fees, books expenses and uniforms. Still, raising 1 or 2 kids in a family and providing food, cloths and stationary is difficult. If only we could help students a little, they are much better off.
  
  
  
  Photos 13&14: A school in a very poor rural area. This is the only building it has. (taken at Janadiphathi Mahinda Rajapaks Rotary School)
  
  Despite all the above sad parts, the visit filled with pleasure and laughter. Students are super SWEET. Typical Sri Lankan tropical smiles accompany us all the time! They were waving hands when we caught sight of them, greeting us in simple English, following us wherever we go, rushing to the camera when I was taking pictures… They simply like you.
  
  
  
  Photos 15&16: They are warm, and curious:)
  
  A typical day starts at around 7am – as school starts at 7:30 and finishes early at 1:30. Travelling long distance between each cluster in rural areas took up much time. So everyday before 2pm was very tight, only to take a short break on the van. Splendid sceneries in deep south Sri Lanka had exploited my break time though…
  
  
  
  Photos 17&18: They deserve a better life.
  
  This week was impressive. I saw the schools and their communities myself, and was moved by enthusiastic students and teachers. Deep thoughts surrounded me at the meantime: NGOs always take rapid responses after disasters, but have we considered taking away an existing aid may have put people back in trouble? These schools are all state-of-the-art buildings with high standards; today, all lights are off, computer labs are empty, toilets are stuck and messy, and so on and so forth. It is not the donor that to be blamed (quite a few of them ended up with shortage in funds, or incomplete work, though, and some designs didn’t take into account the real needs and circumstances), but we should be more aware of the blind spots after the short enthusiasm.
  
  
  Greetings from Thallala Maha Vidyalaya!
  
• 55 months after the Tsunami - I

  Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 11:55:49 AM by Xinxin

  Jul 27 – 31, 2009, Galle, Hambantota and Matara
  
  (I)
  One-week assessment-trip to tsunami devastated areas – realizing the frustration of IDP camps permission, on the same day my colleagues travelled to Vavuniya (the largest IDP camp), I was arranged to alternatively conduct a school maintenance survey in tsunami areas.
  
  
  photo 3: Students happily playing cricket on the playground. This IDP school is lucky, it has plenty of space for a playground. But it is dusty in the sun and muddy in the rain. (taken at Devapathiraja Maha Vidyalaya)
  
  It’s more than 4 years since the tsunami washed up this area in Southern Sri Lanka. As a response to the tsunami, donors gave funds for the rehabilitation of a majority of the affected schools. Input in construction was immense, well facilitate schools were built up and after that, schools were handed over to the government. Teaching has returned to normal. This re-visit intends to find out whether buildings and facilities are being properly used, and how much the community participates in the maintenance – it is assumed that an active community participation solves the current problem of non-participation and eventually improve the quality of education.
  
  
  Photo 4: All donor schools have nice buildings. This school is well decorated yet, suffering from extremely dry climate, no plants are grown. (taken at Tsu Chi National School)
  
  Altogether we visited 12 schools. Findings showed that lots of supports are absolutely needed in these schools in the long run: construction of buildings is only the first step that guarantees education to take place. I see the major problems as:
  
  
  
  Photos 5&6: Toilets. No water supply is a common problem. (Taken at Thallala Maha Vidyalaya and Kirinda Muslime Vidyalaya)
  
  1) NO FUNDS AT ALL to pay for maintenance. A majority of schools are rated poor in maintaining existing facilities, namely classrooms, labs and toilets. Some schools are extremely dirty and the environment has affected study activities. All schools claimed that it is lack of funds that made them unable to keep a tidy environment, e.g. no one takes the cleaning duty (no money to pay for a cleaner, while teachers & students are not able to clean the whole school), or no brooms and soaps etc.
  
  To date, not a single classroom turned on the lights. I asked every school about this, and replies were identical: they cannot afford the electricity bill. A number of schools were cut electricity from time to time. Classrooms are dark even during daytime.
  
  
  
  Photos 7&8: One school has bad leaking pipes; the other doesn't have tabs or water at all. (taken at Zahira School and Kudawella Jayawickrama)
  
  2) LACK OF RESOURCES for further development. Currently, except for the government, there are no funding sources for the schools; apparently a poor country cannot afford this expensive (free) education system, and the schools lack outside resources. The tsunami was somehow an “opportunity” to receive international aids, but once the money quit, they remain nothing.
  
  In almost every tsunami-affected community there is a voluntary “school development committee” formed by parents, teachers and principles. This was initiated to help out schools via community participation (through regular meetings). But 2 problems make this function less useful: firstly, they are not able to fund. These are poor areas and limited capacities within the community in terms of funding. Funding remains a problem never solved in SDC meetings. Secondly, they lack capacity also in terms of participation, i.e. discussion, putting forward solutions, execution, etc. A teacher pointed out that capacity building is a “pre-requisite” for the committee. The major reason behind is, as several principles observed, that 75-80% of parents are fishermen – this means the father goes out for weeks in the sea, and the mother looks after all household routines; participation among fathers is impossible while decisions are hardly made by mothers – men dominate decision-making. As a result, the 2-3 time annual SDC meetings don’t bring schools a better situation.
  
  They need help from the outside. Now they feel abandoned.
  
  
  Photo 9: Students and their parents cleaning the classroom. (taken at Rathgama Siri Sumana Primary College)
  
  
  
  
  Photos 10, 11&12: Happy faces of the kids. You can't help but LOVE them:) (taken at Rathgama Siri Sumana Primary College, Janadiphathi Mahinda Rajapaks Rotary School and Kirinda Muslime Vidyalaya)
  
• Emergencies in IDP Camps - II

  Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 06:17:14 PM by Xinxin

  Jul 10 – 24, 2009, TERM office, Colombo
  
  (II)
  Day after day I was planning to go to an IDP camp – my help is small but I know there are chances I can accumulate lots of help around the world. Settling the 800,000 IDPs or nearly 80,000 students is a long-term undertaking and, the major responsibility should lie in its government. But something need to be done by second and third sectors. Very disappointed, chances for a more open international aid atmosphere are closed up through strict permission.
  
  I think, due to the previous exposure of IDP camps during war, the criticism on risking civilians’ lives for extinguishing LTTE, and the lack of transparency in the tsunami aid (not only in Sri Lanka) known by the world as international persons from media and NGOs ‘rushed in’, as well due to the actual chaos in humanity aid coordination in the tsunami, the government is now very cautious towards any foreigner who wish to visit post-war areas.
  
  Gradually I knew how strict the permission is, or impossible. News is saying this. My colleagues say there are only 15 NGOs are permitted under rigid process, all are international NGOs. I met a lady from North Yorkshire volunteering for the Methodist Church and she had been waiting 7 weeks for it – no hope so far.
  
  The organization I’m working for – Tsunami Education Rehabilitation Monitor (TERM) has contracted with the government to ‘monitor’ i.e. support, coordinate and supervise post-tsunami education rebuilding. Gaining the trust of Ministry of Education during 4 years’ work, it got permission to go into IDP camps intending to monitor post-war education rehabilitation. They obtained loads of information in needs assessments (what I am analyzing now), and the next step is to try to identify the needs and distribute aids accordingly.
  
  
  Photo 2: My favourite part in TERM office: children's paintings, describing the tsunami moment. Moving pictures...
  
  I wrote this to tell you that the education gap in war affected areas is huge. It deserves our continuous concern. Currently grassroots cannot access freely, yet time will come when we can reach out our hands to these children.
  
  p.s. I was told to keep needs assessment figures confidential, so no concrete number is showed here.
  
• Emergencies in IDP Camps - I

  Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 06:07:59 PM by Xinxin

  Jul 10 – 24, 2009, TERM office, Colombo
  
  (I)
  It’s been two weeks in Colombo. It is such a massive city that I have to commute for more than 30 minutes from Y.W.C.A. to the office on the other side of the city, and crossing Colombo streets is not as pleasant as travelling the Highland railway. Except for this black half-hour, days are generally cozy: imagine a white-collar work from 9am to 5pm everyday. It is just like that. Though I faced loads of data collected from the fields – SAD data, giving them emotions – and felt that much is needed to be done, I just had no idea how much longer an ‘outsider’ like me has to wait for permission to see the real situation inside IDP camps.
  
  Two weeks of data analysis and reporting has given me a lot of insight into the education downturn in war-affected areas. Not only were children killed, injured, losing parent(s) or, in LTTE controlled areas, becoming child soldiers, all residence were forced to leave their homes and placed elsewhere like refugees, these are IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) temporarily sheltering in crowded, short-facilitated IDP camps.
  
  There are ‘schools’ in IDP camps, though. These are either space under a tree or a tent, accommodating fifty to hundred children in a time. They are in short of teachers, as teachers are also victims of the war. Lack of exercise books, blackboards, desks, chairs etc is needless-to-say. Also, in Sri Lanka, students don’t go to school without proper uniforms (in their free education system, the government provides 1 uniform per student. I have never seen a student go to school without uniform, even preschool children. Sri Lankans see proper dressing as crucial, no matter rich or poor), and they are in great need of uniforms, too.
  
  Absence from school is common, 10-20%. Some areas exceed 20%. Reasons vary, some due to war and some awareness. Insufficient health service and lack of continuous medicine supply make ill children unable to attend school; shortage in materials (exercise books, pencils…) also causes missing attendance – in the case of school uniforms, again, children have to use the same one-and-only uniform for a week, so some are not willing to go to school because of this; there are domestic difficulties. Children are involved in housework, or are sent in queues for food and water distribution in camps. Some parents are not interested in sending children to school…
  
  And there is a high percentage of children under stress. Also some children lost father or/and mother, injured or disabled. These children need special attention. In the IDP camps, there are nearly 40% of them!
  
  
  photo 1: Colleagues in TERM. 2 gentlemen on the right are North IDP program officers; the lady and the gentleman on the left Tsunami program officers.
  
  p.s. I was told to keep needs assessment figures confidential, so no concrete number is showed here.