Educate a Child Trust to expand reach-out programme

By Shezna Shums

The Educate a Child Trust (EACT) gives the poorest children of Kalutara a path that leads from poverty to opportunity and provides education, health and enterprise for all.

EACT aims to improve the living and working conditions of local families. The project has housed and helped scores of families restore their livelihoods and damaged homes in the aftermath of the tsunami.

The project constructed 48 houses and a community centre and currently supports 850 local children with school supplies they need but cannot afford to buy in order to attend the ‘free’ public schools.

In addition to this, the trust has built, equipped and staffed a community centre, which is used to provide after school instruction in English and computer skills.

Nutritious meals prepared by the community are provided for the students, who would otherwise go hungry and be unable to concentrate on their studies.

The trust also enables promising students to attend special classes prior to sitting for the A/Level and O/Level public examinations that determine whether and where they can continue their studies.

“We have many success stories – children who now are at medical school, children studying to be chartered accountants, etc. A health clinic takes care of the health needs of the children and adults,” explained the Founder and Chairperson Dr. Pramila Senanayake.

The Educate a Child Trust is also a registered charity in the UK.

Dr. Senanayake stated that the project overhead costs are kept to a minimum, with current overheads as low as eight per cent. However it costs approximately Rs. 650,000 per month to run the project.

“While the Educate a Child Trust is currently managing to fund the project mainly with personal finances (selling off property) and donations from friends and family, I believe it is time to see the project on a better financial footing,” said Dr Senanayake.

It thereby launched an Endowment Fund to collect a target of Rs. 100 million, which will be invested in order to provide sufficient funds for the running cost of the project.

Sponsors will be asked to provide a one-off donation, which will then make them lifetime sponsors and they could be individuals, families, trusts, companies, CSR programmes, clubs and others.

At the event to launch this endowment fund, some of the students and parents who previously received or are currently receiving assistance were also present.

Maduwanthi Alwis is a final year student at the University of Rajarata studying Environmental Studies and the Educate a Child trust helps her continue her university education by providing her with the necessary material and expenses needed for her education.

Dulanjith Wathsala, a 12-year-old studying at the Potuwithiya Maha Vidyalaya, is in grade seven and is assisted by the trust, which provides him with the stationary, school uniforms and shoes that he needs to continue his schooling.

Dulanjith has two siblings, his father works as a driver at the Tangerine Hotel and his mother is a homemaker. He also attends the English and computer classes conducted by the Educate a Child trust at their community centre.

Dinu Kaushika is a student at Royal College and the Educate a Child Trust helps him with the stationary that he needs for his schooling as well as for the tuition classes he attends. Dinu too attends the English and computer classes that are conducted at the Educate a Child Trust’s community centre.

His mother Shiyamali Gunasekera said that her younger brother Kumara Gunasekera was also a recipient of Educate a Child trust years ago and added that it was good that children were being helped in this way so that they could continue their education. Shiyamali prays that this trust continues and is grateful to Dr. Senanayake for all the help she is giving to this cause. “I cannot express how grateful I am for Dr. Pramila Senanayake and I pray for her health and long life for this work to continue,” she stated.

Minoli Fernando is studying to be a Chartered Accountant and she had been receiving assistance from the age of 16 for her education by getting the required school stationary supplies, school shoes, bag and other items that are needed. Her father has passed away and her mother works as a security officer so the Educate a Child Trust is working helping her continue her education.

Tissa, a 25-year-old, has completed his nursing degree and is currently working at Hemas Hospital as a staff nurse. The Educate a Child Trust has helped him greatly he said, because the assistance allowed him to continue with his A/Levels and further education.

“Now I am confident and in a good position and I hope to help other children like myself who need assistance to continue their education,” he said.

Tissa is also fortunate as he is also a part of a Ministry of Health programme, which allows qualified Sri Lankans to be sponsored for a job in Canada and obtain residency there.

Dr. Senanayake declared that education means a lot to her – this whole project was started when she and her family were holidaying in Kalutara and her son was playing with two other boys. She later found that the two other boys were out of school because their parents could not afford the school supplies to send them to the free public schools and this chance encounter led to the initiation of the trust.

To date, over 17,000 students have benefited from this trust and many students have managed to complete their school education, university educations, enter medical college and other universities and have even travelled abroad in search of greener pastures.

The Educate a Child Trust programme targets for 2011 include raising funds for an endowment of $ 1,000,000. The annual interest from the endowment will fund the education, medical, and housing needs of the EACT community and the principal will remain intact.

In addition to this, the trust hopes to expand the health clinic to accommodate 650 families, an increase of 400 families and to create a children’s playground on newly-acquired land.

It hopes to continue to equip more than 800 needy children with the books, uniforms, and basic supplies required for students to attend free public schools as well as to provide extra tuition classes for the most promising children (about 80).

The trust further plans to extend the teaching of English and IT classes to more than 150 students, provide hot lunches for the children attending after school classes in IT and English and expand on skills building programmes in sewing and chutney making for the community members.

From a medical point of view, it hopes to develop its medical consultation programme that links the families to doctors in Colombo via the web and continue the health education sessions that provide information and counselling on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, family planning, clean water, sanitation and pre-natal care.

Finally, the trust also hopes to enable each family to have access to alternative sources of energy, such as wood-gas cookers and solar energy and train families in environmentally-friendly practices.

Pix by Krishan Ranasinghe

From left: Ravindu Amantha, Maduwanthi Alwis, Minoli Fernando, Shanika Abeyratne, Dulanjith Wathsala, Janith Wanshappriya, Dinu Kaushika and Rajith Benaragama