CommunityFriends

New friends in Cambodia

admin — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:25:32 +0000

CommunityFriends has a new partner in Cambodia. We have made a small grant to a school that promotes bilingual literacy to school-age children. Multi-lingualism is a profound enabler of self-sufficiency and in the context of Cambodia an outstanding alternative for young people who are looking for a better path forward. The grant was funded by CommunityFriends.

Medical Clinic for tea estate workers

admin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 04:49:17 +0000

Since September 2007 volunteers from CF have been visiting the community of Waitalawa in Sri Lanka’s upcountry highlands to hold a free medical clinic for villagers. This community is made up of fourth generation tea estate workers, descendants of Tamil laborers originally brought to Sri Lanka by the English during colonial times. In fact, the community clinic facility is located in the plantation overseer’s former residence. This may seem like an unusual activity for a non-profit that is focused on micro-entrepreneurship. But, just like our school lunch program in Ulla, Sri Lanka, we observed that the conditions all around us spoke louder to us than our preconceived ideas about what we were there to do. Fortunately, Deva and Seevali, our Sri Lankan directors, have access to a large pool of interested volunteers via SMS, their 300-member society based in that country. So we were fortunate enough to have three doctors contribute their time, equipment and broad experience in helping the tiny community in Waitalawa.

During the day, our three doctors, AJITH, TILINA and SHALIKA (front left to right), along with Deva and Seevali (left to right rear) visited with over 80 villagers. For many of these villagers it was the first visit they had experienced with a doctor in decades. The utter lack of medical support in the region meant that people with ailments from far and wide came looking for help as soon as word made it out. Due to the volume of patients, we issued numbers to folks in the “waiting area”.

School Lunch in post-Tsunami village

admin — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:41:31 +0000

CommunityFriends’ work in Sri Lanka began in the village of Ulla, in the Arugam Bay region of Sri Lanka. In the weeks following the Tsunami, CF co-founders Carsten Henningsen, Deva Ratnakara, Seevali Ratnakara and Jeeva Maddumage led a group of doctors, nurses and other volunteers to Ulla. Carrying food, water, water-purification equipment, hundreds of battery-less flashlights, and stacks of artwork sent as well-wishes by schoolchildren in Portland, Oregon, they were among the first people to reach this remote village with tangible help.

Since those early days, CF’s interaction with the community has been accomplished through the village school, its teachers and principal. Funds raised by CF helped pay for new school uniforms for the surviving children, new school books, and other critical items needed to get the school functioning.

Almost immediately after getting to know the community in Ulla, it became apparent that there was an urgent need to properly feed the 100 or so children coming to the village school each day. In fact, we learned that this need predated the tsunami, serving as an indication of just how significantly the community was suffering and how inadequate the local economy was in supporting the basic needs of the families living there. So it became immediately clear what was needed in Ulla.

Thus, we developed a program with several goals in mind:

1) feed all the children in the community,
2) maximize school attendance,
3) encourage community involvement in the Program,
4) maximize the nutritional content of these lunches,
5) achieve self-administration of the Program.

Working together with the parents and community educators developed a School Lunch Program. As of today, over 50,000 hot meals have been served by parent volunteers since the inception of this program. And we are very satisfied in saying that school attendance has soared by over 25% since this Program began.

Now, two years later, the village and local government have taken over this Program and are able to continue this important work without additional assistance from CommunityFriends.