Trustee Report 2020
2020 was again a year of substantial disbursements but modest receipts.
We also strengthened our Trustee ranks with Bhagya Weerathunga joining us in Sri Lanka to help support our Beneficiaries and provide on the ground evaluation of potential Beneficiaries in the absence of the ability of our UK-based trustees to travel.
We have made donations of £8,228.26 to 9 Beneficiaries and the development of one core support capability.
Our fund-raising efforts were modest at £1,882 exclusively through personal donations from individuals. This level of donations is a substantial growth from 2019, but still short of our equilibrium faun raising target of £5,000 a year to enable us to continue to support all our Beneficiaries in their efforts.
Beneficiaries
2020 was a busy year in terms of activity across Sri Lanka, both in continuing our support to our previous beneficiaries and supporting new ones.
COVID related issues also made us make a few one-off contributions to assist several people in surviving the effect of COVID restrictions better.
This increase in urgent need has meant that our disbursements were nearly twice as much as in 2019 at £8,228 compared to £4,330 in 2019.
We expect to maintain and continue our contributions over the next few years if we can strengthen our fundraising efforts.
27 Lindfield Gardens ● London ● NW3 6PX
020 7193 1917 ● enquiries@srilankanchildrenfoundation.org ● www.srilankanchildrenfoundation.org
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Carmel Academy was our major project of 2020.
We helped create a Computer Centre and Computer and Language Training at the Carmel Academy.
The Apostolic Carmel Academy is a Teaching Facility for young girls created by the Convent of Our lady of Lanka in Acthuvely (near Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka).
They asked for our help to create this facility.
We made three donations totalling £3,428:
Following are some pictures of the sewing machines, laptop centre and classroom created with our donations.
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Mannar School was our second significant commitment and represented the continued support to the building of the school and community hall in Mannar, a multi-year project with an expected completion date in 2021.
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Mattala Council in the South of the country was our third-largest disbursement in 2020 at £1,185.
Mattala Council has 10 Montessori Schools with 300 children educated free of charge. These schools were closed due to COVID.
They requested educational material to enable these disadvantaged children to study and do work at home.
Each child's pack was LKR 1,000 (about £4) and included a book, a scrapbook, a binder, scissors, pencils, a ruler, an eraser, and other small items.
These are pictures of the process of creating these packages
In disadvantaged families, even tiny contributions can have a material effect on mitigating the impact of external events such as a pandemic closing school.
We consider our flexibility and a clear focus on making contributions to the end beneficiaries where possible one of our key strengths.
The Good Sheppard Convent is a home for Young Women and Unmarried Mothers in Vavuniya.
In 2020 we bought laptops for the convent for both the young women and the nuns running the convent. This time we contributed to a further computer at £316
In addition, we made some smaller donations to several other beneficiaries to helps them cope with the poor economic situation in Sri Lanka
- Kandy Families: we provided £264 to a single family in Kandy to cope with the sudden money shortfall due to COVID
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Mather Theresa: we provided £260 to provide food and gifts to 40 children in an orphanage
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China Bay: We continued to pay for the salary to our project manager in China Bay for a few months
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Batticoloa St Michael: We provided £151 to buy food for the children's hostel in Batticoloa
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Christ the King Girl School: at the request of the Headmistress of the school, we gave £130 to buy food for some of the families of the girls that were suffering economic hardship due to COVID
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Digital Education: One of our main objectives in Sri Lanka is to provide access to online resources to disadvantaged communities. We, therefore, commissioned someone to research and develop these resources for us at the cost of £102
New Trustee
We are delighted and privileged to welcome Bhagya Weerathunga as our new trustee to replace Father Lloyd, who is now retired from the Church.
Bhagya brings with him a commitment to the support and development of disadvantaged communiities and substantial technological expertise to enable us to support the numerous computer centres we already have (three) and the ones we are going to develop.
Future Plans
We intend to continue our efforts in 2020 and keep helping our current beneficiaries and expanding our network across Sri Lanka.
These include the wish to strengthen our support to our existing computer centres and develop new ones to bring the total number to 5 in 2021.
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