HAS COME TO SRI 31
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CANDLE NEWS 1 ST Edition June 2010 This is CandleAid’s first newsletter. Despite numerous formalities that had to be completed to change our name from AFLAC International to CandleAid Lanka, the transition went off smoothly and since August 2009 we are enjoying our new name. In July 2009 we moved the office to the main section of the house at 21/4 (old number 11/3) Dharmaratne Avenue, Rawathawatte, Moratuwa. Since then the 11 officers are now accommodated spaciously and comfortably. Two new Directors, Priya Cooray and Mevan Jayawardena were appointed to the Board. PEACE HAS COME TO SRI LANKA Soon after the end of the civil war that prevailed for nearly 3 decades, CandleAid initiated a project to reach children in the North and the East, earlier inaccessible due to the intensity of the war. Under its COTC (Children of the Conflict) programme, CandleAid has opened 31 libraries in schools and community centres in these areas. It has been a mammoth task to coordinate this project and the team appointed for this purpose under the dynamic leadership of Priya Cooray (Vice President of CandleAid) has worked tirelessly to successfully complete the first phase of this project. CandleAid thanks Priya and his committee for their invaluable efforts. The Committee was made up of Rajitha Fernando, Dakshini Karunaratne, Vinu & Lasantha Mendis, Janaki Perera, Rubesh Peerez, Roshini Rodriguez and Sangeetha Packiyarajah who helped us with all the Tamil translations. Other than the above there were so many volunteers, who gracefully assisted to make this project a great success. We thank them all.
Transcript of HAS COME TO SRI 31
CANDLE NEWS 1ST Edition June 2010 This is CandleAid’s first newsletter. Despite numerous formalities that had to be completed to change our name from AFLAC International to CandleAid Lanka, the transition went off smoothly and since August 2009 we are enjoying our new name. In July 2009 we moved the office to the main section of the house at 21/4 (old number 11/3) Dharmaratne Avenue, Rawathawatte, Moratuwa. Since then the 11 officers are now accommodated spaciously and comfortably. Two new Directors, Priya Cooray and Mevan Jayawardena were appointed to the Board.
PEACE HAS COME TO SRI
LANKA
Soon after the end of the civil war that prevailed for nearly 3 decades, CandleAid initiated a project to reach children in the North and the East, earlier inaccessible due to the intensity of the war. Under its COTC (Children of the Conflict)
programme, CandleAid has opened 31
libraries in schools and community centres in these areas. It has been a mammoth task to coordinate this project and the team appointed for this purpose under the dynamic leadership of Priya Cooray (Vice President of CandleAid) has worked tirelessly to successfully complete the first phase of this project. CandleAid thanks Priya and his committee for their invaluable efforts. The Committee was made up of Rajitha Fernando, Dakshini Karunaratne, Vinu & Lasantha Mendis, Janaki Perera, Rubesh Peerez, Roshini Rodriguez and Sangeetha Packiyarajah who helped us with all the Tamil translations. Other than the above there were so many volunteers, who gracefully assisted to make this project a great success. We thank them all.
Tiruvadinilai Saiva Tamil Mixed School – Through the efforts of Anne Gunaratne and her friends in Singapore
children of this school have new shoes and socks.
PEACE – WHERE DO WE BEGIN?
CandleAid’s answer - by UnitingChildren The first attempt was between Methodist College, Colombo and the Kalmunai Wesley School. The Methodians visited Kalmunai and then invited the Kalmunai students to visit Colombo – they spent three beautiful days
together and formed long lasting bonds of friendship giving meaning to the words “Peace begins with Me”.
COTC Education Sponsorships - 20 education sponsorships were granted to children of injured/disabled
soldiers for a period of one year. At the end of the year, depending on their academic records and need, they will be incorporated into CandleAid’s ongoing Education Programme.
They had no shoes - once Now they do
Metho girls pinning name tags on Wesley
girls
Thank you to CandleAid from Wesley
students
Periyapullamalai Mixed School Library Vaddu Karthikeya Vidyalayam Library
Total No. of students sponsored .. 1300 Total No. of active s’ships .. 635
No of university students .. 251
No. of ordinary students .. 384
Total No. of current sponsors .. 369
No. of local sponsors .. 62 (186 s’ships)
No. of foreign sponsors .. 307 (449 s’ships)
100 University Students sponsored by HSBC Bank
Nuffield School for the Deaf in Kaithaddy - a Braille library, a new playground and kitchen equipment were sponsored by Bernard & Anita Sinniah of UK and a group of teens called Double Happy Dare Devils.
CANDLEAID SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMMES All CandleAid’s sponsored projects continue to render yeomen service to their beneficiaries ably handled by the respective chief coordinators and international coordinators. A few statistics are given below.
EDUCATION The education sponsorship donation has been brought down to USD 110 p.a. for an ordinary student and USD 190 p.a. for a university student in keeping with current exchange rates. We are now able to reach students from North and East areas. Many of them are sponsored by a group from Adelaide, Australia called We Are One Lanka. www.onelanka.org Two different groups (Sri Lankans), from LA and Dubai, both going by the name “FRIENDS” sponsor
many beneficiaries in the three sponsorship programmes, Education, Cancer and Gift-A-Meal. While greatly appreciating their long standing association with our work we specially thank their leaders, Manilal Fernando of LA and George Hettiarachchy of Dubai. GIFT A MEAL CANCER PATIENTS
Cancer and family sponsorships remain at USD 215 per year. It is heartening that many children suffering from Leukaemia have gone into remission and some of them have requested CandleAid to transfer the sponsorship to another child patient. Goes to show that generosity has no boundaries.
CANCER WARD – CandleAid continues to maintain Ward No. 14 (Women’s Surgical Ward) of the Cancer
Hospital at Maharagama. A new team of volunteers headed by Frances Seneviratne visits the ward every month to ascertain the needs of the ward. The team members are Tania Kelaart, Rubesh Peerez, Dileepa Dissanayake, Erandathi Dissanayake, Mahesh Yogarajan, Nishan Mendis, Devika Lintotawela, Randika de Mel and Rukshan Mendis, almost all are new volunteers in CandleAid.
Total No. of families sponsored .. 372 No. of active families .. 153 No. of s’ships by locals .. 32 No. of s’ships by foreigners .. 121
Total No. of patients sponsored .. 551
Total No. of active s’ships .. 234
Total No. of child patients .. 147
No. of local sponsors .. 44 (71 s’ships)
No. of foreign sponsors .. 62 (163 s’ships)
Braille Library The present kitchen
Total No. of libraries islandwide .. 99
No. of COTC libraries opened .. 31
OTHER PROGRAMMES Swim for Safety (SFS) – 3510 children trained since
January 2007. Cost to train a batch of 25 children is USD 375. Training is given free along with swimming costumes and gear and sometimes, even transport. Due to challenges in funding the project, training has been cut back from 100 to 50 children per month.
English Communication Programme (ECP) – The 6th course was held from 22nd February to 31st May 2009, sponsored by the National Development Bank of Sri
Lanka. Up to now 769 underprivileged youth have
benefited. This course is held as and when a sponsor is available. Cost per course is approximately USD 7,000.
Lifeline Project - This project was launched to assist survivors of war related violence and 9 families were
assisted on a needs basis. With the dawn of peace, we were able to bring this project to a close. CandleAid wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the committed efforts of Minoli de Soysa, who designed and carried out this programme.
Indigaswewa Village – Having built and gifted 28 houses to the villagers, CandleAid continues to maintain the
preschool in this village. The villagers are able to do their home grown businesses better now that they have electricity in their homes. Library Project – Our energetic Director Rajitha Fernando has spared no pains to widen the scope of this project. Each library costs between USD 350 – 600, depending on the necessities of the beneficiary school. Most of these libraries are in very rural areas of Sri Lanka – Tennakumbura, Udagama, Galgamuwa, Dambulla, Sigiriya just to name a recent few.
St. Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired (SJS) – CandleAid continues to sponsor 17 children at the above
institute at a cost of USD 25 per month – these are children who have to seek board and lodging at the school as they come from rural villages. Additionally, CandleAid has funded the maintenance of computer facilities for the benefit of all these students. All these and more have been facilitated through the kind donations from sponsors from many parts of the world.
Galgamuwa library sponsored by Speedmark
Europe – Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Vienna, Wales, London, Eastbourne, Devon, Middle East – Riyadh, Dubai, Doha
Australia & New Zealand – Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Auckland Canada & US – Toronto, Vancouver, Texas and Bermuda
South East Asia – Singapore, Hongkong
Name of Bank : Hatton National Bank Branch : Green Path Branch A/c Name : CandleAid Lanka
Bank Swift Code : HBLILKLX A/c Number: Sri Lanka Rupee Current A/c No. 005010006488
Aug.2009 – New Name and new office
CANDLEAID INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES We are represented in the following cities. Our representatives give their time, energy and resources to find donors and sponsors for our numerous projects. Without their dedicated efforts, CandleAid could not have reached its multinational and multi cultural network of sponsors, doors and well wishers.
FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
The eight member Board of Directors meets regularly to review and plan the progress of CandleAid. The office is ably managed by Vernon de Mel and the finance division is run by Upamali Weligodapola, Chartered Accountant. Our accounts are audited by B.R.de Silva & Co. a leading audit firm in Sri Lanka. Corporate Secretaries Ltd. handles our company matters. Audited accounts up to March 2009 are published in our website while the 2010 accounts are currently being audited.
We are in the process of finalising an Integral Payment Gateway (IPG) to facilitate credit card payment of donations to CandleAid through the HSBC Bank.
CandleAid A/cs Accounts:
OUR NEEDS & CHALLENGES
1. We are always looking out for new donors and sponsors as our waitlist of beneficiaries is
getting longer and longer. Please browse our website www.candleaid.org and if you wish
to contribute in any way, please email [email protected]. 2. Getting our sponsors to renew their sponsorships on time has become a big challenge. We earnestly request all our existing sponsors to kindly make their renewal remittances on time (on receipt of the renewal notice) and to please inform us early if they do not wish to continue due to any reason whatsoever. 3. If a donor/sponsor makes a bank transfer directly to our bank account, please email the necessary details to [email protected] so that our accounts staff could identify your credit and receipt accordingly. Often credits are made without any advice to us and they remain unidentified. 4. CandleAid utilises its interest income to meet administrative expenses. Due to drastic cuts in interest rates in Sri Lanka, we need to raise funds towards administration costs through other means. Any contributions or donations specifically for administration expenses will be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Na Name of Bank : HSBC Branch: Pelawatte Branch, Sri Lanka A/c Name: CandleAid Lanka Bank Swift code (BSB) : HSBCLKLX A/c Number: Sri Lanka Rupee Current A/c No. 001426352001
