If you have kept up with my CAS blog or have read my previous CAS post, you would know that this year’s community project for COMUN was to make essential donation boxes for schools suffering below the poverty line in the Puttalam district, specifically the Nagamadu Village. This CAS post is about my experience from the trip to the different schools in the Puttalam district and how appreciative I am to have been a part of such a project that has truly helped others.

On the 7th of April, 2024, Nayara (Deputy Head of Community Service), Vicky (Head of Media), and I (Head of Community Service) set out on a trip to Puttalam. We all arrived at school at 7 am. The day prior to our departure, we had loaded all the donations we had received from various schools onto the bus with the help of the school staff. Puttalam was approximately 2 and a half hours away, therefore we were expecting to arrive at Puttalam at 9:30 although we arrived at 10 ish due to traffic and other circumstances.

We arrived at Nagamaduwa Maha Vidyalaya School in Nagamadu Village, where we were greeted by the school’s marching band playing music. They presented us with flowers, which hold great significance as a symbol of purity and truth in Sri Lankan culture. The school’s lush green surroundings were quite beautiful. However, as we toured the classrooms and facilities, it made me feel grateful for what I have and also motivated me to consider ways to support not only this particular school, but schools across Sri Lanka facing similar challenges. After completing the formalities, we were ushered into the school’s assembly hall, where some of the students performed a beautiful dance to welcome us. We were then invited to address the students and introduce ourselves, explaining the origins of the donations. We had decided to donate half of the contributions to this school and the other half to the other school because we had learned that students in the Puttalam area were lacking in basic necessities. Therefore, we donated items such as sanitary napkins and rice packs to ensure that the students have access to essential needs.

Once we had donated half the items to the Nagamaduwa Maha Vidyalaya School in Nagamadu Village our next stop was Thillaiyady Muslim Maha Vidyalayam School in the Puttalam Town, which was where the other half of the donations were going to. This school was also facing a similar situation with students living below the poverty line, lacking basic needs, being malnourished, and not having the means to eat twice a day.

When we arrived at the school and finished unloading all the donations, the school supervisor told us about the majority of the children who were Muslims displaced because of the civil war. Their families were violently forced out of Jaffna by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) during the war. She also mentioned the lack of resources for students, such as pencils, books, and clothes, and had asked us for a collaboration in the near future. She had also told us that due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the 2019 Easter bombing they have not been gaining much support from the government due to issues with legitimacy and sovereignty.

Looking at these schools I was deeply saddened by the living conditions these kids are facing with improper access to education, hygiene, and nutrition, as the development issues in Puttalam are severe these children are suffering as a result. Looking back at the schools I had realized that more than 5 SDGs were met in the following schools.

The SDG’s:

• SDG #1 (Poverty) – Poverty is a major issue because the families of these schools are unable to provide their children’s fundamental requirements. For instance, some households cannot afford to buy basic necessities like flour and sugar because of their high cost. Because pads are so expensive for some families, girls have to choose between skipping school or using old clothing when they menstruate.
• SDG #4 (Quality Education)  – Since girls are forced to skip school during menstruation due to not being able to buy sanitary napkins and also having an all-white uniform, it interferes with their learning and access to a better education.
• SDG #2 (Hunger) – Since the majority of the school kids are living below the poverty line their access to food is negligible as kids are malnourished and do not have the means to eat twice a day.
• SDG #3 (Good Health and Well-Being) – The students attending the school don’t have access to basic necessities, for example, girls use old clothes and cloths as sanitary napkins due to the increased cost of sanitary napkins which is not a hygienic process during menstruation and can deeply affect their health.
• SDG #5 (Gender Inequality) – Gender Inequality contributes as a huge factor here as menstruation is considered a taboo topic and as a result, is overlooked, therefore women and girls are unable to express their concern for their hygienic needs.
• SDG #16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) – As the supervisor of the second school had told us many of the Muslim kids were internally displaced due to their families being violently displaced by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) from Jaffna during the Civil War. Although 20 years have passed people are still suffering the repercussions of the Civil War.

How much we collected?:

This community service project was a huge success and the feedback that we received from the school supervisors and the COMUN community was very approving.

Here are the statistics of the things we had collected:

• We were given about 3500 packs of sanitary napkins, with each pack holding 8–16 individual pads (a total of about 29,000 individual pads).
• Further hygiene supplies that we got were 140 soap bars, 10 mini Dettol disinfectants, 35 toothbrushes, and 2-liter bottles of liquid soap (X2).
• We also received food contributions, which included 60 packets of Maliban cookies, 10 packets of muesli cereal, 20 packets of soya meat, 4 kg of flour, 35 kg of sugar, 95 kg of rice, and 8 kg of noodles.

 

What did I think (a reflection)?:

Overall, this project was a huge success due to the amount of donations we received from various schools. I was extremely impressed with the support shown by the different schools and their dedication to helping out less fortunate communities. I was quite happy to see our hard work paying off. However, visiting these schools gave me a whole new perspective, I was deeply saddened by the state of these schools with broken chairs, tables, and barely functioning fans. I wish I could do more to help not only these particular schools but also schools in similar situations like this all over Sri Lanka. Poverty has always been an issue I was aware of, but seeing the raw effects of poverty right in front of me was an eye-opening experience for me. It made me more grateful for what I have and more aware of the current poverty status in Sri Lanka.

As I observed the lack of basic necessities that these kids do not have access to, I realized the true effects of human rights issues in Sri Lanka. Seeing the joy on the kids’ faces as I handed them the donations is a feeling I will never forget. It showed me that regardless of how small, anyone can make a difference in this world, which can lead to a huge impact on other people’s lives.

To conclude I am truly grateful to have been a part of such a project that has made a difference in others’ lives, this experience has truly been an eye-opening one for me.

Before properly concluding, I wanted to give a huge thanks to a few people. Thank you to Nayara who had tirelessly worked with me to help pull this project off. Thank you to Vicky who volunteered to accompany us and take these amazing photos. Thank you to Ms.Francoise who had volunteered to come with us as an OSC chaperone. Thank you to Nayara’s parents who came with us on this trip and for the support they provided us with every step of the way. Thank you to Mr.Russo (COMUN coordinator) for ensuring we had a means of transporting the donations to the school. Thank you to Ms.Sukuna from the Viluthu NGO, and Mr.Fernando from the GIZ office in Colombo for connecting us with this school. Thank you to the OSC staff who helped us transport all the donations onto the bus and also the OSC-provided bus staff for making sure we got there and back safely. Finally, a huge thanks to all the schools that contributed none of this would have been possible without your utmost effort and generosity.

Also if you would like to check out the Instagram post that Vicky had made, you can check it out here!

You can also check out the video that Nayara’s dad made here!