Beyond the Conference – COMUN Community Service Trip❤️‍🩹

On April 7th, 2024, Avi, COMUN’s Head of Community Service, Vicky Martins, Head of Media and I headed off to Puttalam, a district in Sri Lanka in order to carry out Avi and I’s COMUN Community Service Project. Just to sum up, this year’s COMUN Project, organized by Avi and I’s was an inter school donation drive with all of COMUNs participating schools. The lasting effects of the civil war in Sri Lanka (end in 2009), the Easter bombings (2019), the global COVID19 crisis, and the 2022 Economic crisis, contribute to the Sri Lankan government lacking sovereignty and arguably also legitimacy, where segments of the population are suffering with human rights issues.

In our donation project, 30 schools were requested to donate items according to two main assigned categories, sanitation or nutrition. We got a large number of donations, which we delivered to two schools in the Puttalam district of Sri Lanka (3h from Colombo – see a map below). Both schools have students that live below the poverty line, lack basic needs, students are malnourished and do not have the means to eat twice a day. Whilst food is one issue, girls do not have access to sanitary napkins. Furthermore, we delivered our donations to Nagamaduwa Maha Vidyalaya School in Nagamadu Village, and Thillaiyady Muslim Maha Vidyalayam School in Puttalam Town. 

Click HERE to view the map itself 🙂

A Success Story 

The overall project worked extremely well. We delivered all our donations and the feedback we received was extremely positive. Here are some stats: 

• We received around 3500 packs of sanitary napkins, each pack consisting of 8-16 individual pads (the grand total of individual pads being around 29,000) 
• We also received other hygiene materials such as soap bars (x140), small dettol disinfectant (x10), toothbrushes (x35) and liquid 2 liter soap bottles (X2). 
• We also got food donations, including 4 kg flour, 35 kg sugar, 95 kg rice, 8 kg noodles, 20 packets of dhal, 10 packets of muli cereal, 20 packets of soya meat and 60 packets of maliban biscuits 

Overall both school communities were extremely grateful and thankful. We got thank you letters and flowers. They were both very happy, expressed through cultural performances and speeches. They also asked for further collaborations in the future. The development issues in Puttalam are severe, as at least 5 SDGs are not met in the schools, and more importantly, a large number of kids are suffering from nutritional and educational issues. 

SDGs 

• SDG #1 (Poverty)
  • Since the families of these schools are not able to provide essential, basic needs for their kids, poverty is a huge isse. For example, food such as rice and sugar are costly for these families, so these basics cannot be purchased. Pads are also extremely costly for these families, so girls end up either not going to school, or using old clothes/cloths during menstruation. 
• SDG #5 (Gender Inequality), SDG #4 (Good Health and Well Being) and SDG #3 (Quality Education)
  • Firstly, gender inequality is an issue here as menstruation is a taboo topic, where women and girls cannot express their concern for their needs. This leads me to the good health and wellbeing issues that are also being addressed. Using old clothes and cloths is not a hygienic process during menstruation – being malnourished and not having sufficient access to food is another health and wellbeing issue. Finally, since girls are forced to skip school during menstruation (assigned all white uniforms are not beneficial here), it hinders their learning and access to a better education. Additionally, I looked at the school toilets, and they are extremely unhygienic, which again is a health issue for both boys and girls. 
• SDG #16 (Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions)
  • The second school, the one in Puttalam Town, consisted of only muslim IDPs (internally displaced people) from the civil war, who had been violently displaced by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) from Jaffna. I had not realized how 20 years later, there are still a large number of IDPs who have not returned home yet. 

Even though it did make me extremely happy to see this project working out, and seeing all the hard work being appreciated; this whole trip to Puttalam also made me feel sad. Both schools were extremely rough looking, filled with students learning in old, run down classrooms. It was so hot and humid on the day as well, I was bewildered how these kids were able to learn in these conditions. I am well aware of poverty, but seeing daily hardships with my own eyes is a different kind of awareness. These kids and families lack the most basic things; things that I, along with other fortunate kids don’t even realize as being a necessity. The reality of human rights issues is so tough, but seeing the appreciation and happiness on the students’ faces made me happy that I could, even if small, make a difference in their lives. 

Next time, one could also look at providing girls and women with reusable pads and underwear since firstly, this would be a better long term solution as our donated pads are one time use and will run out eventually. Secondly, reusable pads are also a better solution for the environment; which would potentially allow me to engage in two global issues (health and waste). 

Before I conclude, I would like to give some thanks. Thank you to Avi, for helping me pull this huge project together. Thank you to Vicky for coming with us on this long journey and taking all the pictures. Thank you to Ms. Francoise for coming with us as an OSC chaperone. Thank you to Mr. Russo, the COMUN coordinator for his support. Thank you to the OSC provided bus staff, who allowed us to transport all the donations. Thank you to Ms. Sukuna from the Viluthu NGO, and Mr. Fernando from the GIZ office in Colombo. And finally, thank you to my parents, who came with us on this trip for extra support – making sure everything runs smoothly. It would’ve not been possible without them. And of course, I cannot thank everybody who donated enough. You are the core reason this whole operation was possible, thank you.

Also, if you would like to see COMUNs offical Instagram post on this event, put together by Vicky, click here!

My dad, (shoutout) also made a short video on the trip, click here to view 🙂