Sri Lanka, Badulla, Kandy, Tea Estate


	News Letter 26th June 2008

	My Stay in Badulla During my visit to Badulla from England, I was very lucky to be able to visit many of the pre-schools set up by the Social Aid Foundation. The first pre-school which we visited was Kottagoda. There were only 15 students on the day in question as the weather was extremely bad causing a huge number of absentees; the full attendance at this pre school is 35 students and only one teacher.

	Free Training Centre for Plantation People Having contacted the Social Aid Foundation prior to leaving England, I arranged to spend some time visiting their home town area of Badulla to experience first hand the work which they are carrying out here.

	Sports Festival - Malaiyagam Malargal Pre – School The sports festival was held on 24th September 2006 at Public playground of Kottagoda, Springvalley. The event organized by the SAF with the support of Teachers, Volunteers & Parents & approximatly it had 06 hours.

	The plight of the malaiyagam (Hill country people) The Tea workers of the up hill country are quite often forgotten in a country which has been torn apart by a political struggle between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. The future of the people of Badulla working in the tea estates are to be changed by a group of young youths who have the vision and the determination to improve the lives of the young children of Badulla and thereby helping to shape the future generation of the people in Badulla.

	Giving the Orphan Boys a Home - Chandra Illam, Badulla Murugesu Armugam was born in Demodara, Sri Lanka. The only boy in his family, Murugesu has two elder sisters. Murugesu's father (after whom he was named) passed away while Murugesu was very young and this death plunged the family into tremendous financial difficulty. Although an exceptionally clever student, Murugesu was forced to abandon his education at Grade seven, as the wages earned by his mother were insufficient to sustain the entire family.

	Plight of Plantation Workers The people who are residing in the Tea Plantations are the origins of Indians who were expatriated by the British people about 150 years ago. Then they were got coconuts and Maldives fish as their daily pay. Still these workers are known as the cheated people for coconuts and Maldives fish and still been deceived

	Pre- Schools in Plantation Sectors Thus we praise them as the pillars of the future. We aim to set them on a noble place. Even we celebrate their births in a grand manner. Parents’ duties never end even after they give birth to a child. In this competitive world, it is the tremendous challenge of the parents to bring-up their children eligibly. The future of a country could be evaluated by the growth of the children.

	Malaiyagam Malargal I run a Pre-School called the “Malaiyagam Malargal Pre–School of Kottagoda“. I am conducting this Pre – School since 1999. Initially we started with having only 08 children where I temporarily started it in a shed at the Sri Kathir Velautha Swami Kovil, Kottagoda, Springvalley, with the support of Mr. Yoganathan, Mr. Sivasubraminiyam (school teacher) and Principal Mr. Sagayam. On the 12th of June 2002 the pre – school was shifted to an unused ‘Community Development Center’ from the temporary shed.

	Sri Ram Nursery In 1999 I started a Pre - School in the name of “Sri Ram Nursery” with 30 children at Library Hall of Lower Division, Telbedde Estate, Badulla as a volunteer for 3 years of period. What ever the situation may be, I’ll never leave this Pre – School conduction. I’ll continue my duties with SAF.

	Malaiyagam Illam London Sri Kanaka Durkai Amman Malaiyagam Illam is home to 31 children (girls) spanning from the age of 8 through to 17. The children are from Tamil families of the up-country area in central Sri Lanka; this area is prolifically a tea estate area, and this is where the Tamil families are employed as tea pluckers, or in the men’s case as people to operate various machinery.

Just 64p a day for tea pickers in Sri Lanka
A beautiful young girl smiles shyly and, as we pass her, I notice she is toothless. This girl is a tea picker in Kandy, a mountainous area at the island's heart.

Sri Lanka's 'forgotten' tea workers
There is no electricity for daily tasks in Malar Malligai's simple, concrete home in central Sri Lanka.

Hardships of Sri Lanka's Indian Tamils
Constituting around 5% of the island's population, their ancestors were brought to Sri Lanka by the British as manual labourers at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

A day in the life of a Sri Lankan tea worker
The plantation workers live in “line rooms,” which are 5 or 6 small adjoining units. Each family’s unit measures just 6 x 4 metres. The dwellings were first built by British colonial planters for workers brought from South India—forebears of the present plantation workers.

Sri Lanka makes citizens out of stateless tea pickers
I can remember my father and others working in the tea estate," she says. "My mother picked tea leaves and my father worked as a labourer there. I have never been to school. I started picking tea leaves the moment I began to understand things.

Estate youths seek greener pastures
Growing population of young adults within the community of plantation workers in hill country towns of Nuwara Eliya, Hatton, Bandarawela and others see education as their best opportunity to break out of the miserable living conditions their parents endure.

Tea workers; one euro a day!
These Indian-origin Tamils, brought to Sri Lanka a century and a half ago by the British colonialists, along with the tea bushes that they tend, are in many ways the backbone of the island’s working class.