On my arrival to the Social Aid Foundation office in Badulla, I was greeted by the Directors, along with their many Computer Centre students and volunteers armed with gifts of flowers for me. We had a short meeting about why the students are attending the Computer Centre, and regarding the other works that SAF are carrying out with the pre schools and the residential children’s home.

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.

Following the ball game we asked the children to act out being different animals, using actions and sounds which created a lively, silly and fun atmosphere; it was great to see them all running around laughing and giggling clearly taking great pleasure in the game.

I witnessed a herd of elephants……………

….A lot of bunny rabbits…………

……..and a clutch of chickens, amongst many other things, and the children had a fantastic time taking part, as you can see by their huge smiles!

The second pre-school I was taken to visit was in the Glen Alpin tea estate, roughly 15km from Badulla up very winding and rough tracks, but through absolutely stunning scenery. The children here were very busy, engrossed in playing with their educational toys which were kindly donated by a UK supporter of the SAF in 2005.
The lack of equipment is a great hinderance to the job which the staff are trying to carry out, yet despite this they still manage to do a fantastic job. This particular pre school has building blocks, plastic train tracks, foam letters and cubes to assemble, and a Magic Board which you can see here in the photo. Most of the other pre-schools do not have this amount of educational equipment, which is a huge disadvantage for the children, but the teachers are fantastic at improvising, often using old recycled materials to create things, for example old yoghurt pots and plastic bottles.

The children were a little timid of me, and so were quite quiet and reserved, so in an attempt to eliminate that I taught them how to sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. After getting off to a slow start, the children began to pick it up, and with some help and encouragement, after a little while they were singing it themselves with almost all of the words right, albeit in very quiet little voices. Lots of pictures and paintings which the children had done dotted the walls, and mobiles which they had made from recycled materials dangled from the ceiling, just as you would see in a Western pre-school. The only difference here is that the majority of the materials supplied for painting, drawing and making various creations are supplied by the teachers, out of their own pocket, despite the fact that they receive only around 1500 Rupees per month(roughly £7.50), dependent on how many children attend the classes.

The parents of the children are requested to pay just 100 Rupees per month for their child to attend the pre-schools, and the money which is collected by this means, the teachers are allowed to take as wages. In many of the pre-schools there are two teachers, thus resulting in the money having to be divided, and it is a regular occurrence that some parents do not pay the fees due to their own dire financial predicaments.

Were the children not attending the pre-schools it is likely that they would either be left home alone to fend for themselves whilst their parents are out at work, or will be left at home with a marginally older sibling who is not yet old enough to attend work. This results in many of the older children also forfeiting their own education as it renders them unable to attend Primary School – a vital and essential part in any childs upbringing and education.

Set in such beautiful and idyllic landscape it is difficult to envisage the hardships which are being contended with in these distant rural communities. By being surreptitiously hidden amongst the lush rolling hills of up-country Sri Lanka the the plight of these hard working families has gone virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world, receiving little help or publicity. The education of children is not valued as it should be, due to the family requiring the income from children working at a very young age in order to sustain the rest of the family. Accidents are also common among children who have been left unattended; one 6 year old boy I saw had severe burns scars covering his entire right arm, and the side of his face from an accident he had involving pouring scalding water onto himself. The SAF are working tremendously hard to change the outlook of the people here, to generate an understanding of why education is so important to the children in order to have a chance of a life with less hardship than that of their elders.

On visiting Telbedde Estate Lower Division Pre-School I found a fantastic and extremely motivated teacher, teaching 25 children in what can only be described as a make shift shed made from corrugated iron sheets, and plastic sheeting, set against the side of a Primary School building. Although it is a temporary building, they have now been taught here for over a year as there are not enough funds available to build a permanent building at this time.

All of the children were dressed in their pre-school uniforms, which were all sewn by the teacher thanks to special sewing classes provided by SAF in their Badulla office. There are not even any desks in this pre-school, so all the work carried out by the children is completed either on their laps or on the floor. When I asked what happens when it rains, the response was a simple laugh, as there are many gaps where the rain can come through, and the floor would immediately turn to mud.

The enthusiasm and dedication of the one teacher here was clearly infectious, as the children were confident, lively and keen to show off their work. They sang some simple songs in perfect English, individuals stood at the front of the class and told stories in Tamil, and they eagerly got out their art books to show me their paintings, drawings and rubbings. Devoid of even a blackboard, the teacher had succeeded in teaching them numbers in English and Tamil, as well as the alphabet in both languages and some basic words in English. I was astounded to see that these children were being moulded into extremely bright and intelligent individuals, with a total lack of equipment and teaching aids, but with a teacher whose devotion to the job was paramount. These children confirmed to me just what an essential role the SAF are playing in providing these pre-schools.