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OSI - Sri Lanka |
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Pamunugama The
Home
-
Photos -
Our
Personnel - The
Community - Geography
Today,
the home accommodates up to 50 orphaned and socially-orphaned girls, aged
6-18. Many of the girls are from impoverished families and while
they visit family and relatives during holidays, are otherwise permanent
residents of the home. The home is as wonderfully warm and
nourishing as it can be. Yet with such a large number of children,
OSI sponsorship helps to provide each of these girls with a sense of
individuality. The home is operated by Sri Lankan
charity "National Council for Child and Youth Welfare," with minimal means. For the Pamunugama home, OSI
sponsorship assures that the children's needs are fully met on a secure
basis, from their nutritional needs, to the costs of running the home, to
more individualized items like clothing, medications, school fees and
supplies, and gifts for birthdays and special events.
Photos
(click for larger image) The lane leading to the orphanage...
Caretaker Martin mans the gate...
Front view (study room to the far right)...
Entering the home from the front entrance...
For the littler kids, on the far side of the common room...
For the older kids,
on the veranda just out the back doors of the common room...
Just out the back doors of the common room, with the kitchen on the far side...
The cook, Asalin, and her helper Deepika; cooking is still done on an open fire...
Back side of the kitchen; Sandamali and Nimanthi helping out...
From the kitchen, looking back towards the common room on the right, and the third sleeping room at the far end...
Adjoining the courtyard, sleeping up to 12 children...
In the second
building, a few steps behind the main building and the third sleeping room; with bunked beds, sleeps up to 20 children...
In the second building, adjacent to main building; for daily mandatory, supervised and assisted after-school study...
Where most of our girls attend, a 30-minute walk from the home; with some of our girls posing in front with fellow classmates, in mandatory uniform...
Open-air classrooms spread across a large grounds...
Sugandika, Nirosha, Santhana, in uniform, headed to class...
Walking home after school
(not usually this orderly)...
Playing ball on the front lawn, while the assistant matron tends quietly to her knitting...
Our littlest kids...
All smiles...
Time for play and rest...
The Matron and her staff of two assistants and two cooks...
OSI-Pamunugama liaison posing with all of our Pamunugama children...
More Photos - More photos of our Pamunugama children:
Year-End Holidays (December 28-31, 2008) -
Christmas and New Year's holiday celebrations... Events - Special events and excursions which OSI has arranged for our Pamunugama children:
Projects - Special projects for the Pamunugama home funded by OSI sponsors and donors:
Click on the
photo for a larger image... A common scene in Pamunugama... With footpath running along
side; near the orphanage... A little further on, viewed
from an old bridge crossing; a nice commute home for the local
fishermen... Sand and rock shoreline,
lined with palm trees... Rowing in with the morning
catch... Landing their boats and minding
their nets; a daily scene on the shores of Pamunugama... Hand-made and heavy... At least on
days that don't end with a thunderstorm... Pamunugama sunset...
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About
35km north of capitol Colombo, in a quiet jungle of coconut palms and
banana trees and about 1km from the seashore, is our Pamunugama children's
home. The home has been in operation for over 50 years.
The building probably served previously as an estate home, with its grand
entrance way and inner courtyard. It is a simple, modest building by
modern measure, but still retains much of its old charm. This is
augmented by Seline, the wonderful home matron, who has lived at the home
and cared for its children for over 40 years.
Pamunugama
is simply the name of a region along the coast, running from Negombo
southwards for about 15km. The area is not populated enough to be
called a village, yet is too populated to be called rural. The
coastline is a sandy beach lined with palms, where fisherman may constantly
be seen dragging their heavy wooden row-boats to and from the water.
Immediately inland is a low-lying jungle of coconut and banana trees.
Estates surrounded by old coconut plantations are intermixed with modest
huts of local fisherman. Old canals from Dutch and Portuguese colonial
times lace through the region. A rough asphalt "main road"
meanders along this stretch of coast, sometimes near the water, sometimes
further inland. Off of this road are countless little dirt and gravel
lanes heading into the jungle and on one of the less conspicuous of these,
in a quiet place about half a kilometer from the main road, is our
Pamunugama Children's Home.
