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New Sleeping Rooms
August, 2006 -April, 2007

The Wattegama home consists of 5 primary sleeping rooms. The rooms were dark and colorless, except for a "bay" area with wrap-around windows, at the end of each room. The rooms were crammed with beds, necessary to accommodate all of the children in the home, making the rooms useless for anything other than sleeping. The beds were in ill repair, and the mattresses were ancient, -stuffed in the old way with coconut husks, mite-infested, and falling apart. Even the largest beds were much too small for the older girls, and the youngest girls had to sleep in old cribs meant for babies. The children also had no personal storage space, -just a few small cabinets, and books and clothes were stacked on the floor. With the sleeping rooms arranged such, the kids were largely limited to the front veranda area of the home for all of their leisure and study time.

Thanks only to the generosity and care of donors Rusi Captain of Sri Lanka and Connie Carlberg of the USA, we have been able to address all of these needs, and in doing so have greatly improved the comfort and living conditions in the home. We first provided all new beds and mattresses, -52 beds total. The beds are long enough even for our oldest kids to grow! -and standard-sized, so mattresses can easily be replaced periodically. And since the beds are bunked, a lot of space was created in the rooms. So, in the attractive windowed "bay" end of each room, we put a hardwood table and four chairs, creating a wonderful study and social environment for the occupants of each room. We also provided a large mirror and dressing table for each room. Several large storage cabinets were also provided for each room, -large enough for each girl to have plenty of secure space for her own clothes, books, and other belongings. Finally, the single hanging light bulb was replaced in each room by bright new multi-light fixtures. The result of all of this is a major improvement in the living environment for these kids, and hense in their happiness level. Their new, sanitary beds provide much more comfort for them! And their old dark "sleeping rooms" are now bright, warm, multi-purpose rooms where they can also study, play, and socialize. While the kids certainly deserve this and much more, we are forever grateful and indebted to Mr. Captain and Mrs. Carlberg for giving us the means of affecting this for them. Thank you so much!