Suhada Home, Kotte

Project manager:
Kjell Arvidsson, kaconsulting@telia.com

Suhada Home is situated just south of Colombo. About 60 people live here, of various age, all with some mental or physical disorder.

Mrs Sunethra Weerasinghe´s services include life-necessary care, pharmaceuticals, consulting and physical training for handicapped people. Each person at the Home has got a task of his/her own. The Home is without any staff but with Mrs Sunethra´s faith and belief in everybody´s abilities in combination with her own dedicated work, it functions well.

A related person or a company is signed up to finance one meal per month, following an organized scheme. SFCSL has contributed with wheelchairs, walkers and beds. We have also renovated toilets, and we have had the house repainted, both indoor and outdoor.

There are classes in the mornings. They learn cooperation, fine motorics and how to express themselves with colour and form. A small group studies English a couple of times per week. Sunethra herself teaches singing and dancing.

As one special event, all go to a penitentiary in Colombo where they sing songs for the prisoners.

SFCSL supports financially all classes.

At Suhada Home, there is also a pre-school for poor children from the area. SFCSL´s financial support to the pre-school includes salaries, school materials and uniforms.

Furthermore, Sunethra organizes a sponsor children´s program (SPP). With the help of SFCSL 30 children have got sponsor parents in Sweden. The children, between 7 and 17 years old, belong to poor families in the area.

The Home receives a monthly support for extra classes,  clothes and school materials, sometimes uniforms too. Sunethra takes her people to town, so they can enjoy parades and other special events. They celebrate New Years in a traditional way. And once a year, for educational purposes, they go to one of the many famous places on the Island.

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Articles

Suhada Home and the sponsor children

We called Sunethra and told her that we had arrived safely in Sri Lanka after a long journey. The airport is heavily guarded and there are soldiers everywhere. On the way to our hotel, we noticed the increased presence of the military. We have heard that the final offensive has started.

We agree with Sunethra when to visit the Home. On the way there we pass by “our” supermarket at Galle road to buy candy for the children. As usual, we are welcomed by a welcoming committee of children, and they give us flowers. We meet and say hello to everybody (there are not only children at Suhada Home).

There is a mix of young and old with all kinds of handicap. And one or two may not live long.

We visit the pre-school too, and we accompany the children, when they leave for their waiting parents. Now, we sit down with Sunethra and go through the formalities, and we receive a report on the situation at the Home. Earlier we have asked for a meeting with our own sponsor child, who has by now moved out of the Home. Sunethra has organized a trip to sponsor children, who have moved far away from the Home. We will go the following week. We will visit three families who remain under Sunethra´s protection.

We don´t really know where and how far we will travel. One morning at 8 o´clock, we start from the Home. Our first visit will be to Somebody´s Home. Close to 100 children live there, all with a mental disorder, mongoloid and even multi-handicapped. It is birthday of one of the staff people, and they have a small party with soft drinks, cakes and singing. Sunethra takes up a prayer and everybody recites after her. It is very solemn and emotional.

We continue our trip to our first sponsor child, Pabasari SSP 27. The trip took less than an hour. We were well received. This nice family has had a tough time, but now their living conditions have improved. We handed over the box from the Home containing food, clothes, hygienic articles, school materials etc. We learnt that Pabasari is doing very well at school. She is also good at dancing and singing. They were very grateful to us.

After many enquiries and wrong turns on narrow roads, we found the family of the second sponsor child, SSP 22 Charika. They had also moved to relatives to seek support and help. Closeness among relatives is very important in the Lankesian society. Relatives form the social and economical safety system.

We also met Charika´s parents, siblings, grand-parents and other sponsor children. Many of them live under hard conditions, but as Sunethra says “they know that we are behind them”.

Now, we turn to the North. We are heading for a sponsor child who has moved far away, also to relatives. We do not yet know exactly to where. It turns out to be even passed Polonnaruwa, ie we are approaching a war zone. There are more and more road blocks and more and more soldiers. It took quite some time to get there, but then we were welcomed by the family and their relatives. The box with the gifts was handed over and Pamodja SSP 14 signed the receipt. Later, Sunethra explained to us that thanks to our visit, our sponsor child and her mother will most likely be allowed to stay there, with the brother of Pamodja´s mother.

The day is coming to an end and we are about to start our return trip. I notice that our driver is anxious to get started before it gets dark. We have to pass a big check-point. We pass it very slowly. There are many soldiers, but we are not stopped. After further 200 meters there is a second road block, also with many soldiers. They ask for the ticket. The atmosphere got unpleasant as we had no ticket. Had we escaped from the first road block? We were told to go back.

Now we were taken to a closed area with lots of soldiers. We had to leave the car and empty it of all luggage. I felt like participating in the recording of a war film, however, this was real. While we were body-checked, luggage searched and passports checked, the car and the driver disappeared. Later we saw how thoroughly the car had been searched. I notice how calm Sunethra was, but I must admit that I wasn´t. Our driver is tamil, so he experienced a difficult moment. Not always are the tamils treated well. However, the whole thing ended well as we showed the ticket at the second road block. The soldier smiled to us and wished us a nice trip.

We were quite relieved as we continued back to Suhada Home, arriving there by midnight.

Kjell Arvidsson

Project responsible

Carema Orchid´s Contribution gilded the Christmas concert for the disabled,

 At present, Sunethra operates five different homes for physically and mentally disabled children and adults. Sunethra ´s services include life-necessary care, pharmaceuticals, consulting, work-out for handicapped people in order to strengthen their physical and mental conditions.

They are trained to go to the toilet on their own, to serve themselves food, dressing and un-dressing and to take care of their own personal hygiene. Each person at the Home has got his/her own task and must help out. There is no staff employed. Sunethra organizes everything by herself.

The week before Christmas, SFCSL and thanks to gifts from Carema Orchids invited 100 people to a big Christmas party with food, ice cream, candy and Christmas presents. They were all happy, and the people performed a fantastic stage show with singing and dancing.

At present, Carema Orchid operates similar activities like Sunethra. In addition to the very appreciated Christmas party, their contributions covered also costs for pedagogic materials and teachers´ salaries during Spring 2009. Sunethra has also been able to buy a digital camera so she can easily report to us with the help of it.

Christina Riddebäck

President