"The tsunami has destroyed the lives of the villagers. But no one can slow the growth of small children. Many lost their parents, and school going children lost most of their belongings.

Despite the agony they have to re-start their lives. But they need our support to grow", says Dr. Jayasena, Consultant Ear, Nose, Throat Surgeon, at the Sri Jayawardanapura General Hospital Kotte, who is popular among the villagers as 'ape dosthara Mahaththaya'.

by Shanika Sriyananda

Everyone has dreams of their own. But a very few have dreams of helping those who suffer. The killer tsunami waves, whicht brought out the altruistic instinct of many have paved the way to make their dreams become a reality. One such person is Dr. Asoka Jayasena, popularly known as 'Jayasena dosthara mahaththaya', who travels from Colombo to Boossa every Sunday to treat the poor villagers, including children suffering from common colds and coughs and respiratory diseases.

The devastating tsunami waves spared his house but destroyed over 45 houses in his village rendering hundreds destitute. With no place to go the villagers ran to Jayasena dosthara Mahaththaya's house, where they knew they would be offered shelter. Dr. Jayasena had been treating the villagers free-of-charge for years.

The doors of the large house were opened for them as usual and they were given food and shelter and looked after by Jayasena dosthara Mahaththaya and his family till the government and NGO relief were brought in.

Dr. Jayasena's ancestral home located in a three and half acre plot of land, 500 meters away from the Galle road in Boossa was converted into a temporary relief centre overnight.

"The tsunami has destroyed the lives of the villagers. But no one can slow the growth of small children. Many lost their parents, and school going children lost most of their belongings. Despite the agony they have to re-start their lives. But they need our support to grow", says Dr. Jayasena, Consultant Ear, Nose, Throat Surgeon, at the Sri Jayawardanapura General Hospital Kotte, who is popular among the villagers as 'ape dosthara Mahaththaya'.

"Nature made the little ones parentless and homeless. Unaware of the gravity of the killer waves and its destruction, they were still crying for lost toys and books", says Dr. Jayasena who experienced the sorrow and agony of small children affected by the tsunami waves, adding that he wants to help these children and youth to stand on their own feet one day.

Taking the challenge Dr. Jayasena with the help of his wife Ayshni Jayasena, the District Judge and Magistrate Maligawatte Courts and colleague Dr. Sarath Wimalaguna, Consultant Optometrist, have converted the temporary relief centre into a child and youth development centre where education, health and the social well-being of displaced children and youth are being looked after.

Becoming a 'big father' to all the children, who lost their parents and are displaced, Dr. Jayasena is determined to make the little children happy through education. He started a pre-school a few weeks after weeks to relieve their minds of the traumatic experiences of the tsunami.

The majority of children in the pre-school had lost one of their parents to the tsunami, while some had lost both. Over thirty children are now singing and dancing in the pre-school that has all the modern equipment.

The former relief centre also has a computer training centre, that began operating with a single computer to develop computer literacy among the displaced youth. Today over 109 youths have been registered to follow computer courses and 20 computers have been installed in the centre.

Converting the ancestral home into an educational centre the process of which was completed last week is the realisation of Dr. Jayasena's dream.

Dr. Jayasena, says that his sole aim is to help the little ones and youth in his home town to continue with their education. "This is not an orphanage but an education centre", he insists.

Named 'Child and Youth Development Centre - Galle', it also offers educational programs including computer training courses and English language. The centre also has library facilities for children, with a large collection of books donated by his friends and charity organizations.

Providing community based health services, the centre has set up a Health centre to provide free medical facilities to tsunami affected people. A young doctor from Germany, Dr. Sebastian Plause, is in charge of the medical clinic, which also offers health educational programs for young people in the Galle district. A couple of foreign psychologists are also engaged in providing counseling for the displaced villagers, especially the young people.

"There is no difference between me and the people in my village. We were all affected. I want to make a difference in their lives through education", says Dr. Jayasena who still travels to Boossa to provide medical treatment free-of-charge every Sunday.

A 'People in Need Foundation' has also been set up to raise funds for the centre. The centre, which is closely working with the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) will offer volunteer training programs and community activities including 'First Aid' training programs for the young people in the Southern Province.

"This is the time for us to help our own people make their shattered lives better", he adds inviting others to join him in the great altruistic venture.

The Child and Youth Development Centre in Galle was opened by the Secretary to Prime Minister, Lalith Weerathunge and Social Services Minister Sumedha Jayaratne, last week.

"I want to open the doors not only for youth in Boossa but youth in the entire Southern province. But we need more help to expand the facilities", says Dr. Jayasena who has a greater dream - a centre of excellence which would provide educational programs free-of-charge.

http://www.blogall.de/sri_lanka_hilfe/index.php?id=12349&file=index.php&gruppe=3339

 We opened our education-center in Boossa yesterday. The ceremony was an amazing success and made us all very, very happy. Hundreds of people came to see the place, the minister of social services gave us a visit, we had an immense media coverage (I heard about four TV-Stations?!) and – best of all – the place was full of positive vibrations. Crowds of people gathered around the 15 computers, old men sat in the library reading the newspapers, children played in the Montessori school. Awesome. Fantastic. The people’s feedback was a hundred percent positive, the place was beautiful. I was deeply impressed by the work the international volunteers had done renovating the place. Nice colours, nice curtains, new ceilings and new furniture. My integrated medical office is a wonderful place as well and working there every Tuesday and Thursday is something I admire a lot. I’m gonna spend some of the money the listeners donated on paying the Montessori teacher and the English teacher – that will cost about 1200 $ per year. At the same time volunteers are welcome to join in. I am awaiting the first volunteer to work as an English teacher for three months – he’s coming over from the US in about four weeks. Other volunteers will be recruited here in Sri Lanka, locals as well as foreigners. The PIN-Foundation is truly one of the major things to give me satisfaction and hope for the future. The website shall be online soon (http://www.pinfoundation.org and http://www.pin-foundation.org ), a modified version will follow when I’m back in Germany.