Shakthi Girls Home

STA SOLIDARITY FOUNDATION is a not for profit, non-political, humanitarian organization registered in Sri Lanka as a company limited by guarantee under Companies Act, Section 34, with the purpose of sponsoring and implementing social healing and development activities to provide supplies and services efficiently to persons and places that received the brunt of the conflict and violence in the North, East provinces and are found to be at a disadvantage to recover without any bias of race, religion and gender and social status.

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The specific projects I am sponsoring are based in Arasaditheevu, Kokkaddicholai, Batticaloa – an impoverished rural region still recovering from the effects of the internal fighting in Sri Lanka – Shakthi Girls Home and Kathiroli Home for boys. At the moment the latter premises are under threat of closure. Children generally come to the homes because their father is missing post the conflict or their mother is abandoned and can not afford to look after them totally on her own.  Some older boys come voluntarily to avoid being forced in to working to support the family before they have finished their education.  The boys I met were very motivated to complete A-levels and college before they returned to their families to support them.

While some of the girls are not complete orphans and return to family members in holiday periods, they depend on the home to support their nurture and education and many are reluctant to return to their families for marriage at 15.  It was a very happy and relaxed environment when I visited.  In Sri Lanka these institutions get very small amounts of funding per child, in arrears, and it is humbling to see the efforts put in by the volunteers in the charity who are not rich themselves.  This is grass roots community enabling.

Your donations will go to support named children in this area. The charity promise that whatever funding is raised to send updates on how they spend it and the effects of those donations on the lives of individuals in their care.