Pre-School, Tangalle

With the tsunami disaster in December 2004, almost 30,000 people in Sri Lanka lost their lives and about 890,000 their entire belongings. The water raged up to one kilometre inland and destroyed about 70 percent of the east and south coast of the island state. Due to the extensive destruction caused by the tsunami, especially children from socially disadvantaged families living in rural areas on the island in the Indian Ocean have difficult access to quality education. Only a few parents send their children to kindergarten, as there is no compulsory schooling for children aged three to five years in Sri Lanka. This is despite the fact that early childhood development has a strong impact on the development of a child and that, in addition to language, coordination and emotionality, important cognitive skills are developed there through play. A lack of qualitative early childhood education or insufficiently trained teaching staff can have far-reaching, negative effects on the education and development of children.

In this project help alliance together with the Friends Lanka Child Foundation supports the renovation of a kindergarten in Seenimodara, in the south of Sri Lanka. In addition, the financing of the ongoing operation as well as the equipment with learning materials is supported. This will give children from socially disadvantaged families access to early childhood education and thus a real chance for a better future. By leaving the kindergarten they are sufficiently equipped for a good start in school.

As a result of the tsunami disaster, many families were forced to move to a new home in the interior of the country in two newly settled so-called “tsunami villages” – without any access to an educational institution for children. Two years later, in 2006, the Frangipani Kindergarten Center was built in the socially deprived region. Although the curriculum for early childhood education in Sri Lanka is set by the Ministry of Education, it is still common, especially in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, that many children do not get a chance for early childhood education. This can result in bad implications in their later school education.

This is why this project is aimed at children aged between three and five years from the surrounding villages of Seenimodara. Currently 220 children attend the kindergarten.

The aim of the project is to ensure that as many children from the region as possible have access to education at a high quality level in order to give them a good start in society from the very beginning and thus a chance for a better future. The kindergarten consists of four classrooms, a library, several sanitary facilities and a kitchen. Breakfast is served in the dining room every day. In the large, colourful outdoor area of the kindergarten the children have enough space to play. A total of 13 employees take care of the education and welfare of the children and also attend regular training courses on topics such as children’s rights and prevention of domestic violence. Since the start of the project, a strong change in the families’ thinking about the importance of early childhood education has been observed. While the centre was initially viewed critically by the children’s parents, they have now discovered that their children only benefit from visiting the facility. In recent years, more and more parents have therefore been investing in their children’s education and taking part in various celebrations.

In 2019, the old centre was completely renovated with the support of help alliance. With your donation you will now help us to finance the running costs as well as the costs for additional equipment and working material of the kindergarten.