Yathusha 8 years and Thanu 5 years are two vulnerable children who were identified and selected for the pilot educational sponsorship project launched under Asia Capital Plc’s CSR Programme in January 2011. Mr Manohan Nanayakkara, the Chairman of the Group of Companies initiated this sponsorship that is expected to cover 10,000 children in the North of Sri Lanka.

Yathusha & Thanu reside at Ward-2, Allapiddy in Velanai, which is the largest of 7 inhabited islands of Jaffna District, with the 3rd lowest density of population. Due to continuous transportation difficulties, security restrictions and scarcity of water for livelihood, the families remain unfortunate, poor and children malnourished.

They live in a temporary shelter supported by Sewa Lanka with access to washing water from a nearby common well. Jathusha and Thanu have a little brother of 3 years and their parents have no regular income to manage their day-to-day expenses. Their father, Mr Johnson Micheldo lost his leg in a land mine a few years back during the war and hence, he is unable to carry out his traditional carpentry work that brought him a regular income. Therefore, he had to look out for other avenues of employment and finally made a choice of catching sea leeches which was seasonable thus did not provide him with a regular income.

Now, Yathusha and Thanu are both receiving a monthly support worth Rs.2,500/00 each to cover their educational needs. This is provided to them through Asia Capital Plc’s implementing partner of the project, M/s. Caritas,Jaffna. This has been a turning point for Yathusha especially because she is very intelligent and anxious to learn, as Thanu is still attending the pre-school. Her class report and field staff reports indicated an impressive improvement of ranking from 22 to 12 within the last three months. Mean while, the burden on her mother has reduced to a large extent where the father’s income is now utilized fully to cover the other household expenditure. Hence, they are a happy family managing their affairs on their own.

Yathusha’s & Thanu’s sponsorship package includes stationery, educational work books, extra classes, etc based on the requests received from their class teacher amounting to Rs.2,000/00. A compulsory savings of Rs.500.00 per month is deposited to their minor’s savings account opened with NSB Jaffna for their future stability.

Yathusha is studying at Allapiddy Parasakthy Vidayalam, identified as one of the biggest school in the area that has almost all the basic facilities. However, the school lacks a play ground and play materials as well as teachers to cover all subjects offered.

Even though, the Donor is funding Yathusha & Thanu via Asia Capital Plc and Caritas Jaffna, the uniqueness of this project is the regular meetings held directly with Donor and family of the 2 children. The project believes that the understanding developed and relationship created will bring harmony among communities in the l

ong run and uplift the standards of the children and their families.

There has been good progress made by Yathusha since the Educational sponsorship was given to her. She has shown more likeness in attending school regularly during the last few months. She spends more time studying specially in the morning and also she makes sure to attend tuition classes in the evenings between 3.30 and 6 to improve further in her studies. She has improved in English, Tamil in the recently concluded exams. She is currently getting tuition for Mathematics,Tamil,English & Social Studies. Overall there are many positive signs shown by Yathusha towards her education since the sponsorship grant was given to her since January. Yathusha is greatly thankful to Asia Capital PLC for the opportunity given to her to carry out her studies without worrying about the financial constraints they were faced with before.