A fine wine and canape reception is being held to raise funds for a school in Sri Lanka established in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.
Lina and Pritesh Desai, from Castletown, missed the tsunami by just 10 minutes when they arrived for a holiday in Sri Lanka. They remained there for two weeks and witnessed the massive devastation it caused. The tsunami killed over 40,000 people in Sri Lanka and many small, coastal villages in the south and east were completely destroyed. Over a million people were left homeless.
Compelled to help they joined the charity Rebuilding Sri Lanka which was formed by Clare Crook, another guest at the hotel. Initially, the charity supplied emergency essentials such as food, water and medicine.
Its focus shifted in the long term and RSL has built over 300 transitional homes, installed clean water supplies and built toilets in 50 different locations, funded a special needs school, restored the livelihoods of over 1,000 families, established a children’s resource centre, built a village, two schools, five libraries and an English language centre.
The beneficiary of the reception will be the Hansa pre-school, which was established eight years ago and is now recognised as the best pre-school in the region.
A total of 95 per cent of funds go directly to the projects, which Lina and Prit visit each year and Clare oversees every two months to ensure that no funds are misspent.
Lina said: ‘Please help us to give this generation the hope and start in life that they deserve and would otherwise not benefit from, You will change lives.’
The reception is at Ballavartyn Equestrian Centre, Santon from 5pm to 8pm on Saturday, December 5. For tickets, at £20, contact Lina, 451616.
See www.rebuildingsrilanka.org.uk.