September and October 2006 saw continued political difficulties in the North and East and to date the classes in Jaffna and Mulitiavu remain suspended until the situation changes. We are pleased to confirm that Trincomalee temporary pools on the East coast remains in full swing with three pools running and 371 children under training, although the permanent pool is still sadly at a standstill. 

With such troubled times in the North and East of the country and unable to run classes in Jaffna or Mulitiavu, we have concentrated on helping more children in more Eastern and Southern districts. With this we saw 3 new pool sites in Matara, 3 in Galle, 2 in Kalutara and 1 new site in Trincomalee, with a total of 634 children presently under training.

• Friday 1 September

• Pool arrives in Kumarakanda in the Galle district with classes to start on the 22nd September

• Monday 11 September

• 3 new Kalutara coaches came to NCC to receive training

• Tuesday 12 September

• Isadeen the driver and coordinator from Sports Sans Frontiere paid a visit to the Colombo HQ to bring us up to date on the pools in Ampara.

• Thursday 19 September

• The temporary pool arrives in Mirissa on the Southern Coast. 160 children are currently under training.

• Friday 20 September

• SwimLanka attend the 50 Year Anniversary at the Colombo Overseas School. The international school celebrated with a swimming gala for the entire school and had the opportunity to buy SwimLanka merchandise too!

• Monday 23 September

• Selina and Dushi from World Concern drop in to SwimLanka HQ to discuss the classes in Trincomalee.

Tuesday 3 October

• Petronella and Justin head down to Galle for a meeting with Adopt Sri Lanka and SOS Velsen to discuss the MOU for the permanent pool in Galle. We also dropped in to Sambodhi Home in Galle to check on classes. On the way back to HQ we dropped into Zahira College in Gintota to see a new batch of children start their classes.

• Wednesday 4 October

• Mohammed Hashim Zonal Director and President of Sports Sans Frontiere drops into SwimLanka HQ to discuss the running of pools Pottuvil.

• Friday 13 October

• Tony, Peronella and Justin make a trip up to Trincomalee on the East coast to see the graduation of children at the pool in the playpark. This also gave us prime opportunity to deliver over 300 packets of milk powder, kindly donated by schools in Colombo. Milk powder is not included in emergency rations for the displaced persons. Also using our SwimLanka contacts we were donated 14 brand new wheelchairs with which we hope to distribute to those in need.

• Saturday 14 October

• SwimLanka attends a class and graduation of 100 children at the Trincomalee Playpark in town center, and meet up with World Concern who are helping to manage our pools in this troubled area.

• Sunday 15 October

• We drop back into see a class in Action in the play park in Trincomallee before heading to Nillivelli and visit Sister Mary who runs a children’s home. This was the first site our our pools in Trincomalee.

• Friday 27 October

• Petronella heads back to her native home of Holland and drops into a German school on the outskirts of Dussledorf to thank them for the much needed EU 5,000 that was donated. The much needed funding went towards funding our pools in Kalutara district. Thank you once again Willich School!!

• Saturday 28 October

• Julian heads over to Moratuwa just south of Colombo to attend the first graduation ceremony of the location.

• Saturday 31 October

• Three coaches from Batticaloa come to Colombo’s NCC pool to receive training. The first for this district!!

Go to October 2006

© SwimLanka Charitable Trust 2005-2006

To view more of the images, click on the thumbnails below

New Locations!

SwimLanka At Overseas School

SwimLanka make a trip to Galle

Graduation in Trincomalee

Meetings

To view more of the images, click on the thumbnails above