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Nobody can take your education from you …

… Not even a tsunami!

We had long talks with Roy, where he explained a lot of things to us of which we had no idea.  To explain the education and the school system in Sri Lanka at this point does not make much sense.  “Hair-raising” is a good summary.  The school children are lost in that system without private tuition.  Whoever can afford it sends their children to private schools anyway.

Among the 45 orphans Roy is taking care of were three students going for their A-level tests in June, the Sri Lankan graduation from high school.

Although we agreed right away to cover the costs for their tuition, Roy insisted to introduce us to them the next day.  One of the girls was accompanied by her sister who would be graduating in two years.  They showed up with a teacher who gave us information about their school performance.

Die Schüler

All four attend the Seliyant higher education institute.  They were in the care of relatives or neighbors since losing their parents.  However, there was no one to cover the costs of their tuition.  Two of the students also lost all of their school records and needed money to get copies made.

The monthly cost per student adds up to 12 swiss francs.  We paid the fees until June directly to the school for those three students.  As it does not make much sense to send 12 swiss francs monthly for the girl who will graduate in two years, we handed the sum to Humaid to forward quarterly payments to the school.  This will be only after getting good reports about her school performance.  He explained this to the girl and was quite firm. 

We did not feel very good about the fact that they had to show up in person after all they had been through.  However, Roy insisted that they had to know that there was somebody supporting them to get an education and that they had to do their best to make use of it.

(Our children will read this report also.)

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