Sri Lanka - the Girls‘ Centre in Balapitiya

In this context, we got to know girls and educators from the Anula Girls' Centre in Balapitiya in western Sri Lanka. Up to 40 girls and young women live, learn, play and grow up here, from kindergarten to the start of training, who have been taken out of their families for child protection reasons or have no families.

In Sri Lanka, however, there is no system of care comparable to our welfare state, i.e. the Girls' Centre is not supported by the state, but has to finance itself. Thus, all necessary things of daily life such as food, clothing, electricity, repairs to the house, ground maintenance, etc. must be collected by the educators themselves in the form of donations. In Buddhist culture, it is customary to donate to monasteries and the needy, so the girls at least receive regular food donations, some wood or gas cartridges for cooking from the surrounding village.

However, this is only enough from day to day, only for the bare essentials and the living conditions are very hard and make child-friendly development much more difficult. The so-called All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, or ACBC for short, supervises the children's homes in Sri Lanka. The Anula Girls' Centre is also officially registered with the ACBC, some information can be found under https://acbc.lk/1211/. This committee also elects a local honorary supervisory committee. The committee for the Balapitiya Girls' Centre consists of six people and is extremely committed.

The many ideas of the girls and the committed team of educators and committees have therefore inspired us to tackle the conditions on site together.

 

First working meetings - a cooperation is established

In this context, three working meetings were held in 2024 to discuss what is important to do. In the first meeting, a long discussion arose with the girls about things that are particularly burning under their nails and are close to their hearts. In the second and third meetings, implementation and the start of the cooperation were discussed in particular with educators and committees.

 

First action - cooperation begins

Sri Lanka experiences numerous power outages that can last from minutes to hours. In hotels and better-off households, these are bridged with emergency power generators that take over the supply. In the Girls' Centre, on the other hand, darkness sets in. But those who sit in the dark can neither play, read nor learn. In addition, the darkness triggers or intensifies multiple fears in the girls, who are already traumatized several times. Therefore, it was decided to first improve this basic situation and to buy a generator from the first donations and have it connected.

Then the existing hot water solar system is checked and made to work again in order to significantly reduce the cost of energy.

Next on the list is a hi-fi sound system (2 large speakers) for meditation, dance workshops and leisure time, which can be controlled via Bluetooth via a shared mobile phone.

The projects are part of a list discussed and prioritized together with the girls and young women and are presented here bit by bit.

As soon as enough donations have been collected, the next one can be tackled. For example, the structural condition in one wing of the building is unreasonable. We will inform you about this separately. The funds are used jointly by the kindergarten team and the committee and the proper use is monitored by us.

 

Empowerment - a network is created

We have also already started an exclusive empowerment in the Girls' Centre and were able to win Mahesh Peiris for it, on a voluntary basis, only for reimbursement of expenses. Mahesh Peiris is a teacher of meditation, qi gong and karate and works in his dojo near Colombo mainly with young people to strengthen them. At the same time, he is active in Sri Lanka's non-profit sector and is currently co-founder of an NGO that is just starting its work.

For young people like the girls in Balapitiya with experiences of neglect and violence, with trauma and fragile biographies, there is no psychotherapeutic care in Sri Lanka as we know it. So we looked for ways to empower them psychologically and physically in ways that are available and accepted in the society there. Meditation, Qi Gong and yoga offer at least partial possibilities here. We are very pleased that we were able to win Mahesh Peiris as an experienced instructor, who is now initially volunteering to facilitate regular Qi Gong lessons in the Girls' Centre and thinks along with us about which development points would be feasible. Thank you, Mahesh!

 

This page and the information on it, as well as the cooperation, are currently under construction and are constantly being expanded.