On request of primary schools of Sanmuga and Sindu in the resettled village of Pallikkudiyiruppu, Muslim Aid supported 20 children with school packs to start their first day at school.

The event was held today (03.02.2020) at the T/Mut/ Kalaimahal Hindu College with the participation of the principal, teachers and staff of Muslim Aid.

Although the literacy rate in Sri Lanka is approximately 94%, in remote and underdeveloped villages, children are still facing severe hardships to start and continue their education. One of such villages is Pallikudiyiruppu, a resettled village in Trincomalee district where the villagers had to face multiple displacements due to the war that lasted for three decades and ended only in 2009.

There are five preschools in five small communities in the Pallikudiyiruppu resettled village. All the families from this region were displaced to Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts and a few families took refuge in India around 10-15 years backs. All the families are poor and lost everything during the displacement.

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The parents and the preschool teachers sent their request through the District Secretary in Trincomalee to the Muslim Aid field office, five days prior to today’s event; and The Assistant Government Agent facilitated the process. After the assessing the situation, Muslim Aid Sri Lanka allocated funds and arranged the school packs for distribution promptly. This activity falls under the ‘Education for All – Up for School’ programme.

The new preschool kids were ceremonially welcomed by grade one kids and the teachers. A school teacher spoke at the event saying,

“We made many requests to different circles to support these kids in the past. However, this is the only time we received this kind of support. Our deep thanks to Muslim Aid and the staff of GA office for making this happen”. 

In December last year, Muslim Aid distributed school packs to students from three ethnic communities, starting from Vilankulam of Trincomalee and reaching out to three other Sinhala schools from the Kuliyapitiya region.

Muslim Aid celebrates 15 years of dedicated service in Sri Lanka this year. It has been operating in Sri Lanka since 2005 as a humanitarian and development agency working in five strategic areas including economic empowerment, humanitarian support; education development, health, water and sanitation. Muslim Aid’s programmes are combined with peace-building and social cohesion among communities in the country.