Our actions

CHANDIMA funds regular initiatives such as child sponsorship, as well as one-off initiatives tailored to the specific needs of children, families and schools: health issues, housing problems and natural disasters.

Sponsorships

For children, teenagers and students from extremely poor families, most of whom live in the dry zone of the south-east. Our Sri Lankan partners select the families, and our donations enable the children to attend school with dignity, equipped with shoes, a uniform and the necessary school supplies. Scholarships for students enable them to pursue higher education and give them hope for a better future.

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Where? Lunugamvehera, Sri Lanka

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Funding for nursery schools

We are currently supporting the WIKMITHI school in LUNUGAMVEHERA by paying the teachers’ salaries.

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Where? Lunugamvehera, Sri Lanka

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La Mignonne Resource Centre

La Mignonne is a resource centre for children aged
between 5 and 15. The centre offers children from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to take English, IT and traditional dance classes in the afternoons and at weekends. We sponsor the teachers and work closely with Manjula Galappaththi, the on-site coordinator. The school is free for children from the Nakulugamuwa area. The success of this project is clear to see; every year, the classes are getting fuller and fuller.

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Where? Moraketiara, Sri Lanka

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Sponsorship of two schools for children with disabilities

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Kirinda School

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Hakmana School

Since 2016, we have been supporting two schools in Hakmana and Kirinda, in rural areas, for children and young people with physical or mental health conditions who have specific needs and who cannot always be integrated into the state education system because the staff are not equipped to cope. Without external support, these children would remain at home and would receive no schooling or preparation for a more independent life. We contribute towards the salaries of teachers who receive specialist training, and we provide specific equipment and materials.

 

For this initiative, we are working in partnership with the NAVAJEEVANA INCLUSION CENTRE in Tangalle. NAVAJEEVANA has been operating for over 37 years in southern Sri Lanka, where one in ten people suffers from a physical or mental health condition. A lack of hospital services, remote villages, poverty, malnutrition and birth defects account for this high figure, which is the highest in the country.

This centre has a team of doctors, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and other specialists who provide a holistic service as well as prosthetics and orthotics. Their vision is that people with disabilities are treated as equals, no longer face discrimination, and find their place in society rather than hiding away at home without care.

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Where? Kirinda and Hakmana, Sri Lanka

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Our flagship initiatives

  • 2024

    Special measures for 2024

    The CHOC initiative, in partnership with Bonnat Chocolates in 2024, enabled us to purchase school supplies, rucksacks and fabric for making uniforms for the start of the 2025 school year, for the benefit of the children sponsored through the Sahanoda Foundation.

  • 2023

    Exceptional initiatives in 2023

    The CHOC campaign, launched in December 2023 in partnership with Chocolaterie Bonnat, generated a profit which enabled us to:

    -      to purchase, for the benefit of the children sponsored through the Sahanoda Foundation, school supplies, rucksacks and fabric for making school uniforms in preparation for the start of the 2024 school year.

    -      to continue funding the treatment of Tharu, who has leukaemia and whom we have been supporting for nearly a year.

    The ‘Glasses’ initiative: thanks to donations from our sponsors, we were able to provide the Navajeevana Foundation – which had requested them during our visit in 2023 – with more than 300 pairs of glasses.

  • 2022

    Distribution of rice and school supplies

    Thanks to your donations, we were able to raise €2,400 between September and December 2022.

    The first collection enabled us to distribute rice and dry food to schools in Tangalle, Kirinda and Hakmana, as well as to 38 families in Moreketaria, where some of the children are sponsored. The second collection was allocated to 40 families in Moreketaria and 45 families in the villages of Hakmana and Kirinda. As a reminder, each food parcel costs €14 and provides enough food for a family of four for one month. We would like to thank Manju and her sister Nalani, who took charge of purchasing the food and organising its distribution.

    Fundraising to purchase school supplies for the start of term in February 2023

    This was a specific request from Sahanoda that donations other than sponsorship funds be used for these purchases. Each pack costs €32 and includes:
    - 2 uniforms per child
    - A pair of shoes
    - A school bag
    - School supplies: books, exercise books, pens, etc.
    We raised €1,400.

  • 2021

    Financing for mobile phones and tablets

    Due to the closure of schools and universities because of Covid-19, our partner Sahanoda approached us to fund digital devices to enable pupils and students to continue their studies remotely. Following a fundraising appeal in France, we funded 22 tablets.

  • 2020

    Specialist schools

    We provided funding for the installation of a fence around the school in Hakmana to improve safety for the pupils. For the school in Kirinda, we were able to provide funding for the purchase of cookers so that the pupils could learn to cook and thus become more independent.

  • 2018

    Teachers and housing

    Call for donations to sponsor two teachers at two schools for children and young people with disabilities. Completion of the construction of a house for a destitute widow and her three young daughters, who are living in precarious conditions.

  • 2017

    Natural disaster

    Thanks to the many donations received in response to an appeal, funds have been raised to provide school supplies for the victims of the devastating floods that have affected many regions of Sri Lanka.

  • 2016

    Health

    Funding for medical treatment for two sponsored children suffering from serious illnesses. Both are now out of danger.