Present Projects 
School Book Project
The end of 2009 saw ten schools blessed with resources distributed by Paddle4Relief. Resources varied from pens, pencils, crayons and exercise books to reading books, educational toys, games and puzzles.
Leah Reynolds from Bideford joined P4R Founder Tim Tanton in Sri Lanka, for a month. She had to sort out more than twenty boxes of items that had been stored in a wood built cabana that had been damaged by monsoon rains and had suffered attacks from both wood ants and rats. The state of some of the books and puzzles were too poor to distribute.
Unfortunately those that were too badly damaged had to be burnt. The others were boxed and divided up into appropriate consignments for the various schools that had been selected. The books, games, toys and crayons etc were donated by many individuals all over the South West. Further resources were purchased by Paddle4Relief whilst other items were left over from projects headed by Jan Weeratunga and Kay Holt.
Leah, Tim and P4R Project Manager, Krishantha distributed the books to schools in Arugam Bay, to the nearby town of Pottuvil, and further afield, travelling more than two and a half hours by tuk tuk to an area of the country known for its poverty!
The Leheni Pre School caters for around 30 under fives. The local community run the school themselves. The mothers of the young children are there very day helping the teachers with keeping the classroom and playground clean and tidy and helping to supervise the children at during breakfast time. The school is open from Monday to Friday from 07.30 to 11.30am. It is situated in an extremely poor area of the country. Everybody was extremely surprised to see us, as like so much of the country it is an area that is either rarely visited by tourists or is just another small village or town that you travel through on your way to your planned destination.
By spending time sitting down and communicating with the communities of Sri Lanka one gets to hear of the countries more poverty stricken areas. The people of Sri Lanka have huge hearts, massive smiles and will give you their last grain of rice. If they know of an area more poor and desperate than their own, and in need of help, they will openly inform you of it. This is a time that your heart gets even more torn to bits! You realise that the task in hand is massive and that the needs of so many are out of reach from getting help. It is a matter of accepting that you can only physically, mentally and emotionally do so much!
An opportunity arose to reach more schools with the resources we had, and for the local community to take control of managing them. Basheer, Founder of The Cultural Development Community of Sri Lanka - Pottuvil, and his team, are able to facilitate the sharing of these resources and allocate them to the areas where they will provide the most help. The CDC were able to distribute the donated items to six different schools within the local district.
The distribution of the resources had to include the school closest to P4R's Founder, Tim Tanton's heart! The pre school at the south end of the fishing village of Arugam Bay, up the hill, next to the Buddhist Temple, and the place where P4R's largest project exists.
(Photographs are courtesy and copyright of Paddle4Relief and Aiya Surf Photography)
Beach Litter Signs!
Click each image to view a gallery version or click each individually.
The surfers of Arugam Bay, members of the Arugam Bay Surf Club, have managed to fund a project where they took the initiative and made and erected signs for their beach. Since the end of the civil war, back in May 2009, the beach in Arugam Bay has seen countless more visitors, and with it, rubbish! The young surfers are very much aware of the importance of protecting their natural playground. The sea and beach is not just a playground though, its a way of life, its where they fish to earn the money to support their families.
So with the help of travelling surfers and Paddle4Relief, the boys raised enough money to purchase materials to make four signs. The local surfers were concerned at the state of the beach and the effect the rubbish was having on their environment.
Fawas, Chairman of Arugam Bay Surf Club and Krishantha, Secretary, built the signs whilst myself, Leah, Erandathi and Fawas carried out the artwork in three languages; Sinhalese, English and Tamil.
Now there is no excuse for people to throw their rubbish on or around the beach area. The signs are clearly there to inform visitors that their rubbish is not wanted.
The local Special Task Force and Tourist Association have also acted on the problem and got involved. They have provided bins and more signs.
I personally, am very happy at seeing this initiative develop. From back in 2005 when we were involved in the first village clean there has been a slow but progressive movement towards keeping the village and beach clear of rubbish. The young surfers in particular appear to be at the forefront of this movement and are fully supported by the Paddle4Relief Team.
Well Projects
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One of our wells.Paddle4relief are involved in completing a further four well projects. We continue to employ a caretaker and cleaner at the pre-school. The pre-school is therefore maintained and cleaned.
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Intended Projects
Paddle4relief intend to complete a further ten well projects. The cost of which will be apporoximately £1500.00. £150.00 per well on average.
Past Projects
Paddle4reliefs Chairman and Founder, Tim Tanton, spent in total, around 8 months managing projects in Arugam Bay during three trips in 2008.
September to December saw Tim being joined by fellow committee member Chantal Denham in working within this small community.
2008 saw Paddle4relief achieve nine well projects. Providing safe drinking water to more than 40 families, which was over 150 individuals, of which over 50 were children.
We both maintained and improved the pre-school. Implementing a new water pipeline which included providing running water within the classroom.
We also installed a water filtering unit.
Chantal focused her energies in teaching at the Montesoori (Pre-school) that Paddle4relief completed in 2006. She also had the vision to make improvements in the facilities and teaching methods and increased the number of activity sessions with the local young children so improving social interaction and development..
We repaired the roofs of two Tea Shops so enabling them to continue operating.
We set up a Swimming Club and Cricket Group.
We funded the emergency transporting and treatment of a young girl who had inadvertently swallowed battery acid. They gave her little hope to live. The good news is that she is well and healthy following a series of operations. She is back to working on her families land and socialising with her friends including dancing at community festivities.
We provided first aid on an almost daily basis and purchased medicines for those that were unable to afford to purchase themselves.
We financed one family setting up a fish selling business to help feed their three young children.
We funded families to improve their businesses so as to improve their chances of trading and feeding their families.
We repaired the Temple Road that leads to the Buddhist and Hindu temples as well as the Montesoori.
