Sancha's story: Diary Update 6

Sri Lanka, Feb '06

26th december 2004:

The waves hit Telwatta, the next viilage north of Peraliya, around 9.20 am with total devastation. Around midday, Sancha's body was found in a pile of corpses, bloated and blue. When his auntie recognised him, she noticed a flicker of life, his heart pumping feebly. She took him to her house and tried to revive the boy until around 4.30pm when he started to come back to life.

Sunil, Sancha's father-Sarathchandra, Sancha, Lee, Juliet

Fast forward a year and there's this cheeky young lad running around at a concert sticking a camera in my face, he's got so much energy and looks like he could be a photographer one day. I asked Sunil, who said he's known this kid since tsunami time, if i could buy him his own camera and I'm told I'll hear the whole story tomorrow. In the morning over breakfast i hear Sancha's whole sorry tale. He lost his whole family to the sea that day apart from his father, who is a night time fisherman. Sancha, 11, has been staying on his own at night in the village of Telwatta, where the gangs that run around at night have been sending him on errands, nothing too major but enough to keep him in the fold. As you can imagine, you'd have to keep in with the boys who are running the place when your brothers, sisters and mum are all dead and dad's out all night. Sancha doesn't like this way of life but has no choice at the minute. Sunil has followed this case since he arrived in Lanka on Jan 5th and can recognise that if anything is to change it must happen now......

Lee from Yaluwa-Friends of Sri Lanka, in conjunction with Juliet Coombe and Sunil Elvitigala, have signed as guardians and enrolled Sancha into Leeds International School in Galle, which will take him through to A levels on the London syllabus. Sancha and his father are well keen and he is now attending "The School of the future leaders" as their motto states. He will be catching up with his english to begin with, which is as essential for this syllabus, as it is generally in Sri lanka if he wants to give himself a solid base for the future. For now, Sancha is taking the school bus every morning and returning to the village in the afternoon, but he would like to find somewhere more permanent in Galle, possibly a foster family, then he could visit his dad on the weekends. We have supplied school materials, uniform, ID, term and registration fees, with enough in the funds to see him through until the september term when we would like to pay the full package (40% off). This would have Sancha's fees paid up to A level standard, giving him the chance he is crying out for instead of an uncertain future in the jungle village life.

We will have updates on Sancha's progress as it happens and hopefully from the boy himself as his english comes up to scratch.