Perth community support for Seenigama Village Rebuilding

The City of Perth & Seenigama 'Community Partnership'

Under the initiative taken by the Lord Mayor Peter Nattrass of the City of Perth, Western Australia, the City Council under its 'Adopt-a-Village' program has decided to focus their resources on assisting the reconstruction of the Seenigama Village. It will do so by working with the Foundation of Goodness as its delivery agent and work together towards achieving its objective of 'contributing to the redevelopment of the tsunami affected village of Seenigama and building friendship and bilateral relationship between the two communities'.

As the first step in this direction the City of Perth will fund the building of thirty houses.
These thirty houses, combined with other donor support will help to relocate the families in Seenigama who have been affected by the '100 m regulation' which prevents construction of houses within 100 m from the sea. The Foundation of Goodness is in the process of obtaining the necessary land for this purpose. The Perth City plans for further fund raising efforts towards the Seenigama rebuilding effort and its longer term development.

Enlisting further support for the Seenigama Village rebuilding efforts of the Foundation of Goodness, the Perth community contribution has been further enhanced by the West Australian Cricket Association (WACA) offer to fund the reconstruction of the G/Sri Vimalabuddhi Maha Vidyalaya, Seenigama tsunami impacted sports facilities including its sports grounds, its volley ball courts and children's play area. Within this partnership, WACA plans to fund the introduction of cricket to the school. This will help to take the popular sport to the children not only of Seenigama but also to some of those children from the adjoining villages of Pereliya, Werallana, Thotagamuwa and Kalupe who attend this school. The building of an indoor badminton facility too is under consideration. Overall, the WACA contribution aims help build healthy minds and healthy bodies to deliver its positive impact through the student population to the Seenigama community.

The teachers, students and parents of the John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School have joined hands in building a 'Friendship Program' with the G/Sri Vimalabuddhi Maha Vidyalaya, Seenigama. The program envisages providing assistance to the Seenigama School in its development efforts as well as building goodwill and understanding between the two student communities.

As part of the John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School Tsunami Appeal, the children of Junior Primary Mirrabooka and Beechboro hosted a Rainbow Week celebrating life and the human spirit. A marvellous week was jam packed with raffles, guessing competitions, sausage sizzles, buddy activities and a free dress day in which each year level dressed in a colour of the Rainbow. Through these events the children and school community raised over AU $5,000.

As part of the aid the Junior Primary students spent a very busy 8 weeks making small gifts of goodwill that Miss Cunningham gave to the students of Seenigama when she went to Sri Lanka in April.

Miss Anthea Cunningham and her partner Steve met with Mr De Silva and Mr Ubeyawansa on the first day back of school. They discussed John Septimus Roe School's intention of providing aid directly to Sri Vimalabuddhi Maya Vidyalaya and its 585 students, through ongoing fundraising and donations. The following priorities were identifies:

After the meeting, the fun part came, where the gifts of goodwill were presented to some very excited and curious children. The handmade gifts included:

The morning was filled with lots of light and laughter and plenty of madness and mayhem! It was truly wonderful and heart warming to experience the students' enthusiasm and energy in response to the gifts our students at JSR had made. It is something that will stay withal participants forever.

The Perth City strategy is aimed at the combined impact of the Perth City Council, the WACA and the John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School, enabling the Seenigama Village School to become the beacon for community pride and its investment in the future of Seenigama.