News

Spring is clearly in the air. The shining sun brings new energy. It is time to bring you an update of what is going on at Havonos in Northern Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, we have both good and sad news to share with you. You can read about the following items in the newsletter:

• A very sad message
• Our new secretary
• Community centre in Kokkilai
• Worries about the situation in Sri Lanka
• Batticaloa: our newest project?
• Start of the activities OBTEC
• How the projects are coming along
• Donation from foundation ‘Jong’
• Help from the supermarkets
• Piet and Lydia visit Sri Lanka

A very sad message
It is with great sadness that we share with you that Esther Schouten, daughter of our chairperson Sieni, passed away on the fifteenth of March. The grief and despair are immeasurable and hard to bear. Our hearts go out to Sieni, her son Sander and his family. We wish them strength in this very difficult time.

Our New Secretary
It is difficult after the last message to look at the bright side of things, but there is also light in these dark times. We are glad that we can finally strengthen our management team with a new secretary. We want to welcome Geert van Ommen. Geert has worked with Havonos for a long time and we now wish him all the best as a new member of our management team!

Community centre in Kokkilai
At the Community Centre in Kokkilai, Father Justin is the new director. He is a hard worker and already has very good results, here is an overview around the centre.

At the learning/working farm, they continue to work the land and, very positively, the solar panels are yielding more than expected.

Worries about the situation in Sri Lanka
Maybe you have seen it on the news. Sri Lanka is in the middle of the worst financial crisis since 1948, the year in which the British left. Here (in Dutch) is a link so you can see what the current situation actually is. For example: of the 4,5 million young people in Sri Lanka, only two thirds can take their school exams because of a paper shortage. There is poverty everywhere and the people are suffering from hunger. There is a shortage of food, fossil fuels and medicine. Powdered milk, rice and sugar have been rationed and because of the high cost of fuel the national power supply is shut down for an average of seven hours each day. Our thoughts are with Sri Lanka and with our workers there. We hope to help them with our diverse projects, giving hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Batticaloa: our newest project
We are very happy that we are going to work with Wilde Ganzen again on a new project with the fathers of OMI. They hope to build a new clinic that the fathers will run. The clinic is meant to help people who have been impacted by the many problems in Sri Lanka. Suicide, addiction, hopelessness and the consequences of Covid 19 are some of the challenges the people are facing. The clinic hopes to provide people with information, education, healing and hope for the future. We will keep you posted about how the project is coming along.

Start of the activities OBTEC

One way of spreading hope is through the opportunities afforded by the courses at OBTEC. The courses are going very well! The courses are given during the week directly after school and also in the weekends. Children and young men and women are enriching themselves and enjoying learning.

Donation from foundation ‘Jong’
We are so glad to have received a donation from the foundation ‘Jong’ to help support the courses given at OBTEC. Donations such as these are needed to be able to continue our work in Sri lanka. Many thanks. Click here for the Jong Foundation collage.

How the projects are coming along
Apart from the new project in Batticaloa, Father Ramesh has set up a new project to help men, young people and even children with drug and alcohol problems. He reports that this is going well. He sent us some photos, but for privacy reasons we won’t publish them in this newsletter.