Ten years ago, while the civil war was raging in Sri Lanka, just after the tsunami, Rev. Padma visited the country and set up an educational project "Sunshine for Kids" to help the very poorest children receive a good education. Today many of those children are now at university studying to become doctors, engineers and teachers. The children in the project today have just achieved their first ev
er A and B grades in their equivalent of GCSE's and are set fair to also go to university. This would have been unthinkable before the project was set up. Padma's charity (Heart Of Living Yoga Foundation) is now helping Sri Lanka in another way. After the ending of the civil war, there are over 80,000 widows under the age of 24. Most of those young women have children and no means of providing for their families, no jobs and no social security. The plight of these women-led families is desperate. Right now the charity is working to set up a Women's Co-operative where the ladies can make items that can be sold in the UK, Europe, the U.S. This will give the women a much-needed steady income and some security for their children. We also found that most of the women, children and the men who are there are suffering profound trauma (PTSD) and isevere njuries from the ending of the war in 2010, including the effects of chemical weapons. To help with the healing we plan to establish a Lotus Wisdom Centre which will share the best of yoga, ayurvedic and psychological healing techniques, being helped in this by Sri Lanka psychiatrists & health care professionals. The charity's director in Sri Lanka identified a piece of land where the Co-operative can be built which costs ยฃ7,000 and we have now purchased that land. We now need to build 3 buildings on our land - 1. The Lotus Wisdom Centre, 2. The Sunshine School and 3.The Lotus Womens Handicraft Training Centre. Padma has launched a special appeal to raise ยฃ50,000 to build these much needed buildings on the land and to establish the projects. On behalf of the men, women and children of Sri Lanka we thank you for any help you can give. Om Shanthi.
