Panama School

On Progress of Sri Lanaka School Project Buy maxalt mlt 10 mg

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Dear Friends,

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I would like to update you with the current status of our Sri Lanka school project. We are working hard but our progress has been slow. Our work has been hindered mainly by recent escalation of the war. Other NGOA?a??a??s are experiencing similar problems.

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As you know, we have two groups of friends, one group in Germany and one group in the USA working to raise funds to help the community in Panama to build a school.A?A?A?A? Panama is located in the east cost of Sri Lanka where the Tsunami damage was the largest. This area is also effected by the ethnic conflict dragging on for over 20 years.

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By May of 2006, we had raised about $39,000. Our German group received about $35,000 for the project ; $25,000 from Hamburg Hilft, $10,000 from Stern magazine, and $1000 from other small donations. We all are grateful to immense efforts by Thomas and the German group. The US groups has raised about $3000 from small donations. This money will be spent for the building construction.

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We are working with the Sri Lankan volunteer organization SUCCESS based in Kandy, Sri Lanka.A?A? Our goal is to bring the multi-ethnic community in Panama together. We want to provide the funds. Sri Lanka people must do the work. Most NGOA?a??a??s send paid employees to Sri Lanka and manage their work themselves. We believe that it is often counter productive. In this war torn part of the country, getting the local people together and getting them to do the work is not easy. It takes longer but we believe that it will serve the local community better in the long run.A?A?A?A?

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I went to Sri Lanka in March, 2006. I visited Panama with our friends from SUCCESS. We discussed our plans with teachers, students and the parents. On our request, they formed a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) representing all ethnic groups. They requested our help to build a school for English medium science and language education. We all agreed that this is a prime opportunity to promote peaceful ethnic coexistence because students from all three ethnic groups who speak Sinhala and Tamil can attend this school. Education department is actively working on establishing English medium schools in the country but making virtually no progress in rural areas.

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Panama is one of the poorest communities and almost isolated from the rest of the country. Often during the monsoon season, Panama can only be reached by boats. We could have worked much easier and faster in other parts of Sri Lanka. But Panama is one of the communities our support would be most meaningful.

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We donA?a??a??t want our support to be a free hand out. The people in Panama would like to give back to the people who help them. In order to facilitate this we want to connect this school to two schools, one in Germany and the other in USA. This will enable students and teachers in all three countries to work and learn together. Our friends working in this project are all different in ethnicity, religions, and social backgrounds. We want to show people in Panama, specially the children, that, if we can come together to help them, they can do the same.

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When we were ready to start our project in July 2006, unfortunately, the war between Sri Lanka armed forces and LTTE broke out in the entire eastern part of the country. Traveling in and out of Panama became almost impossible. Telephone communication was shut off during major military operations. Different political groups are actively working to foment communal unrest. Civilian killings and abductions have become a common occurrence.

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War and difficulty in communication has been the main obstacle for us. But we are moving forward, slowly but persistently.

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PTA has got a piece of land allocated for the school. Getting the land for multi ethnic purpose was a major accomplishment. People risk their lives and fight on ethnic lines for land in this part of the country. Actually, the war is about the land. Most people donA?a??a??t realize.A?A?

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PTA has got building plans approved by the education department. This is not an easy task for the people in Panama because education department is so inefficient. It sounds crazy, but if you are a foreign national from a rich NGO, it is much easier to work with bureaucratic machine in Sri Lankan government.A?A?

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I have to mention about the help we got from Julie Hollen. Most of you already know Julie from her e-mails and reports. She stayed with the family of one of the teachers in Panama. She switched the field work of her masters program to help our school project.A?A? She got the computer room at Panama school up and running. She also helped PTA as the messenger between Panama school and education ministry in Colombo. She was working to start a student news paper and a series of town hall meetings to educate people about our project when she had to leave Sri Lanka Order zestoretic 20 in August because of the war. She now lives in Anchorage, Alaska and continues to help us.

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We are close to getting an Internet connection to Panama school. This is essential and very important before we start the actual building construction. Our main difficulty was to figure out the available technologies and an affordable and reliable Internet Service provider. The connections must be made via satellite services (VSAT) because there are no land communication lines in this part of the country. Julie helped us to figure out the details of how to get the Internet connection. The US group at the moment is working hard to raise $5000 needed for the equipment and installation cost. We hope to get it done as soon as the war situation subsides.

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So whatA?a??a??s up next?

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The top priority is to get the Internet connection up and running. PTA and SUCCESS have been working together to choose the best affordable construction company.A?A? SUCCESS will send us the building plans, cost estimates and other necessary documents before the construction contract is granted. We will review all the documents and make them available on our web site. We plan to divide the construction process to number of stages and transfer the money for each stage. This will allow us to evaluate and mange the funds properly.

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This process is difficult and slow. It is frustrating at times. But it forces us to communicate with each other and share our ideas to find solutions.

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We have been able to overcome every challenge that we had faced. The war in the east seems to be ending. We have a lot of new friends in the US joining to help. We are optimistic.

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On behalf of everyone, I ask for your understanding, patience, and continuing support. Together, we can make it happen! For the education and for the children in all three countries!!

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Thank you.

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Sincerely,

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Sugat

sciensoul@yahoo.com