CMF funds library for Gypsy kids

Over 200 children gathered at the community centre at Kudagama in Thambuththegama on July 28 to celebrate the opening of their new children's library. The children are from a traditional Telugu-speaking gypsy community which has been living in Kudagama for over a decade. Their parents who can neither read nor write are out of the village for most of the month earning money by palm reading, snake charming and performing skits using monkeys.

The result is that older children have to stay at home, fetch water, cook, clean and look after the younger siblings. Children dropping out of school and child marriages are common in the community. It was a challenge that the local NGO Institute of Rural and Social Development (IRSD) undertook to work with this community with the support of Save the Children.

The first step was to set up a children's club. Children almost all of whom can sing and dance well, were keen to join this club as it gave them a place to meet and engage in recreational activities instead of idling. Many of them are members of the school Kabaddi team which has won the provincial championship. They have named their club “Elisha" and now even the parents are supportive of club activities.

Many parents and children in Kudagama do not have birth certificates. IRSD has already provided 200 birth certificates to secure their right to identity. It was also identified that there are children who have dropped out of school who were keen to get back to their books so 15 of them were given school books, bags and stationery and were re-enrolled into Kudagama School with the help of Zonal Department of Education, Thambuth-thegama.

The children's library will give them the space and opportunity to do their studies after school. The funding for school supplies for the children going back to school and for the children's library came from the Country Music Foundation of Sri Lanka which held its Country Roads Concert to raise funds for this project which is being monitored by Save the Children.