Don Bosco Skills Training Centre Ahungalla Sri Lanka
AHUNGALLA: 23rd November 2007 -- Substantially funded by
Australian donors, the Don Bosco Skills Training Centre at Ahungalla in
Sri Lanka's south west, was officially opened on 15th November. The
area was devastated by the Tsunami on December 26th 2004. Present
at the opening were Bro Michael Lynch SDB of the Australian Salesian
Missions Overseas Aid Fund (ASMOAF is essentially the Australian
Salesian Missions Office under the title recognised by Government), Dr
Greg French, Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Mr Piyasena
Gamage, the Sri Lankan Minister for Vocational Training and
Apprenticeships, Mr Bruce Bartrop and wife Adela from Ballarat,
Victoria (Australia) representing the Freemasons of Australia and New
Zealand, the largest donors - and ten Buddhist monks.
AUD440,000, plus a further AUD175,000 from donations
to Salesian Missions Tsunami Relief came from the combined efforts of
the Salesians and the Freemasons of Australia (New Zealand). ASMOAF has
been the central organising body for the project. The centre will be
fully equipped and furnished as funds become available and will have
facilities to teach: Dye and Mould making (with welding and machinery
training), Information Technology, Inboard and Outboard Motor Repairing.
An open hall and classrooms alongside the Centre are
used almost daily by more than 1,000 primary and secondary school
students for tuition coaching and as a quiet study venue to do
homework. Sporting facilities including a basketball court and a
volleyball court will be added when funds become available for
construction.
In his speech during the Opening, Mr Piyasena Gamage
expressed delight that a Don Bosco Technical Centre was being
established in Ahungalla. The Don Bosco Schools, he said, were the best
providers of technical education in Sri Lanka.
Two Buddhist monks, in their addresses, reflected on
their past highly cooperative working relationship with the Salesian
priests and brothers for the benefit of young people in Sri Lanka.
Adjacent to the Centre is a Boarding house/hostel,
financed with funds from Italy, to cater for 50 orphans or semi-orphans
and a further 50 students undertaking skills training.
Ahungalla is a coastal fishing village, part of the
divisional secretariate of Balapitiya in the District of Galle.
Population in the local district is around 70,000, with more than
10,000 under the age of 18. It is an agricultural area with rain-fed
rice paddy cultivation, coconuts on the coast and rubber and cinnamon
in the interior. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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