Educate a Child Trust UK

Community education and empowerment. The Educate a Child Trust was started by Dr. Pramilla Senanayake, who lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka. For more than 20 years, she has been working with the children and families of Kalutara, Sri Lanka. Prior to the tsunami in 2004, Dr. Senanayake had been mostly funding her activities herself.

Following the tsunami, Dr. Senanayake greatly expanded the scope of her work. Along the way, EACT has attracted vital support from various parts of the world, and has been widely recognized for the effectiveness and efficiency of their programs.

The charity aims to provide school uniforms, shoes, pens and pencils to children in the Kalutara area whose parents could not afford these items. This gives the children access to free school education.

PHAST Chief Executive Dr. Catherine Brogan and Director Dr. Cecilia Pyper visited Dr Senanayake and were treated to a dancing and singing display by some of the children. After the Tsunami the work expanded to rebuild the little fishing village that had been destroyed with the new houses you see in this picture. PHAST assessed the projects and agreed funding for the education of the community through buying computers and funding part of the salary for a teacher to teach English and computer skills.

Next Steps: PHAST and PHAST associates donations will continue to provide small sums of money to support this trust which continues to thrive thanks to the work of Dr. Senanayake.