The Principal’s Annual Charity

2005 Beneficiary: Hegalla College, Kosgoda, Sri Lanka

Hegalla College is an 11-18 School, located in Kosgoda in the south western part of Sri Lanka, on the coast road between Colombo and Galle. On December 26th 2004, it took the full brunt of the Tsunami. The Principal, who was working in her office in the front of the School, was killed, but mercifully as it was a public holiday, the pupils were not at School. Its library was destroyed and there was significant damage to the rest of the School.

Within a few days, over five hundred of the one thousand two hundred pupils, found themselves living in refugee camps together with over twenty of its staff. The School was visited in February 2005 by Alan Davidge, Director of External Relations and Learner Services who although engaged in a recruitment visit was also looking for a project to act as a focus for the fundraising activities which had already started as part of the Principals Annual Charity.

The decision was made to adopt Hegalla College as the beneficiary of the Principals Annual Charity and a cheque for over £500 was presented on this first visit. For the remainder of the year the College concentrated on a range of fund raising activities to help the School get back on its feet. The press interest generated by this activity locally, promoted the York Street Residents Association in Edgeley to come forward with a proposal for further assistance. They had already raised £600 from their own post-Tsunami projects.

It was decided to work in partnership with the residents association but there focus should be on a neighbouring School, Siddhartha Central College which was also visited at the same time and suffered similar damage. The fundraising which took place during the course of the year involved numbers of staff and students and in particular the Student Union.

The most prominent activity was inspired by the slogan outside of Hegalla College "Regain the Smile" which inspired Holly Burton from the College’s Work Based Learning Unit and a singer song writer in her spare time to compose and record a song "Bringing back the Smiles" which was promoted within the College and around local folk clubs.

A Christmas concert was organised which involved local School children and the local Mayor, Sian Alexander, herself a Sri Lankan national. This culminated the fund raising at Stockport College for the year, but on Boxing Day the anniversary of the Tsunami, Holly and her singing partner Phil Cawsey, support worker at the College, were invited to perform in front of a crowd of 11,000 at Edgeley Park as part of the Sale Sharks programme for the afternoon.

During the course of the year the funds being raised by Stockport College were forwarded to Hegalla College and the first outcome of the project was to buy a three wheeler, or tuk-tuk, for the School, which provide them with much needed transport in case of emergency (one problem at the School is that if a pupil any had an accident and needed emergency medical treatment there was no way of providing them with help). The tuk-tuk which carried the Stockport College logo has now become an important part of Hegalla College life.

On a follow up visit in March 2006, Alan Davidge was able to take a final cheque to the School which will be used on the newly built construction and craft workshop. We will be kept informed of its progress during the course of the year and it is hoped that Stockport College can maintain its relationship with Hegalla College once its computer infrastructure is built, thereby enabling contact with some of the Colleges younger learners and their counterparts at Hegalla.

In all the fundraising reached a total of over £5,000.