Donated toys, all the way from the Netherlands, arrived in the hands of these happy orphans after a long journey by air and sea.

First they travelled by plane from Amsterdam to London as part of my regular luggage.

Then they stayed in London awaiting collection by the shipping company. Once collected they went on a 4 week journey by sea to Sri Lanka. Total transport costs: £5.-

Most orphans in Sri Lanka have little to no toys. The orphanages simply can’t afford them.

This particular donation consisted of toys for very young children which was an excellent fit for this orphanage.

At this Colombo based orphanage they have a special unit for babies and toddlers who could really do with toys.


The images on this page show us the effect the simple gesture of donating our used toys can have.

And toys are not the only way we can make a difference to the lives of others.

Coming to Sri Lanka on a responsible holiday, donating money or using easysearch and easyfundraising also greatly benefit those in need.

At LEO we welcome any ideas you have to put a smile on their face!

With many thanks to Mr. Laurent Koelink, director of Ensior BV (our major sponsor for an upcoming project), for donating these toys!

The images on this page were taken at the beginning of this week and give a great indication of the change taking place.

Unfortunately prices hiked up since the first estimates to renovate the preschool were given. It works out that an additional £200.- is required to finish the work. Hence we at LEO keep on trying to raise the funds.

Now you might have noticed that the wording ‘microloan’ was used. It is important to keep in mind that anything that actually costs money is more valuable than something that comes for free.

So, to ensure that people are extremely serious about what the wish to use the money for it is given in the form of a microloan.

Interest is charged on the microloan which generates money to invest in other projects.

The interest rate is carefully considered and depends on the return on investment the organisation or individual borrowing the funds can realisticly expect.

LEO Project Foundation is a non profit organisation and the microloans are primarily to ensure that those asking for funding use it wisely.

When we ship things to Sri Lanka we are never certain if and how it arrives. We neither know if and how much the customs will charge to realize our goods.

Our usual shipment consists of stamps and some hard to get by goods. However, this shipment actually contains a server computer, hard drives, children toys and stamps.

The server has been donated to us by Joost Buelens whom will be volunteering at one of our projects with disabled children in October.


Hopefully we will see a future donation of an x-amount desktop computers arriving in Sri Lanka round about the same time, so a fully fledged network can be created giving the children better tools to improve their IT skills.

Joost happens to be an absolute expert on Linux and will be a huge help making this project a success.

This of course will be detailed in one of the future success stories!

 

Imagine you are a child again. Every day you have to walk to school and the only road leading there is an old dirt road of sand and stones. Now imagine you are walking that same road bare foot. This is exactly what most of the children at a very poor village school called ‘Sumanasara’ faced on a daily basis

A surprise donation
When in early 2007 we received a donation of about £150 by surprise, we asked ourselves where this money could be used most effectively. Know that in 2007 we weren’t even a charity yet, but one of us was volunteering in the Kurunegala area. There he had been teaching at a school where there wasn’t even chalk to write on the ‘blackboard’. And at this same school were these shoeless children.

What to do, what to do?
We talked to the principal of the school who told us that actually the children have to wear ties to school as this is a government rule however, she believed that shoes were much more help to these children than ties.

Christmas coming early
With the donation we were able to get over 35 shoeless children brand new shoes. Their happiness receiving these shoes we can only compare to a child getting the Christmas present it only dared dreaming off!

These shoes are said to last for at least two year preventing all kinds of foot injuries these children sustained on a daily basis by walking bare foot.