The mission of Extra Cover is to help some of Sri Lanka’s poorest school children grow up with hope. It provides basic essentials – from food and clean water to toilets and textbooks – to twenty four extremely remote village schools in the southern rainforest area. As funds allow, it also builds extra classrooms, installs playground equipment, runs tea and cinnamon-growing cooperatives, and oversees vocational schools.
The Hill Way Tea Factory, close to Pathawelivitiya and its Extra Cover tea plantations, has been closed for renovation, but will open in a few weeks’ time. We had an interesting chat with the manager who is more than happy to work with us in making our own “brand” of tea. Newton is looking into […]
Martin and Mary Riddiford visited Nawala School on 19th February 2013 where 20% of pupils' homes have no electricity and kerosene lamps are used for lighting. Extra Cover arranged visits to 3 of these homes, and to meet the families. Martin is the driving force in developing a real alternative to Kerosene lamps in the […]
How can poor inhabitants of the remote Sri Lankan jungle afford to light their homes after dark? Up until now, the only answer has been kerosene lamps – dangerous and quite expensive. Robert holds a sample of a simple kerosene bottle lamp Martin Riddiford, a member of the London design company “Therefore”, recently mentioned to […]
A report by Robert on the Brighton College visits in 2012 At six o’clock every evening of the four-week trip, I sat down with all the pupils and staff for a drink (most had a Coke or a fresh fruit juice) at the Lucky Tuna on Unawatuna beach. Every meeting started with the same agenda […]
Below is a bare bones description of the two trips made to Extra Cover schools this July. See the separate article – “Rewards and Rambutan” – for a more reflective description. TRIP ONE On June 30 this year, barely 24 hours after the end of term, eighteen Brighton College pupils and four teachers left Heathrow […]
During the trip out to Sri Lanka in July 2012, Robert visited five new schools, all of whom are keen to be brought under Extra Cover’s umbrella. The schools are collectively in the Galle to Udugama “corridor” in the Galle District - not far from our existing schools - and all are overseen by hugely […]
