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.
Nearly all the “non-formal” children of the village of Urala now have their birth certificates (see separate story), and Extra Cover is working with Mr Athula to ensure all of them are formally registered. The children need additional support, because they have not been going to school until recently. They attend Bemboda School, but it […]
Last October, Robert made a pit-stop to Nawala School where he was warmly greeted by the latest intake at the Pre-Prep. Sri Lankans go in for colourful school uniforms for those of kindergarten age, before they wear the regulation state school uniforms. The numbers at Nawala have fluctuated, and the average attendance at the Pre-Prep […]
It is with profound sadness that we have learned of the untimely death of Waruna Maddumage. While Extra Cover mostly works with and alongside children, we have set up a small medical emergency operation through the offices of Newton Perera in Colombo. Newton, who. until three years ago ran the Extra Cover Foundation, has identified […]
Despite heavy rains the night before, seven of the eight children at Samimale SEN were in school the day Robert visited in October. Miss Shihani, the teacher, is an ambitious young woman, committed to furthering her own education with a diploma in speech therapy and Braille. She has applied for a formal teaching position, and […]
A significant, new thrust in Extra Cover’s activities has been the attempt to ensure all unregistered children in the area where we work have birth certificates. A child without a birth certificate can’t go to school, obtain ID, marry, get a job, or travel. All they can really do is live permanently on, and work […]
The village of Watahena is still only accessible by tuk-tuk. Over the years we have supplied the local, “difficult” school (“difficult” to access, that is) with daily meals, playground equipment, and classroom supplies. On his recent trip there, Robert brought bubbles and tennis balls and toured the school, where he met young Jayani. Jayani lives […]
