SHIVA Charity (UK)
REGD. NO. 1045197Bob Uppington (Chairman) 19 Daventry Rd, Knowle, Bristol BS41DQ
SHIVA (Schools Helping India Voluntary Association), is a Bristol based charity established in 1995. Its founder, Bob Uppington, and the trustees are all teachers. The organisation has no religious or political affiliations, and its aim is to promote education, particularly in the poorer areas of Nepal and Sri Lanka. This is mainly done through individual child sponsorship and by raising funds for educational projects and school equipment.
SRI LANKA
In Pitipana, Negombo, there is a SHIVA Pre school catering for a hundred children between the ages of 3 and 5 years. They are chosen from the poorest families and they are freely educated. There is no registration fee, and the parents do not have to pay for anything, not even their uniform.
The children have school trips (for instance to the zoo in Colombo), they have sports meetings, exhibition "open days", vegetable fayres and a Christmas concert. The charity also provides each child with a savings book at the local bank, and a little money is deposited for them every few months towards their future.
The SHIVA Pre School is a happy place, built in a safe and peaceful environment. The four teachers are all dedicated to their work. The school is the envy of other schools in the district, and we will soon have to expand in the next few years due to its popularity.
In Individual child sponsorship means that the child sponsored is guaranteed an education at t at the Pre school. This will give him/her a great start in life. Many Pre School children live live in very poor housing and are part of a large family. Often the parents earn as little as as £12 per month, and so without the SHIVA Pre School their children would have
nothing.
SRI LANKA (contd.)
There are also two SHIVA Learning Centres in Pitipana. The second one has been recently opened and there some of the poorest children come for a few hours a day to learn, and to enjoy themselves. Many of these children have no home, and are living on the street, or in little palm leaf shacks. They are an amazingly happy and mischievous group.
They are taught by Canchana (left) a teacher who was original working voluntarily with these "street children". Now she is paid for her efforts by the charity, and is very grateful to have a proper building in which to work.
SHIVA Charity would like to build a proper "hostel" for the street children of Negombo, and put Canchana in charge of them. She has often expressed a wish to do this, but it is an expensive project that would need ongoing financial support.
The other Learning Centre is a little more formal, and there is a small library, some typewriters and two computers available throughout the day. Some extra classes are taught here to pupils who might already be attending the Government school in Pitipana, but who feel they need extra help.
Helping the children and their education often means that the charity must make donations to the family itself. A poor family living on a few pounds a month is very tempted to take children out of school and put them to work. Child labour, as in many other countries in Asia, is still commonplace.
Many families in Sri Lanka are caught in a never-ending poverty trap, passed on from generation to generation.
