Merry Christmas - Gledelig Jul - සුභ නත්තලක් වේවා - மெர்ரி கிறிஸ்துமஸ்

The Beauty of Bridges

We commemorate our close friend and teacher, Hans Petter Hanssen, who passed away two years ago, on 6 December 2015. We do so by sharing with you this nice poem written by the Norwegian poet Rolf Jacobsen. We believe that Hans Petter enjoyed this particular piece of written art, which celebrates the spanning structures of social life, love and friendship.

BROENES SKJØNNHET   Stål eller stein. Der står de brospennenes strenge buer meislet inn i landskapet som porter til fred.   Verrazano Narrow Bridge, Bosporus, Rheinbrücke, Sotra - og Sortlandsspennene, Golden Gate lysende som smykker, blomsterkranser, kniplinger kastet gjennom luften: Min hånd i din. Kom over og se.   --- Regnbuen sier: Se på meg. Jeg er en bro. Jeg er et tegn på himmelen. Bygg broer. Bøy dere. Løft armene til en bue. Bind sammen. Bryt lenker. Bygg.   Se stålsøyler og tårn mot skyene: En bro. Hør vindfløyten mellom wirene: En bro To mennesker møter. Ansiktene blusser: En bro Ord som blir sagt. Hengivelse, fred: En bro.   Rolf Jacobsen

THE BEAUTY OF BRIDGES   Steel or stone. There are they, the bridge spans strong arches carved into the landscape like gates to peace.   Verranzano narrow Bridge, Bosporus, Rheinbrücke, Sotra -  and the Sortlandsspans, Golden Gate lightning like jewels, garlands laces thrown through the air: My hand in yours. Come over and see.   --- The rainbow says: See me. I'm a bridge. I'm a sign on the sky. Build bridges. Kneel. Raise your arms like an arch. Link together. Break chains. Build.   See steel columns and towers against the sky: A bridge. Hear the wind whistling between the wires: A bridge . Two people meet. The faces blush. A bridge. Words beeing spoken. Devotion, peace: A bridge.    (Free translation by Odd Johansen)

The small Hanssen bridge in Dolahena is still here, allowing people from all over the world to come across and meet each other, literary speaking. The small pond under the bridge is now full of colorful fishes. And the two-storey Sathkara school building has grown in number of rooms, doors and windows – inviting more children and young people to come and enjoy the faculties of art. This is part of the dream that Hans Petter nourished – a village school devoted to cultural and crafts activitites, far from the school imparting dead knowledge.

“Say not in grief that he is no more, but live in thankfulness that he was.” (Hebrew proverb)

Dolahena and Gjøvik, 6th of December 2017

Siripala, Sriyani and Asbjørn

In memory of Hans Petter: A flower tree ( Dracaena reflexa, called 'Song of India') was planted, and Sriyani offered flowers and lit a candle.

Yatawara Art Exhibition - යටවර කලා ප්රදර්ශනය

Yatawara Primary and Secondary School

The small village of Yatawara, on the northern riverbanks of Kalu Ganga in rural Kalutara district, was one of many villages badly hit by the flood in western and southern Sri Lanka in late May 2017. Many schools were fully or partially damaged by the rain and river water. But the school in Yatawara is located on top of a small mound, next to the temple, and served as a safe location for the villagers during the days of inundation. Many homes in Yatawara was damaged, however, and the villagers lost property and agricultural produce.

Our organisation HELP received some extra money from Norwegian friends earmarked ‘relief work’, and we first planned to support the school children who lost everything with a ‘back to school’ kit (e.g. exercise books, pencil sharpener, pencils, etc.). But the government and many NGOs provided such assistance. Also, we planned to support the remaking of a school library damaged by the flood. In the end, however, we were requested by the principal of Yatawara, Mr. Anura, to involve all the pupils in a two-days art workshop and a single-day exhibition. Previously, this rural school had hardly no resources to teach the children the creative arts of drawing and painting. So, HELP engaged our art teacher Anusha to conduct the workshop, and HELP collected the necessary materials. 75 school children and many pre-school children participated. On 29 Nov. 2017, the parents and other guests were invited to the school to view the exhibition. Officers from the local educational authorities also came. The children all received a certificate and gifts. Our Norwegian guest Asbjørn gave a short speech in Sinhala, surprising the audience. We were asked to come again next year for another workshop, and we were also requested to offer similar programmes to another school (Uduwara).

Anusha and Siripala preparing the exhibition, hanging the mounted paitings on portable walls.

One of many paintings depicting the rural village of Yatawara, with houses, the temple, the paddy fields, and the great Kalu Ganga.

Our art teacher Anusha giving the certificate and gift to one of the young participants.

Flowers, painted by one of the primary school pupils.

A coconut tree, depicted by a secondary school pupil

අපි පාර හදමු - පාරෙන් හැදමු: We build the road and the road builds us

The old road through the village of Dolahena badly needed rehabilitation, after battering of heavy rain and the baking of sun. Here are some pictures from a public meeting with local representatives from the Horana Pradesheeya Sabhava(හොරණ ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාව), and from the road work and shramadana.  

The old path through Dolahena had deteriorated after years of thermal cracking and heavy rain erosion, in addition to increasing vehicles traffic. The provincial council (බටහිර පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රීවරු) contributed funds for gravel and concrete, and the village contributed voluntary labour for a five day shramadana. The roadbed was rebuilt and surfaced with concrete slabs. The major advantage of concrete pavements is they are typically stronger and more durable than tarmac. The new durable road will be celebrated by the villagers on 21 September. HELP also hopes that the neighboring village soon will be favoured with funds for road maintenance, and that the "shoe bridge" also can be repaired.

Our temporary classroom in Gamage's garage

The Sathkara class has moved to Gamage's garage, for temporary reasons. The ground floor of HELP's village centre is being reconstructed to accomodate a combined gathering hall and classroom. Part of the wall between the old and new building was removed, and the walls and ceilings were painted. It appears from the picture that the children enjoyed their short-term classroom.

ඩෙංගු රෝගය සක්‍රිය වෙසි. මුළු රටම අවදානමේ: Worst-ever epidemic of dengue fever. The whole country is at risk.

Dengue is the fastest spreading mosquito-borne viral infection in the world. Spreading in epidemic proportions, dengue has become a major public health problem in Sri Lanka. From 1st January to 19th July in 2017, The Ministry of Health has reported 97,125 dengue fever cases, including 250 deaths. "The number of cases this year is three-and-a-half times more than the average number of cases for the same period between 2010 and 2016,” officials say.

The current dengue fever outbreak occurs in a context of massive heavy rains and flooding in May-June and is currently affecting 15 out of 25 districts in Sri Lanka where almost 600,000 people have been affected. The health authorities are particularly worried they can see a further increase in the number of dengue cases because of the stagnant water that the floods leave in their wake, which is the last thing needed by families and communities that have already lost so much. The geography of dengue fever is a typical local one, as the dengue mosquito can fly only 100 to 500 meters.

The organisation of HELP has for many years educated parents and children about the risk of dengue fever. HELP has organised many community campaigns to keep the local environment clean, removing all breeding sites for this particular mosquito (Aedes aegypti). HELP has also introduced other practical measures to be adopted at household level. All children attending the Sathkara school are expected to remove trash from their home and garden as part of their "homework duties". Doing so, they reduce the number of artificial water containers that hold water (plastic cans, used tyres, empty bottles, coconut shells, etc.). Recently, HELP members assisted in a shramadana (voluntary labour) to clean the land of a neighboring family, where one of the family members was hospitalised because of dengue fever. The patient is now much better.



Cleaning the land of one of our neighbors, close to Silarathana Mawatha, on the way to Horana. If road ditches do not flow and contain stagnant water for one week or longer, they can produce large numbers of mosquitoes. Photo: Siripala Gamage

Sharing a meal during our shramadana. Photo: Siripala Gamage

වතුර හින්දා මදුරුවෝ බෝ වෙනවා. මදුරුවෝ හින්දා ලෙඩ බෝ වෙනවා. Translation: Mosquitoes breed because of water. Diseases spread because of mosquitoes.



Communicable diseases: Even though non-communicable diseases (NCDs, e.g. cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and mental illness) are now the leading cause of death in Sri Lanka, communicable diseases (CDs, e.g. malaria fever, dengue fever, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases) remain a health burden. Even though the actual number of deaths caused by CDs is relatively small, the infectious nature of these diseases is cause of grave public concern, with a large number of patients seeking treatment at hospitals. Kalutara district Dengue is the major public health burden in Sri Lanka. Kalutara is one of the highly affected districts. Understanding the drivers of dengue is vital in controlling and preventing the disease spread. A recent study focused on quantifying the influence of weather variability on dengue incidence over 10 Medical Officer of Health (MOH) divisions of Kalutara district. Weekly weather variables and data on dengue notifications, measured at 10 MOH divisions in Kalutara from 2009 to 2013, were retrieved and analysed. There was a pronounced relationship with medium and high rainfall levels occurring 6–12 weeks before incidence, and a similar pattern following high temperatures. Rainfall affects vector abundance by replenishing breeding sites and stimulating egg hatching. Incidences of malaria in Sri Lanka has markedly declined from year 2000 onwards, with a steady reduction in the proportion of Plasmodium falciparum cases. In fact, the recorded annual case numbers have been below 1,000 since 2006 with the majority of cases due to Plasmodium vivax. During the years of 2011 and 2012 there were only 124 and 23 respectively of indigenous malaria cases. Since October 2012, the number of cases of malaria was reduced to zero and no locally transmitted cases have been recorded in Sri Lanka thereafter. On the 5th of September, 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) certified that Sri Lanka was successful in eliminating malaria. Sri Lanka is the second among the 11 countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region to eliminate malaria after Maldives. Sources: Liyanage, P., Tissera H., Sewe M., Quam, M., Amarasinghe, A., Palihawadana P., Wilder-Smith, A., Louis V. R., Tozan Y. and Rocklöv J. (2016): A Spatial Hierarchical Analysis of the Temporal Influences of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Weather on Dengue in Kalutara District, Sri Lanka. In: Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13, 1087; doi:10.3390/ijerph13111087. Karunaweera, N. D., Galappaththy, G. N.L. and Wirth, D. F. (2014): On the road to eliminate malaria in Sri Lanka: lessons from history, challenges, gaps in knowledge and research needs. In: Malaria Journal 2014, 13:59 Lucas, G.N. (2017): Malaria-free Sri Lanka. In: Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2017; 46(1): 1-2.