H.O.P.E Visit

In her January/February 2008 report Pat say's "It had been planned for some time that H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everywhere) would make a third trip to support our work, but this time would be in Sri Lanka. Here, Father Terence had almost come to a halt with the wonderful community centre that he is building for his parishioners, who had been severely affected by the Tsunami.

We planned for HOPE to lay flooring, decorate, and do the electrical work on the second floor of the Centre. They were also to shelve out the library that had been sponsored by one of the group. It was a massive task as the floor area is about 45 feet across (being circular); the roof is domed and reaches heights of around 40 feet.

As there is also going to be a stage area on this level the lighting was to cover the auditorium and stage area, an incredible task to tackle.

I was with the team for the first couple of days after arrival, when they were able to meet Father Terence, gasp at the size of the job they were to do, and some of us spent an interesting morning in a nearby town buying £2,400 of floor tiles, which I later discovered were to need over 1½ miles of grouting!

After those 2 days we went off to India leaving the HOPE group to their work, and on returning 10 days later there was an amazing transformation. The dozens of lights that had been put in to the ceiling had meant that Alan had spent most of the 10 days at the top of scaffolding. He/they had also connected everything to a single control board.

Several fans had also been installed. The floor was tiled, decorating completed, the library shelved, an outside garden area completed and a lot of good will generated. Father Terence was overjoyed. It was an amazing amount of work, in hot and humid conditions. The group had also made "friends" with the small nursery school next door to the Centre, and made personal cash donations to them.

They had also supported a really poor couple who were married in the church during their work period, making a photo album of the day for them, and giving them a cash sum to help them to start their married life. This is an inadequate description of what they achieved. The next job for HOPE will be to tackle similar work in our new homes in Mavelikara January 2009."

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