A team of officials from ACNS, Netherlands comprising of Mr.Gerard Berendsen- Chairman and contact person for Sri Lanka, Nicks Koojman -Member, Mr.Dudley Jayasekera - Advisior for Sri Lanka, Rich van Diest - Member & Treasurer, Martha van Somara - Member & Secretary, Tymen Wrustra - Member & Website in-charge, Rene Schuldrnk - Member, Eddo van Bethray - Member and Wending, Rashmin & Randy Koojman from Kinder Service Hotels accompanied the team.
The visiting team was met and accompanied by Rev.Fr.Prof. T.S.Sylvester,Director, Caritas EHED, Batticaloa - Kalmunai , Rev.Fr.Cryton Outschoorn, Director, Caritas EHED, Batticaloa - Kalmunai, Mr.SO.Jeyanandan, Projects Coordinator and Mrs.Anthoniya Mohanasundaram, Education Assistant.
They visited the Pre-Schools built by ACNS in the villages of Nasivanthivu, Pethalai, Kallar, Palameen madu, Villawattuwan , Thalankudah and the Welfare Home built in Thetathivu. During their 04 day visit they had the opportunity of meeting the Parents, Pre-School children and Teachers and learnt about how the Pre-School children were benefited in Pre-School education through these Pre-Schools established out of the funds provided by the ACNS of Netherlands. They were also interested in knowing how effective was the Micro-credit system introduced in two pre-schools in helping the parents to overcome their financial difficulties in utilizing Micro credit to invest in gainful trades, the administrative income of which was used to pay their monthly allowances. On the Overall, the visiting delegates were highly impressed and satisfied with the working system of the pre-schools as well as the Micro-credit facilities provided to the Parent Teachers association of the two pre-schools. They too visited some of the livelihood projects such as Goat rearing, Sewing and Hair dressing implemented by some of the parents with the support of the Micro credit facilities provided to them which helped them to earn an income to cover the cost of living of their families. Visiting delegates were entertained with dances and sing songs by the pre-school children which was appreciated by them. They provided stationeries to 232 pre-school children belonging to 06 pre-schools.
They visited St.Jude’s Welfare Home in Thetathivu on 02.07.2011 built with the financial support of ACNS. The delegates had the opportunity of meeting 17 school attending poor children who are in Grade 3 to Grade 12 classes who are being provided with extra coaching classes at the said welfare home. These children were gifted with school bags, pair of shoes , school uniform material and stationery by the delegates at a cost of Rs.2,440/= per child. They also met 17 female unemployed young girls who have been provided facilities at the home to teach the skills of sewing to enable them to get trained in sewing to gainfully employed in the future.
On completion of their field visit, the delegates had a summing up meeting on 04.07.2011 on their visit to the pre-schools and welfare home with the members of the management staff of Caritas EHED in the presence of the two directors. They shared their experiences gathered during their field visit the members of the staff and said that they were impressed over the functioning of the pre-schools directly under the supervision of Caritas EHED. The delegates after being satisfied with the benefits of the Micro Credit system in the two pre-schools had now consented to provide similar Micro Credit facilities to the other pre-schools too in order to sustain the running of the pre-schools.