Hi All,
This morning Ii met with a women who is a lawyer and who has had an established trust fund operating for the last 4 years. Her cause up till now has been focused on breaking down the divisions between different ethnic groups and has used local ngo's to identify needs that she then supports. She feels very strongly that the orphaned children should be put in the care of a home environment rather than an orphanage. Her husband was assassinated in 1999 by the Tamil Tigers - he was a Cambridge educated intellectual who returned to Sri Lanka years ago to help the government facilitate peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils (he himself was of Tamil origin). His dream was to find a peaceful medium between the two which ended with his assassination by a suicide bomber. She is an extremely impressive women who is very passionate and dedicated to her cause. She also has a huge amount of knowledge about the local fisherpeople and explained alot about the impact of taking children out of the environment they have grown up in and the trauma this could cause.

My concern is that I do not want to provide an environment for children that is better than their surrounding environment as it will make it difficult for them to assimilate back into that environment as young adults. On the other hand we could use this as an opportunity to further their lives and move them out of the village environment, but I think realistically this would be a very difficult task with alot of psychological effects that we would be unaware of.

I will aim to come home with a few options and make a recommendation to all involved and move from there.

Cheers