The Dr.Reijntjes School for the Deaf in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, started in 1984 with 8 deaf ...
The deaf girls like to play volleyball in their free time and the deaf boys play cricket...
Dat betekent dat er in de loop der jaren een gespecialiseerd team is opgebouwd om de groep van 100 dove ...
News Letters
Annual Report 2010
July 28, 2011, 7:20 AM
• The new school year started on Sunday, January 10th, 2010. All the 200 parents came with their children for a special Parents Day with lunch. An “Almsgiving” (lunch) for 30 monks was also organized with the help of the parents.
• This month a lot of Dutch donors visited our School. As the war is over foreigners are not afraid anymore to visit Sri Lanka again.
• Six of our pupils got hearing aids from the Dutch Organization Liliane Fonds. Two people of the same Foundation visited our School. They donated a wheel chair to a handicapped person.
• On March 2nd we got the sad message that Mr. Tamme Smit from Rolde, the Netherlands, had passed away. He was a good sponsor of our Deaf School and helped a lot of poor people in Sri Lanka by providing them houses.
• Tineke de Silva’s birth day was celebrated on March 5th. The school garden looked like a “Fun Park” with castles to jump, a merry go round, a magician, popcorn, snacks and drinks. It was a marvelous day for our deaf children! • Mid March a fire broke out behind one of the washing machines. Luckily our Scottish volunteer, Fiona, detected it in time. For a moment there was panic, but quickly the fire gadgets were used. There was only a small damage.
• Suranga Nanayakkara, the student from the Singapore University who did research in our Deaf School, married in March in the Galle Face Hotel Colombo. A few staff members were invited for the wedding. Some days later the young couple and Professor Wyse from the same university visited our deaf children.
• A beautiful colourful play house, a gift from a group of Dutch people, was installed in the school auditorium. • In April we organized a morning with traditional “new year games” just before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year started. Deaf children and staff members went home for a short New Year holiday.
• At the end of April there was a two days “Kite Work Shop” in the School attended by 22 of our deaf pupils. Two famous artists from the Netherlands, Gerdine Duijsens and Hans van Horck came to Sri Lanka together with the manager Michel van Haren. On April 23rd we had a very colourful opening of the work shop by H.E. Mrs. Leoni Cuelenaere, the Ambassador for the Netherlands in Colombo. The two days of painting were a real happening in the School. The artists painted themselves also a giant kite.
• In May five of the deaf girls started with an afternoon class in dress making and embroidery at a “Fashion Academy” in Moratuwa. They were very enthusiast and made already wonderful creations.
• After the last monsoon there were a lot of cases of dengue fever in Sri Lanka. So far no cases in our Deaf School. We decided to start a big cleaning up in the school garden with all the staff members and children. We were cutting trees, cleaned gutters and drains etc. And now we hope it is a safe place!
• One of our senior teachers Chintha married on May 20th in Ratnapura. She will stay to teach in our School.
• At the end of May a dance group from Colombo started with a 6 months “Work Shop” for the deaf children. It was their first confrontation with deaf children and a beautiful challenge for both sides.
• In June we got the sad news that Dr. J.A.Reijntjes passed away in the Netherlands at the blessed age of 95 years. We organized a special ceremony in the School to remember him.
• Two of our past pupils, Rasika and Anura, got married in May. Both of them are orphans. They live now with family members and both of them have a job.
• We said farewell to Ingmar Zahorski, a German journalist, who was staying 7 weeks with us.
• Three enthusiast Dutch girls, Sofie, Marit and Hagar from Utrecht were spending a week in July as volunteers in our School with the deaf children.
• Dr. R.J. Reijntjes Junior, an ENT doctor, was sending ENT-Equipment to Sri Lanka. This was sent to the Hambantota Base Hospital to start an ENT- Clinic.
• In September Yumiko, a Japanese friend, visited us again. She comes every year to buy cards and embroidery work, made by our students, to sell it in Japan.
• End of September our pupils performed 4 different dances at a Seminar of the Weeramantri Peace Centre in the University in Kurunegala. The audience was very enthusiast to see deaf children dancing almost perfectly, without hearing the music.
• We started a work shop to make necklaces with the pupils in October. Pupils of all ages participated. Dayakka, who was working in our Deaf School 20 years ago, conducted the classes.
• Beginning November we made our annual school trip with the children. Ine and Nimal Lems from the Netherlands also joined us. With 2 busses we went to Galle Fort, where Mrs. Lahir was waiting for us with a drink and cake under the “Light House”. We walked through the Leynbaan Street to bring a visit to the Dutch Mansion Museum, after that we visited the beautiful new Maritime Museum and the Dutch Church. In the mean time it was lunch time, so we proceeded to Koggala to the Martin Wickremasinghe Folk Museum with a huge garden, an excellent place to open the lunch packets! After a tour through the old museum and house of the famous writer, we went back in the busses to go to Matara. First we visited the famous Weherehena Temple with the tall Buddha Statue. The last place to visit was the Church of “Our Lady of Matara” with the mysterious Statue of Holy Mary and the infant Jesus. During the Portuguese time this statue came ashore in Matara from an unknown place. The people placed it in a shrine what later became the church. During the tsunami in December 2004 the whole church was destroyed and this statue was swept away. After 3 days it was found undamaged on the Matara beach again! Now there is a beautiful new church erected on the same place and the statue is protected in a new shrine. A lot of pilgrims visit this place now. At this beach, in front of the church, the mother of one of our staff members was waiting to give all the children a drink with cake, before going back to Moratuwa, a trip of 4 hours.
• On November 20th we participated in the annual Lions Club Sports Meet. This time it was held in the Stadium on walking distance from the School. It was very well organized and our pupils enjoyed it very much. They won a lot of prizes again. Two volunteers of the School, Jayanthi and Christina, also joined.
• The National Institute of Education organized a one day Seminar for the teacher’s course for Special Education in our Deaf School end of November. There were 40 Tamil and Muslim teachers and 40 Sinhala teachers from Deaf Schools all over Sri Lanka. It was a very successful day.
• Ramesh de Silva, a past German volunteer who was one year with us in 2002, came to visit us again in December. He is now working for the UN in Mozambique.
• Two staff members of the kitchen, Punchi Nona and Sriyawathie retired. They were 22 years working with us, so the farewell was emotional. Two new people took their place: Suneetha and Shanthi.
