I'm Going to be an Engineer

Lasindu is a 9 year old boy living in the Hambantota district. He loves cricket, his favourite subject at school, where he is in Grade 4, is English and when he grows up he wants to be an engineer. He has had an Australian sponsor for the last 7 years - and he has a great smile.

4 years ago, Lasindu's Mum and Dad were chosen by their community to take part in a Home Gardening project. They have about 2 hectares of land, but for most of the time they owned the property it was overgrown.

Today as I walked through their organic garden things are different. Now I am not a gardener, I have a talent for killing anything that is planted, but the expert in permaculture tells me that this garden is excellent. The garden has been designed with short, medium and long term crops that serve both their own needs and now are beginning to produce enough fruit to sell at the market. There are 200 pineapple plants, 2 months old, (it takes about 8 months to produce ripe fruit); 40 coconut trees, the two most fruitful of which are set aside for market; numerous bean varieties, herbs and spices, cinnamon trees, leafy vegetables, and just recently they are beginning to grow flowers. They have done so well that Lasindu's Dad is now a lead farmer, which means he mentors a cluster of farmers, assisting and training others in soil preparation, organic farming and design.

All of this means that Lasindu's family is now self-supporting and have increased their household income - which means that when he goes to school about 3km away, [which he didn't do today because he wanted to meet me :) ] he now does so with new shoes, new text books, on a new bike and having had a healthy breakfast. At home his family now eats three times a day - and they eat fresh organically grown vegetables. When one of the family get sick they can now not only afford to go to hospital, but they can afford medicine or treatment when necessary. "I don't worry as much about things", said Lasindu's Mum.

Over the past 15 years the program in this area has transformed the lives of almost 1,000 families through the introduction of home gardening; more than 3,000 children have been sponsored, over 400 women are members of a society that trains them in vocational skills that increase their income and their self-esteem. Some are employed by the society to make brushes and coir products, earning between $85.00 - $150.00 a month, (which is good additional income). Over 4,000 families are receiving fresh, safe water to their house and maintaining the water systems through their contributions.

This program is owned by the people, and they are proud of what they have achieved - in a closing statement at a community meeting a woman announced: "I love my country, and I now love my life and my community".