Phase 23: January to March 2005

Lokuthatha is back!
On 11th of January Michael Kreitmeir came back to the children’s village after his short stay in Germany. From here now also the tsunami help through Little Smile will be organised.

More tasks and responsibility require more good personnel. Shiran Silva will strengthen the management team of Little Smile. Mr. Silva has many years' experience in working with children and teenagers and has learned a handicraft as well as completed studies in philosophy.

To address the biggest need. In January, 7 children find a new home in Little Smile. Here our Niroshani is welcoming her new Little Smile brother Jagath with a small present.

Little Smile is also helping at the South Coast. In Galle we are opening a consulting centre. Here staffers (tsunami victims themselves), help locals with not only mental but also administrative and government problems. Very soon we would like to also provide a psychologist and a lawyer for these people.

On February 4th, the 57th Independence day of Sri Lanka, we are raising the country’s flag on our mountaintop next to our meditation place in the early morning. Together with the older Little Smile children, Michael Kreitmeir welcomes a new day.

A meeting at “Heaven's Door”
Tim Neumann (right) from the rap group Vega is visiting the children’s village for the third time already. He is half Sri Lankan and, together with his music friends, produced the CD “Heal Our Soul – Artists for a Little Smile.” The line from the song “Es scheint ein lichter neuer Tag” came to his mind while sitting on this meditation place on top of the children’s village. More information about the CD and to place an order: info@navegatemusic.de

Every second weekend, tsunami victims from the East Coast are invited to the children’s village- a few days to relax, to see something different than the usual ruins. While fear and mistrust dominated in the past, now friendships are growing between Tamils from the East Coast and Singhalese from the mountain area and from the South Coast. Little Smile would like to foster a process of peace, a solid one, firmly in the hearts of young people. These young Moslems are in the mountain area for their first time and were surprised by the wide openness. Maybe they discovered new horizons for themselves.

On February 26th, the Social Minister of Sri Lanka, Sumedha Jayasena, visited the Little Smile children’s village. The visit, planned only as a short stop, extended to a stay of many hours. The minister was very interested in the different educational programs and places, as well as in the plantations and children’s houses. She stayed a particularly long time in our Ayurveda hospital because her grandfather was himself an herbal doctor. One of the many highlights: raising the flag of Sri Lanka and the flag of Little Smile.

At the end of the minister’s visit, all employees and children meet the guests at the temple to pray together. All are reminded especially of the victims of the tsunami as well as war and violence.

Care and protection, trust and love. To shake hands with the weak, to show them a way for a better future. Our motto in this difficult time is: “Do what you can, but do it with a smile.”