Visitors since January 2005: 955278

Phase 32: April to June 2007

This is no April's Fool but rather great happiness for Little Smile. On April 1, Elke and Marco Kreitmeir, wife and son of our founder, arrived at the children's home for a two week visit. Both marvel about the progress and changes since their last visit more than a year ago.
Employees moved by emotion, and especially the children, listen on Good Friday while Lokuthatha tells the story of Jesus on the Mount of Olives. How close are Hosanna and the Crucifiction, 2000 years ago and sometimes also today.
Painting Easter Eggs! This nice tradition is also practiced in the mountain jungle of Sri Lanka, in the Little Smile children's village. These small girls proudly show off what they have created all by themselves.
On April 14th Sri Lanka began the year 2551. All children and employees took a trip to the Buttala Project 38 kilometers away from the children’s village. The children are happy and love to bath in the new water reservoirs created by the dams.
With mixed feelings we celebrate the wedding of our dear Parameswary. This young lady who worked in our office was always loyal and always in a good mood. With a heavy heart we say goodbye but we are also very happy for her on this special day.
Chandane, who manages the agriculture and garden workers at Little Smile, proudly shows off the results of his favourite project - the mushroom farm. And we are happy to have this additional food item which is adding variety to our menu. He promises to deliver 10 kilograms of mushrooms per day in the future.
After heavy rains during the in-between monsoon season, at the beginning of May, we started our work in Dikkapitia. In this agricultural project, we will construct a building in which to process organic spices.
Shortly after the rainy season ends, the plants have to be watered again. Everybody helps out because with the size of our plantation it is not easy to water small plants at least every other day.
She was already overdue, our Sunetra. But in mid May we celebrated a double festival in Little Smile because Sandamali, too, became a “big girl.” According to Sri Lankan cultural tradition the festival of the “first bleeding” is a big deal. The girls become educated and get their first gold jewellery, new clothes and shoes.
After military groups regained the region around Palugamam at the beginning of June, one can see the destruction as a result of the fighting. Also, our Little Smile girls' home there was sacked and burned. This means Michael Kreitmeir and his employees must start again from scratch.
These two little girls from the Little Smile home were able to find a hiding place and save themselves. At the end of June Kaniya and Sarmila returned to their mostly destroyed home.
Either tsunami or civil war has taken the parents, sisters, brothers and home of these children. But they want to live, to smile, to learn. Little Smile and our Lokuthatha give these children hope and a chance for a new start in the face of all difficulties.
Despite all the difficulties, the construction of the hospital in Kalmunai is commencing. To guarantee good workmanship and protect against cheating, Little Smile had to take over management of the construction site. This takes a lot of work because Kalmunai is far from Koslanda. But it saves a lot of money, and one can see constant progress.
Since moving Sheran de Silva to Dikkapitia (on right, with baby on his arm), the project is growing fast. The matrons of Little Smile are surprised how the main house has changed in the few months since they last visited near the end of June. The goal is that within three years revenues from the pepper, cinnamon and vanilla plantations will support financially the children's village and divers' social stations.
Every Year Again; Bernd Boes visits us and this time his mother Lioba is accompanying him. Bernd wanted to guide her through the village by himself, but then he had to ask for help because there had been so many changes since his last visit a year ago.