In Sahana Nivasa, the House of Protection, classes start at the beginning of July for more than 100 pupils. Within a short period of time the number of children and young persons from poorest backgrounds, who get the possibility to learn something here, doubles.
Phase 41: July to December 2009  There is always something that has to be fixed. At least once every three years a renovation is necessary in the Tropics. It takes almost one month to finish the work at the 2005 completed Moonlighthouse and bring back its old or rather new beauty, a reason for joy for the Moonlightgirls and Lokothatha.
 As he has done for the past 10 years, Manuel Kreitmeir spends his summer holidays also this year in his second home, the children’s village Little Smile Mahagedara. The new “brothers and sisters” have rapidly taken their big white brother into their hearts. And as always, time is passing too quickly. And then at the end of August it was time to say goodbye, also for Malscha.
 Seriously injured children from Little Smile found this little baby monkey and brought it to the children’s village. With lots of patience and love Luxmi and Shrima clean the wounds and try to nurse the helpless creature back to health before it can be released back into the wild.
 More than one year after the opening, the school and training centre at the children’s village looks almost more beautiful than on the first day. No-one in Germany can imagine how difficult it is to defend this enormous building against masses of striped squirrels, bats, ants and termites.
 Nikolaus Wittmann from Beilngries in the Altmühltal spends one month at Little Smile, sharing his manual and technical skills with us and not only made friends with little Robinson.
 Not only at the Ayurvedic centre in Buttala meditations are held every morning. In every Little Smile project it is more than just a nice tradition to begin the day in silence with Buddhist thoughts. Together we regain strength this way for all our daily challenges.
 No matter if Sita, Malscha, Ravi or Maduschika, whenever Lokuthatha comes to see the little ones in Wisdom-House, it’s a pleasure for both sides. Here Michael Kreitmeir can switch off for a while and simply be the big white daddy.
 One last look back then Dammika leaves Little Smile after more than 6 years. Her mother has suddenly appeared and wanted the girl back. It hurts a lot when children have to leave the children’s village before the right time. Sometimes relatives appear after years to re-claim the children, who are now useful workers for them. It’s not always possible to protect those children then from being exploited by their own family, since the rights of children are rarely of interest in court.
 The utility building for the hospital in Kalmunai will be finished shortly. It has taken a long time, almost 5 years, but therefore the construction has been carried out very carefully and we have thought twice about every Rupee we spent. Quality and a responsible stewardship of funds have absolute priority at Little Smile.
 Even after the end of the civil war there is great misery especially in the north and east of Sri Lanka. For decades the sisters of the Carmelite Convent have been helping here. But the Order is poor and the sisters did not even get a single Rupee of the tsunami millions for their valuable work. Thus, Little Smile decides to build a school for the Order on the east coast. On the 29th of September, his name day, Michael Kreitmeir laid the foundation stone together with the Principal sister Lucretia.
 There is much talk about the dialogue between religions and cultures, in Little Smile, however, it is simply practiced. Father Christoph from the Franciscan Order in Vierzehnheiligen meets the Hindu priest from Koslanda here. Despite cultural, religious and language barriers, the two priests liked each other right away.
 In October Asha will reach the age of majority. 9 years ago she came to the children’s village with her brother Kasun. They both remained here even after they had finished school. Asha is trained to become a child care worker and takes care of the boys between 8 and 13 at Honest House. Kasun is foreman and responsible for 20 workers. They both are a good example that sometimes you’ll get back the love you’re giving.
 One of the saddest moments this year: Saradha and two of her sisters say goodbye to their brother Sivakumar, who has been beaten to death by policemen on October 28th. Hundreds had been watching, but nobody helped him. By chance the incident has been recorded by a camera that was installed on the beach. The same evening the cruel murder was shown on the main news. There was a huge outcry throughout the country and there were demonstrations from human rights organizations, but the murderers were only transferred to another location. With the death of Shivakumar not only Saradha and her sisters lost a brother, we all also lost the hope in justice on this 28th of November. 4 days later, on the 1st of November, Shivakumar was buried next to his mother’s grave.
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