The Lee hosts Sri Lankan VIP
By Tim HartOn Sunday 18th March Sajith Premadasa, MP for Hambantota in Sri Lanka, and his wife Jalani attended the Mothering Sunday service at St John The Baptist. Mr Premadasa had come to The Lee to thank the village for its help following the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. He was thrilled to address the congregation of over 100, including many children.
At the end of the service Mr Premadasa made a brief speech outlining how the tsunami had affected the lives of people in different ways and thanked us for the support we have given, particularly the funding of a pre-school.
Mr Premadasa’s visit to the village was one of a number of functions lined up to show Sri Lankan appreciation for post-tsunami help. The previous day Mr Premadasa had given a talk – ‘Sri Lanka: A Post-Tsunami Update’ – at Chesham Town Hall, and from our service he went on to St Leonards.
Mr Premadasa’s father was Prime Minister and then President of Sri Lanka until he was assassinated in 1993 by Tamil extremists. Mr Premadasa was educated at Mill Hill School in London, London School of Economics, and Maryland University in America (although not completed because of father’s assassination). He is a member of the opposition cabinet in Sri Lanka and considered a potential future prime minister.
Mr. Premadasa has set up an Economic and Social Rejuvenation Fund; the latest initiative is small interest-free loans for women to get into enterprise. This has been a very successful project and enabled many families to move out of poverty. There have been no bad debts and all repayments to date have been made on time.
If you would like to make a donation for either equipment in the pre-school or for the loans for enterprise, please contact me on 837328.