About Santosa


Early nineties we visited Sri Lanka and especially the fishing communities on the narrow land between the Indian Ocean and the lagoon between Colombo and Negombo. The main source of income is fishing. Part of the year they fish at sea and the remaining time - because of the fierce sea - they fish on the lagoon. The fishermen use small boats. The yield is very volatile, and the average income is usually below the poverty line. During our visit we were touched by the great poverty of the families. There was also much drinking and violence in this region.

In 1994 we started our Santosa project in one of the villages called Rajawattha. We bought a house and a large playground. The children now had a place where they could play and Santosa had a house from which we could organize our help to the families. During one of our visits to the families in our area, we discovered a boy who was mentally and physically handicapped. We started teaching him in our Santosa house. It proved that there were many more handicapped children in our area. With help from our early donors, we had the opportunity to build a small school. We started with a single class room, but soon found that we needed more space. Fortunately we got financial assistance for another two class rooms to build.

Thanks to our influence and help, the violence sharply drop and also alcohol abuse is now greatly reduced. The housing conditions of many families has improved. We run a school for handicapped children and provide extra classes for many other children in our area. And we do much more as you can read in the activities pages.

The Santosa project has an open character. We have no fences around our premises; everyone is welcome and can always walk in and visit us. Because we work a lot with children, we have deliberately chosen for such an open structure. We also try as much as possible to involve the parents of the children who come to Santosa. Because the main road to the fishermen on the beach crosses our premises there are always people passing through.

To read more about the structure of our foundation, click here.

Perhaps one day we can greet you as a visitor to our project. You are always welcome! Here you find our address.