The Santosa Foundation

New: some short movies to give you a quick view of our activities

Watch some short movies. They give you a good impression of the activities that we organise for the poor children in Sri Lanka.

A short introduction to the Santosa Foundation

The Santosa Foundation was founded back in 1994 and provides help in various ways to some of the poorest families and children of Sri Lanka. Santosa means welfare, happiness.

The foundation is situated on the western coast between the town of Negombo and the capital Colombo, in the small village Rajawatha. The area where Santosa provides help also includes the villages of Dungalpitya, Talahena and Pitipana, all within a few miles from Rajawatha. These villages lay between the Indian Ocean and a large lagoon (Negombo Lagoon).

The Santosa buildings are located right on the beach of the Indian Ocean. Most people in the area are fishermen. About 80% of the population is considered very poor; the average monthly income is less then 5000 Rps per months, which is the equivalent of 30 Euros. Many children do not go to school and regularly have little or nothing to eat. Unemployment rate is very high. One can say that some of the people are too poor to live but not poor enough to die.
The fishermen in Sri Lanka use primitive wooden or plastic boats, called Kattumaran. In our area most fishermen use even smaller boats without engine or sail. They must rent the boat and nets because they cannot afford to have one for their own. They have to give 50% of what they earn to the owner of the boat. Fishing on these boats is a dangerous enterprise; one out of 10 women is widow!

In 2004 Sri Lanka was hit hard by the Tsunami. Although we are right on the coast our project was not damaged. We were very lucky, just a few miles north and south the damage was substantial and people lost their life. Unfortunately as a result of the Tsunami there was a shortage of many essentials and prices quickly went up. Fishermen who lost their boat got a brand-new plastic boat with outboard engine from the Tsunami help. But now our fishermen - who did not loose their wooden rowing and sailing boats - have to compete with the brand new ones. One can imagine that this is almost impossible.

Sri Lanka is facing a civil war for many years already. The Tamil minority in the North feel suppressed by the Singalese and fight for an independent state. Something the government will never allow. Unfortunately the Tamil Tigers now use every possible means to accomplish their goals: recruitment of child-soldiers, and bombing of innocent civilians in trains and buses. Fortunately Santosa is not in the war-zone and so far we did not see too much trouble in our area. But the war keeps tourists away and many jobs in the tourist industry have been lost. And the whole economy is suffering from the tremendous cost of this civil war; unemployment rates and inflation are very high.

Now the world is facing an international food and fuel crisis. Poor countries like Sri Lanka are hit hardest. Poor people spend almost all their income on food and on the most basic needs; one can imagine what happens to them when prices of essentials go up by 40%! Many of the families in our villages are suffering from the high prices. They do not buy vegetables anymore and also meat and chicken is taken off the menu. What is left is rice and some dry fish, if any.

Despite all the trouble we continue our work and try to help as much as we can. This website tells you more about our project and the activities we undertake. We hope you find our website informative and hope to welcome you as a donor soon! Because the foundation only works with (unpaid) volunteers more than 97% of the donations actually go to the people of Sri Lanka who so desperately need our help. For more information you can always send us an email: info@santosa.nl.