Help Orphans Now

An overview of all HON’s projects are provided here. Completed projects are those HON was involved in establishing, which now have independent funding from elsewhere. Continuing projects are those HON is currently supporting. Click the links for more details on individual projects.

Continuing projects:
  • Akkaraipattu Children's Centre and Home for Girls - This Home is situated in Akkaraipattu, in the former tsunami affected east of Sri Lanka. HON provides monthly financial support for the residential care and daily needs of 18 girls who have no safe and secure homes within the community. The Children’s Centre and Home is an initiative of the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka providing counselling, educational, vocational and recreational services to children from families affected by the 2004 tsunami, long years of war and poverty. Dedicated staff and animators offer a range of programs for the girls in the Home and for other children and vulnerable adults in the local community to build a better and more promising future. Click here for more.

• Ruth Girls Home - Situated in the former war-affected area of Jayapuram in Kilinochi, in the north of Sri Lanka, this Home has had a varied existence since HON commenced financial support in 2006. The numbers of children rose sharply from around 20 to 40 as the civil war escalated. However, in 2008/2009, the Home was disbanded as the children were moved to a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP). Following the end of the war, the Home was re-established but is presently moving to a community-based model where the girls are supported by HON as they live in the homes of relatives. HON is trialling this new funding model in collaboration with the single donor that funds this project through HON. Click here for more.

• Grace Girls Home - This Home is situated near Vavuniya, a town in northern Sri Lanka and provides shelter for 10 war-orphaned children released from camps for IDPs in 2009 following the end of the long civil war. HON provides funds for the day to day running of the home as well as for infrastructural needs of the Home. The deeply committed staff provide a secure home where the children are content and are beginning to blossom after their traumatic experiences. Click here for more.

• Kandana Feeding program for children - The program run by Sister Agnes of the Kandana Convent provides shanty-dwelling children on the outskirts of Colombo with a mid day meal, before and after school care and assistance with homework, thus encouraging and motivating school attendance . HON has been funding the program over the past three years and the results have been very successful in keeping the children off the streets. The children not only attend school regularly but many have also excelled in their studies, coming first in class and developing a love of learning. Click here for more.

• The Christmas Gift Project – This Project commenced in 1994, the precursor to the founding of Help Orphans Now. Its focus is to provide a complete gift addressed by name to the children in orphanages in the north, south, east and west of Sri Lanka, irrespective of race or religion. Beginning with 20 gifts to children in one Home in 1994, the Project now sends over 4,000 gifts annually to children in over 50 Homes. At the Australian end, the Project is a community effort involving schools, retirees, clubs, retailers and wholesalers and thrives on the generosity of people of all ages, races and religions. Click here for more.
Completed projects:

• The Home of Hope

  Help Orphans Now (HON), through the generosity of several donors, funded this Home to commence operation in Galle in 2005, shortly after the tsunami of 2004. The Home was then relocated to a property, situated in the outskirts of Colombo in December 2008. The property was purchased with a generous grant from the Australian company Best and Less, which has had a long association with HON over many years, being an active partner in the Christmas Gift project since 1997. The home provides care to twelve children (8 boys and 3 girls) who have either lost one or both parents or whose parents are unable to care for them due to addictions, incarceration, ill health or sheer poverty.

In addition to facilitating the funding of the property, HON has provided the monthly costs associated with running the Home for the past 6 years. The children are happy and healthy and they are excelling in their school work.

Having supported the Home of Hope since its inception in 2005 and being satisfied that the Home is in safe hands with adequate funding made available from other sources, HON leaves this project with a sense of fulfilment to invest resources in other similar projects. The restored and rescued lives of the children at the Home of Hope are a testimony of the difference that has and can be made through your partnership with HON.

• Jeevananda Home (at Puthkudiyiruppu, Arayampathy near Batticaloa in the East)
  A new building was provided for this home, by the Rotary Clubs of Wahroonga, Five Dock and Sydney together with Brambles, as replacement for their previous dilapidated home that was declared unfit by authorities. HON played a facilitation role. Click here for more.