Thank you so much to everybody who has supported my voluntary service and the work of the 'Holistic Special Education Foundation (HSEF)' in Sri Lanka. I am preparing to return to Sri Lanka in November and aim to be there for 3 months. We are fund raising to facilitate more HSEF holistic programmes for children with additional needs and disabilities in the Eastern and Northern Provinces in Sri Lanka. We will also be starting our programmes in Kandy and the Hill Country. All members of HSEF give their professional skills and time voluntarily. We want to include as many families, teachers and health professionals in our programmes as possible. We are a 'Community' of people.

We are fund raising to run multi-dimensional programmes and collaborating with the Regional and Provincial Education and Health Departments as well as local N.G.O's. We facilitate a range of training workshops for teachers, health & social care professionals and families. We work primarily in the post- war areas in Sri Lanka, where there is still much poverty, trauma and there needs to be huge long term interventions around Inclusivity and Disability. Our long term vision is to create and share our programmes in all 9 Provinces in Sri Lanka.

Community based visits and programmes are a huge part of our service. We need to provide transport- so our team can reach families in remote villages who are living in poverty and also so vehicles can bring these families to medical clinics and town based- programmes. We want to fund some mobile health clinics and Early Intervention trainings and programmes.

Many children with additional needs & disabilities in Sri Lanka are not able to attend their local school. Many children with complex needs & physical impairments do not have wheelchairs, specialist equipment or receive any physiotherapy, speech & language therapy or any therapeutic intervention. For some families living in poverty- they can't afford the transportation costs to travel to their nearest school with a specialist class.

We will be spending time in some schools which have classes for children with additional needs. They desperately need resources and for the teachers to receive on-going specialist training. We want to fund and send sensory equipment & educational resources for schools and children's homes

Thank you for reading my post. I am so grateful for all the support in many forms which I have received over the last 2 and half years. All donations are so very gratefully received and your donations will go directly towards funding our programmes, resources and transportation within Sri Lanka.

If you would like more info and/or would like to help in any way- please message or email me.

Huge Thank you,

Julie X