Dear Friends,Before we close on 2011, we wanted to update you all of our work during this year with those displace by war and recently resettled in the Northern & Eastern provinces.Jan/Feb/March Floods - East Coast Batticalao, Amparahttp://www.actlanka.org/2011/01/update-flood-relief-east-of-sri-lanka/ ACT was able to assist the Ministry of Health Medical teams in their efforts to access people cut off by the flooding. We worked closely with Disaster Management teams to assess the urgent needs and identified water purification to be critical at this time, specially for the receiving hospitals and clinics. We were able to donate water sanitation tablets for use in these clinics as well as identify and help to purify well water close to areas of population. Urgent medications and antibiotics, not freely available were also identified and supplied to each of the medical camps. ACT is grateful to all that came forwards at this time of need with good, clothes, funding of high energy foods and sanitation items. ACT is currently assessing the urgent needs in the Northern province due to recent flooding over the last 2 weeks. We will keep you updated on the specific details.FebruaryPooneryn Happiness Centre http://www.actlanka.org/2011/02/happiness-centre-pooneryn/We were able to open a first Happiness Centre in the Pooneryn area, Kilinochchi district in February at Poonakary Maha Vidyalayam. This school was badly damaged throughout the war. All classes were being held in sheds and outdoors. Together with assistance from the Sri Lanka Army, we were able to repair and renovate the schools main and only 2 story building. 3 rooms of this building were allocated for the happiness centre. A play areas for children under 10 with learning aids suited to their ages, a library and music room for older children with tables and chairs for classes to be conducted and a sports and games area for older children who had the opportunity of learning games, like chess. All rooms are used for classes and are designed to suit each space/age group. We have equipped with rooms with educational charts and boards for easy learning of subjects like the human anatomy, the times tables, science, etc. At this opening the school was also equipped with musical equipment for the school band and sporting goods based on the children's ages. Sports like cricket, netball and basket ball were also started with the interest of having inter school competitions. This school has approximately 800 children and with the donations of funds and items received we were able to greatly improve the opportunities for the children of Poonakary MV. April/May/JunePooneryn - Kilinochchi district 17 schoolshttp://www.actlanka.org/2011/05/helping-schools-in-pooneryn-kilinochchi-district/ http://www.actlanka.org/2011/05/repairs-to-schools-in-pooneryn/During our visit in February to the areas, ACT visited 17 schools in Pooneryn. We met with each of the principals and identified specific educational books, teaching aids, educational toys, musical equipment and sports goods. We decided to focus on this one location and aim to help as many schools as possible. Our plans in 2012 will take us to the remaining 5 schools in the area. We have also helped with improving the water supply through cleaning wells in some of the schools which do not have water from the mains. We are yet to complete funding for renovation of schools with damaged roofs and are hoping to collect more funds against this activity. We have gotten approval from Presidents Task Force and the Education Zonal Office to renovate the existing structures. The Sri Lanka Army will provide all the labour for this activity. Please consider donating towards this cause. April & JulyKaithady State receiving Home - orphanage for children under 6yearshttp://www.actlanka.org/2011/04/improving-the-state-receiving-home-orphanage-jaffna/ With the kind donation of clothing, toys and cot bedding from donors we were able to clean and improve the physical space of the orphanage. There are 24 children in this orphanage. Mrs. Yogeswari of the Department Child Probation & Child Care Northern province is our main contact for this home and we will continue to assess their needs in the coming months. ACT assisted with the bypass surgery of a child born with a congenital heart condition. On our visit in April we were asked to assist for her transfer to Colombo for surgery. This surgery will be done stages due to her age. We were able to help with the scheduling of appointment in Colombo at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital and visit her on each trip to Colombo. The first stage of the surgery was completed in October and she is back in Jaffna at the orphanage. OctoberLaunch of Boy Scouts in Poonakary MVhttp://www.actlanka.org/2011/10/boy-scouts-launched-october-17th-2011/ The highlight of our year was the launch of the Boy Scouts movement in Poonakary Maha Vidyalayam. 50 proud kids signed up for the first batch of scouts. We were very lucky to have a former old boy of Poonakary MV, a past boy scout himself, take on the challenge to be the group leader. The Kilinochchi district scouts head office with overlook this group. We hope to open another group at Kilinochchi MV and have plans to include this group of 50 kids in the Kandy jamboree to be held next year. On Going plansACT approached to open Happiness Centres in the following locations:     1. Silawatte Tamil Vidyalayam - Silawatte Mullaitivu - 300 students up to grade 112. Roman Catholic Tamil Mixed School - Mulliyaveli - Mullaituvi         3. Kachchilaimadu Government Tamil Mixed School, Oddusudan Kachchilaimadu GTMS is located in Oddusudan, in Mullaitivu District, close to Puthukudyirippu. Kachchilaimadu GTMS         4. Thunukkai division - Thanduwan GTMS         5. Solar lamp project - to supply solar lamps to families in areas with no access to electricity. The unit will also be able to power a mobile phone or small radio.Please email us directly if interested in partnering in any of these projects. Donations can be made direct to our registered bank account: Action & Care Trust NDB Bank, Sri Lanka Account No: 101000071456 SWIFT Code: NDBSLKLX Branch Address: No. 103A, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 7ACT Cards for Christmas & the New Year!! We have printed new cards. Cards are available at Paradise Road & Barefoot outlets. All proceed go towards future Happiness Centres. You can also contact us directly for these cards. 6 Blank cards with envelops Rs.800/- http://www.actlanka.org/2011/12/pecha-kucha-colombo-supports-act/ Merry Christmas & A Happy New year! Action & Care Trust Mobile +94 777788484Fax +94 112687216