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School's back for Sri Lankan pupils after tsunami terror

By John Roberts Education Correspondent

PUPILS from a Sri Lankan community devastated by the tsunami disaster of 2004 will return to their school for the first time next year in new classrooms named after the Yorkshire towns which helped to build them.

The Kaluwanchikudy Saraswathy Maha Vidyalayam School was destroyed in the Boxing Day tsunami three years ago which claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people living in the area.

Since then children have been taught in classrooms made from plastic sheeting but now they are preparing to start life in a new school building which has been built by fundraisers from Yorkshire.

The appeal began after Rotarians from the region visited Sri Lanka, in May 2005, to see how the emergency supplies they had sent out were being used.

They discovered the tsunami had destroyed 10 schools in the town of Batticaloa alone and surviving children were being taught in temporary classrooms made of corrugated metal roofs and plastic sheeting.

Rotarians from Yorkshire district 1040, comprising North, East and West Yorkshire, raised £200,000 in the space of only six months to pay for the new Kaluwanchikudy Saraswathy Maha Vidyalayam School.

The new building will be known as the Yorkshire School and each of its classrooms is named after 20 rotary clubs or Yorkshire towns which helped to reach the fundraising target. These include Driffield, York, Ilkley, Otley, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Harrogate, Knaresborough, Keighley, Halifax, Skipton and Settle.

The money was raised within a year of the disaster but the school has taken a further two years to build because of political instability in the area caused by fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers movement. There has also been a shortage of construction workers because of the number of rebuilding projects taking place in the aftermath of the tsunami.

The Yorkshire School serves a Tamil community and will have 400 pupils from primary school age up to 16 years of age. It opens in the new year and a delegation from the region has already travelled to Sri Lanka for an official opening ceremony.

The chairman of the rotarian fund-raising committee, Ian Carling said: "The children were overwhelmed by the generosity of the Yorkshire people. The fundraising and the rebuilding of this school has actually made me proud to be a part of the rotary club in Yorkshire."

The 1040 district governor nominee, Em Lloyd-Davies, said: "There was one girl we met who lost her mother and father and all of her brothers and sisters in the tsunami.

"Looking at her little face it seemed incredible to think that three years ago she had been a part of this terrible tragedy.

"It was a tragedy for the whole community. Everyone was affected but they are recovering now and the school will help them."