Rebuilt Trinco Orphanage celebrates golden jubilee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2004, 17:34 GMT]
The rebuilt Trincomalee Sivananda Thabovanam (Spiritual Orphanage), which has currently given shelter to about two hundred children orphaned due to war in the Trincomalee district, held its golden jubilee celebration Thursday with the opening of a hospital for its inmates, children's playground and other facilities. The orphanage with all its buildings was completely destroyed during an operation by the Sri Lanka army in 1984, sources said.

Guests are seen in front of the newly unveiled golden jubilee arch.

A majority of the children currently staying in the orphanage are from Muttur east villages. The rebuilt orphanage currently has 30 thousand square feet of buildings, sources said.

Swamiji Nithiyananda, a Hindu spiritual leader, Thursday morning unveiled the golden jubilee year arch constructed at the entrance to the orphanage. Later, the chief guest, North East Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Ministry Secretary Mr.S.Sivanandan, declared open the hospital with thirty beds constructed by the Sivananda First Aid Association. The main aim of the hospital is to provide medical facilities to the inmates of the orphanage, sources said.

A children's playground and a pre-school were also opened on Thursday.

The harvesting of paddy crops in the ten-acre paddy lands in the orphanage commenced with the Swamiji cutting the first bundle of paddy crops.

A section of orphanage's children pray while religious rites are being held Thursday.

The late Srimath Mathaji Sachchithananda Saraswathy, one of the disciples of the late Swami Sivananda Maharaj of Rishikesh Ashram, Northern India, founded the Sivananda Thabovanam at Uppuveli, a suburb of Trincomalee town, in 1953.

The orphanage was completely destroyed by Sri Lanka government forces in the 1984 disturbances, which followed the ethnic pogroms against the Tamil people in 1983. As all buildings in the orphange were completely destroyed, about fifty orphaned children who were sheltered there fled to refugee camps elsewhere in the district for safety.

The Sri Lanka government troops did not allow any one to step into the lands of orphange from 1984 till 1998. The troops had during that time cut down all the trees in the orphanage's lands.

The present managing trustee, Mr.Kuralamutham K.Vinayagasothy, took charge of the lands of orphanage from the security forces and commenced rebuilding. Currently more than two hundred orphaned children have been given shelter there. Paddy cultivation is being done in ten acres of land. The management of the institution has constructed a small tank with a capacity of three hundred thousand cubic feet of water to irrigate paddy crops. In seven acres of land, cash crops are cultivated. All the produce is used to maintain the children at the orphange, sources said.


Volunteers of the Sivananda First Aid Association are seen awaiting the arrival of the guests.



Before harvesting commences, the orphanage's inmates perform harvesting dance in the paddy fields.



Swamiji Nithyananda cutting the first bundle of paddy crops Thursday at the Sivananda orphange.