June 2005 Press Releases

1,500 Students In Hambantota To Benefit From New Classrooms

Hambantota, June 17, 2005: Fifteen hundred school children in Hambantota will benefit annually from 40 new classrooms in ten new 80 x 20 meter buildings constructed through a grant from the United States. The United States Agency for International Development's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) worked with local partner NGO Janasuwaya 576 to construct the classrooms.

Four of the ten schools were inaugurated today by US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission James F. Entwistle, who noted that though the schools were not tsunami-affected, the classrooms would be crucial to the children of Hambantota.

“Assistance from the United States was forthcoming long before the tsunami and will continue long after the reconstruction period,” Mr. Entwistle said at a ceremony at one of the school sites. “The OTI program is designed to demonstrate the tangible benefits of peace. The absence of war has made it possible for the United States to help expand these schools.”

The Hambantota District education system consists of 327 schools and caters to a student population of 145,000. Of the 327 schools in the district, 150 schools lack basic classroom facilities. The USAID grant will fund classrooms in the schools most in need.