I started a link with Sri Lanka when I was working at St John's College, Southsea. The De La Salle Brothers have schools in many poor areas of the world. I visited three times with students, we took donations such as sports equipment and stationary for the orphanage, we worked in the schools, we painted the dining hall in Boys Town, made friends and had some small understanding of what it is like to live in extreme poverty. I remember a small girl giving us a picture from a magazine, she had nothing else, her home was a one roomed brick building by the railway line.

Your donations will go directly to the poor. I have paid for my flight and I will stay with the Brothers. Your money will be given to those who suffer from leprosy, it will buy rice and dry goods for poor families and it will support the work of the schools for poor children, buying them shoes, stationary and allowing them an education, to extricate themselves from poverty.

On behalf of all the people you will be helping, thank you so much.