Child Action Lanka (CAL) works to transform the lives of disadvantaged children in Sri Lanka by providing education, care and opportunities to those who need them most.

Over the past week, a group of students from Tonbridge School has been volunteering with CAL in Batticaloa. We've seen first-hand the incredible work the charity does, but we've also witnessed the daily challenges faced by many of the children it supports.

On Sunday 19th July, we had the privilege of visiting the homes of two CAL families: Anushkar, and Kisho and Kishalan (twin brothers).

Anushkar's family moved to Batticaloa just five months ago with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. Their father works long days in the rice paddy fields, earning the equivalent of just £4.50 a day to support the family of four. He suffers from wheezing cough which requires hospital treatment during the winter months, while their mother lives with arthritis. Despite these hardships, both parents are determined that their sons receive a good education.

Anushkar is so committed to attending the CAL centre that every day he walks 6–8 km to reach the main road, catches the bus to school, then walks another 4 km after school to reach the bus that takes him to the CAL centre. After a full day of school and learning at CAL, he makes the same 6–8 km journey home, often walking alone at dusk. His younger brother, Madu, desperately wants to attend CAL too, but he is simply too young to make a journey of nearly 20 km each day.

The family lives in a government-funded house because they fall below Sri Lanka's minimum income threshold. Their home has no electricity, no doors and the windows have no glass. Their bedroom has no belongings whatsoever and they sleep directly on the concrete floor.

We are raising money to make two life-changing improvements for this family:

- A second-hand bicycle, allowing both brothers to travel safely and attend the CAL centre together.

- An electricity connection for their home, giving the boys light to study in the evenings and providing the family with greater safety and security after nightfall.

Kisho and Kishalan are two of the most smiley young men. They live with their parents in a very simple brick house with the simplest of furnishings. They have electricity but are only able to afford to run it for about 1 hour per day. Their grounds contain two coconut trees and a 6ft hole in the garden that they use as a bath during rainy season. Perhaps most poignantly, the family showed off their shrine (a wooden box on stilts with simple pictures in and a candle to burn) with the upmost pride.

The family clearly have to work hard to survive and yet the boys are some of the most impressive young men. With Dad away working many long hours, the family keep themselves busy tending to their goats, their chicks, and use the communal well and their two coconut trees. Despite having so little, the family hosted us like royalty and, much to Kisho's mum's apparent displeasure, he kept climbing the 15ft tall coconut tree to provide the Tonbridge boys with food and drink aplenty. To our embarrassment, we later learnt that the family had provided us with about 2 months worth of coconuts, such is Sri Lankan hospitality. These coconuts are crucial to their livelihood, providing crucial cooking ingredients and building materials.

The boys are active, and were beaming when playing stuck in the mud, splat, and What's the time Mr Wolf round their house with the Tonbridge boys. They are sporty, attend CAL religiously, and we would like to get them sports kit to enable them to flourish further at CAL.

We were lucky to be meet the families of these CAL children. There are nearly 200 other children whose families and homes we were not able to visit at Batticaloa. Additional funds raised will help provide these children with bicycles, their home with an electricity connection, the ‘Batti Bus’ with replacement tyres and to help cover the core costs at the centre that allow these kids to eat a healthy meal and stay safe.

Every donation, no matter how small, will make a genuine difference to these families' futures.