“Every year at the end of August I get very nostalgic thinking of Christmas. For the second consecutive year I was desirous of organizing Holiday party for my girls at Ma Sevana and Vocational Training Centre at Sarvodaya Suwasetha. Last year I was lucky to meet a sponsor who volunteered to support me and this year I was even luckier when I met my nephew Chari who has been living in California through Face book.
Chari and I had loads to catch up when we chatted on FB and one day I mentioned to him that I wanted to celebrate Christmas with the girls, he was very impressed with the work we do and he volunteered to help his “Aunty Baby” and he started fund raising immediately. It didn’t take long for Chari to collect funds for this very worthy cause.
Pavements and side bazaars in the nooks of Pamunuwa in Maharagama was the places you could see me during the past few weeks haggling with the street vendors to get the best bargains, selecting clothes for the tiny ones each different age groups and matching tops with the bottoms was the most daunting task. Many nights were spent wrapping the gifts and making lists, making calls to the caterer, the orphanages, discussing and planning with them and not forgetting making arrangements with `Trixie’ the wonder girl. I had to do some last minute shopping on Friday when I was informed that a new inmate had joined the orphanage and I had to make a trip once again to purchase gifts for her, however on Saturday afternoon I went down to the orphanage got the girls involved with decorating the Christmas tree which was fun. The guests, the food and the magician arrived in time and we commenced the party at 5 o’clock.
`Trixie” the wonder girl performed to a fully packed audience of eager little ones and the girls were amazed at the performance and wanted to learn the art of magic. She even produced a pigeon from a balloon and the friendly rabbit appeared from nowhere!!
Food and drinks were served in boxes when I had marked each child’s name so that everyone would have a box of goodies for themselves. After having had a very hearty meal the bigger ones had a few games, like passing the cushion, musical chairs and the finale being the `Baila Competition’ many prizes were distributed for the best competitors.
Last of all gifts were distributed to all present including the dedicated staff and a speech was given by a teenage mum thanking Chari, Alia and the EMERGE team and myself whom they refer to as ‘amma’, which made me so happy and proud! To my surprise I was presented a gift by April with the compliments of Alia, Ellen and April which was really touching, and that all the hard work was well appreciated. For me the 3-month careful planning of this event, which turned out to be a great success, made MYChristmas complete….. “
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