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Alan Elliot, MPIA '12, Blogs About Childfund International Internship

A Brand New Garden and a Brand New Heart

08/23/2011
Alan Elliot, ChildFund International

Batticaloa, on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, was my first visit to an area damaged by the 30-year Sri Lankan conflict that ended in 2009. Aside from the destruction of war, Batti has a chronic water shortage. In this desolate area, many mothers are without adequate income or food for their families. When new children are born, they often become malnourished.

In 2010, Mrs. M. Pumarandai and Mr. S. Murukaya welcomed baby Nivethika into the world. But they soon discovered a serious problem. Nivethika was constantly crying, and even fainted at times. “I was very frightened,” Pumarandai explains, “I was unsure of what I should do.”

So they contacted ChildFund’s local Child Well-Being Committee (CWBC). There, community volunteers advised that the family visit the clinic, where it was soon discovered that little Nivethika had a heart problem. The nerves surrounding her heart were twisted and the only choice was to operate. However, Pumarandai and Murukaya did not have nearly enough income to pay for the operation or send Nivethika across the country to Colombo, where the procedure would be done.

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San Francisco Bay Area native Alan Elliott is taking time out from his master’s degree studies at the University of California San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies to pursue a 10-week internship in ChildFund’s Sri Lanka office. He is regularly blogging about his experiences. Click here to read posts by Alan.

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