Sri Bodhiraja School for Children with Special Needs
The Sri Bodhiraja School for Children with Special Needs is devoted to improving the lives of children with special needs in every respect of their being. We are dedicated to serving their physical as well as their mental and emotional needs – and believe that within a safe and nurturing environment, each child can grow and touch its full potential, recognize its innermost beauty and develop a stable sense of self-worth.
We are proud of the children who left our school with the skills and the motivation to lead an independent and dignified life. Many of our former kids are running their own successful businesses – propelled by the initial practical support offered by our teachers and the microfinancing grant we implemented for this purpose.
It is a journey of empowering the most vulnerable parts of our communities. A journey of enabling the disabled. To heal the weakest and most vulnerable means healing ourselves by bringing loving kindness into our own lives.
Currently, there are four qualified teachers who committed their lives to the challenging task of catering to the highly individual needs of 46 special needs children plus one assistant teacher. It needs an unbelievable amount of patience, experience and love to manage this extraordinary challenge day to day.
The Sri Bodhiraja School for Children with Special Needs embraces and cordially welcomes children with a variety of difficulties into its fold. Some live with physical or cognitive impairments, others struggle with behavioural disorders. Some have been declared 'incorrigible' and others have been abandoned by parents who could not meet their financial ends. Since its inauguration, more than 250 children with special needs have received the support they required to live a life in dignity despite their restrictions. Since 2019, this project which was started by the Tangalle Life Institute, was saved and from then on funded, supervised and run by Sri Bodhiraja Foundation.
To provide equal opportunity to all and to not hurt the most vulnerable, there are no school fees. We do rely on the kindness of those people or organisations who are ready to help and heal the weakest of our communities or societies.
Beyond the child our school relieves the dire situation of families. In Sri Lanka, children with special needs are regarded as a source of shame, often hidden away from their social environment. This is an immense burden not only for the children who are facing restriction and devaluation, but it has economic consequences as well. Families struggle as they face a substantial loss of income, with resources bonded to the child, leading to even more stress and grief associated with the situation.
Our objective is to break this tragic cycle of poverty, shame and devaluation. Parents who enrol their children in our school are free to find additional sources of income during school hours. More than that – they can share their experiences and grief, but also kindness and connection with others: A healing which ultimately transmutes all and comes back to the special needs child. These families show their gratitude by engaging in parental support whenever they can.