U.S. Government renovates seven schools and one hospital in Eastern Province

U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake prepares to lay the first stone at the groundbreaking at Navatkadu Hospital in Batticaloa District. With funding from the U.S. Pacific Command, USAID will also rehabilitate two schools in Batticaloa District and five schools in Trincomalee District. All facilities were seriously damaged by fighting and neglect during the conflict.
To get better the lives of Sri Lankans affected by the disagreement, the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for global Development (USAID) and the U.S. Pacific Command, is rehabilitating five schools in Trincomalee District and one sanatorium and two schools in Batticaloa District.
U.S. Government officials joined nationwide, local and local teaching and physical condition officials, group of people leaders, school and hospital employees, students and their families, and restricted inhabitants this week for the bureaucrat groundbreaking ceremonies to mark the beginning of the renovation and growth projects in eight communities in Trincomalee and Batticaloa. All projects are listed to be finished by July 2009.
The buildings chosen for repair provide essential communal services to civilians whose lives have been frequently disrupted by armed fighting for as long as two decades. In more than a few of the communities, inhabitants were displaced and not all have returned to the area.
"The U.S. Government is satisfied to support the people of Batticaloa and Trincomalee Districts whose lives have been disrupted by the conflict," stated U.S. diplomat Robert Blake.
"In villages such as Amman Nagar and Arafa Nagar in Trincomalee District, and Pulipanjakal in Batticaloa District, some residents have not yet returned because they are to come for the schools to fully reopen. At other schools, such as Arasadithivu Vigneswara Vidyalayam in the Manmunai Southwest Division of Batticaloa, facilities are overcrowded because classrooms have been badly upset or destroyed. And at the Navatkadu Hospital, facilities for in-patient care are extremely limited, making it hard or not possible for community members to get the health care action they need close to home," Blake continued.
With financial support from the U.S. Pacific Command, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, USAID is rehabilitating these amenities as fraction of the U.S. Government's caring outreach to improve stability and excellence of life in the area. Since 2003, USAID has supported more than 770 small-grant activities promoting community settlement and tsunami revival in government-forbidden areas of the country.
"USAID is pleased to associate with the U.S. Pacific Command to make sure these communities receive better schools and health care facilities," said USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn. "Altogether, we are constructing 64 new classrooms and renovating more than 13 damaged classrooms in seven schools, as long as more space for hundreds of students and their teachers. And, structure three new wards at the Navatkadu Hospital will ensure there are 63 beds to take care of local inhabitants when they need medical attention," she continued.
These labors hold up the U.S. Government's wider goal of helping to steady and develop Eastern Sri Lanka so terrorism can never take root in the region again.
The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided growth and caring help in developing countries worldwide for nearly 50 years. Since 1946, USAID/Sri Lanka has invested nearly $2 billion to benefit all the populace of Sri Lanka.