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About Friends of Navajeevana Friends of Navajeevana supports the work of Navajeevana Rehabilitation Tangalla. Our vision is a better future for people with disabilities in Sri Lanka, and we aim to raise funds to assist Navajeevana, bring together UK based supporters of Navajeevana and introduce new people to the work of the organisation. We were set up in 2010 by Hilary Green, Leonora Merry and Olof Williamson, who all spent time working in southern Sri Lanka in 2008/9. Trustee Leonora Merry explains the reasons for setting up Friends of Navajeevana: I spent six months working at Navajeevana in 2008. I was really inspired and impressed with the ethos of the organisation, which reaches out to the "unreached" - people with disabilities in rural Sri Lanka. Before I went there I had no idea that someone born into a poor rural family in Sri Lanka with a disability like cerebral palsy, could live their whole lives confined to a mattress on the floor of a dimly lit mud house with no prospect of therapy, equipment or education to give them access to the kinds of opportunities they would have if they were able bodied. Navajeevana provides access to the therapy, equipment, education and training that people with disabilities so desperately need in the areas. During my time in Tangalla, I soon realised that Navajeevana's community based approach was a lifeline for these people and that the years of civil war and the catastrophe of the Indian Ocean tsunami had had a devastating impact on the physical and mental health of the local population. I also learned that Navajeevana has several links with the UK, and on returning to the UK myself, wanted to do something to support Navajeevana. By good fortune this sentiment was shared by Hilary Green, who returned from working in Sri Lanka in 2009 - and Friends of Navajeevana was born.                                                                                                                                                     If you want to find out more, are interested in helping fundraise for Navajeevana or just want to get in touch, email us at friendsofnavajeevana@googlemail.com

Friends of Navajeevana is a registered charity (number 1141133)       Website created and maintained by Leonora Merry