Her

 Please take a few seconds to look at this picture. Drop everything else, all your emails, work place responsibilities, family ties, personal needs and wants and everything else in between for just a few seconds. Replace the word ‘me’ and ‘I’ with ‘her’ and ‘she’ and divert your attention the focal point of this picture, at this present moment. Focus on her. Not how she came to be there, or what will happen to her in the future. She is now putting together a bead necklace. You don’t know how she got there, or how the story will end for her.  The ‘her’ you see here, carries within her, another child. But she is also child. The world order that went about making this happen is the world order that you and I live in. 

Words fail me if I were to describe the insides of her mind. No one can. I bet even she can’t. She couldn’t possibly put to words the pain and the trauma that she had been made to endure within her 12 or 13 years. Instead she puts it into the bead chain she makes; trying to make sense of how the color of one bead matches the color of the next in the loop that seems to be endless. Her thoughts can probably never be related to by people like you and I who are seated comfortably behind our computer screens. We focus on our emails and paychecks and cars and music and clubbing and gaming and boozing while she calmly sits in a corner and makes her bead chain. Because that is what helps her bring back a little bit of peace and sanity to her new world. The new world where she now knows her father to be the father of the child she carries. The new world where right and wrong isn’t the two sides of a coin but an endless string of multi- colored beads.  

The picture you see is from Emerge Lanka Foundation. They are a non-profit organization that helps young girls who are victims of abuse get back on their feet.  Shunned from society and held back from education, these girls don’t have the confidence or the resources to live a normal life. As victims of rape and incest, the strength that takes them to stand up against their perpetrators, most of the time their own fathers and to have faith in their own strength to rise from their tortured past is a massive step for them. They are torn and battered in ways that you and I cannot imagine. Emerge Lanka wants to restore hope through projects like ‘beads to business’ where they help the girls discover what it feels like to be alive and in control of their own lives, to be financially stable and to learn to live again. Every piece of jewelry is as unique as the girl who made it. 

Each piece of bright metal and plastic are strung together in the hopes that life becomes beautiful in the end. Isn’t that what we all want?

If you wish to help them out in anyway, please visit their website 

Images courtesy http://emergeglobal.org/ 

AND BONSAI MAKES 200!

How a Doggy Themed Facebook Page saved two hundred of man’s best friends...

Last week, with the adoption of Bonsai, a humble Sri LankanFacebook page marked a special milestone of re-homing 200 stray dogs from the streets of Sri Lanka.

The Facebook page, “Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka” was founded by 23 year old Oshadie Korale, currently busy studying for a PhD in Bio Medicine, with the aim of promoting the adoption of dogs online. The idea was to post details of the dogs she rescued which had helped to get these dogs adopted.Lanka and into warm loving homes. Incredibly, the 200th case Bonsai was a special case in its self. This small puppy had been kept in a metal box by kindly but ignorant laborers “for her own safety” after a monitor lizard had tried to get at her. This resulted in her being unable to use her hind legs. But with the care and support given by the volunteers at Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka she was able to find a loving family.

Oshadie, has been helping animals in need from a very young age. Her grandmother and mother both adore dogs and she grew up naturally having a soft spot for animals and trying to help them whenever she could. She and her co- founders similarly pet – supporting Andrew Jeberaj and Megali Nanayakkara , due to their mutual goal of helping animals in need have become very good friends and share the substantial work of animal rescue and rehoming.

The page subsequently bought together a whole lot of other animal lovers who teamed up to make a real difference in the lives of stray pooches in Sri Lanka

The Crew

Jay; the official transporter who has extended his support by helping to transport puppies even by bus!

Dilukshi and Devaka - always ready to extend a hand to a dog in need.

Aunty Manoja -star foster mom who in an instance would be willing to foster up to 8 puppies at a time.

Aunty Lilonga aka aunty Lilo along with Aunty Sugandi and Aunty Siridatha are always willing to provide a foster home to the rescued dogs and give ample advice and encouragement.

Nadeeka ; who wherever she goes keeps an eye out for any doggies in need of attention and holds a top spot in taking in rescue cases.

Steven and Piumi ; the dog whisper duo who do not hesitate to use their wonderful ability to calm down any frightened doggie and whose home is lovingly nicknamed as the doggie hospital! The duo are currently taking care of a 3 legged, blind dog among others.

Muditha ; the photographer who in extreme cases has had to crawl in ditches to take pictures of the puppies.

“We make a happy team; none of us knew each other at first, we met through Fac

ebook and now weare a big happy family” says a proud Oshadie.

Some of their unique 200 tales include …

Rocky was a Great Dane who was starved by his owners before our crew found him. The owners refused to hand over her even after Oshadie has begged them for months and finally gave him over when he had collapsed.

Cookie who was found with a wound in her leg but her character was of the most humble nature. It was found that she has a tumor in her leg and it was necessary to amputate it. She found a home and she is very happy now. She acts as though she does not notice her missing leg.

The latest case includes of “Stabby”, stabbed in the throat by some clearly crazy person .He was found on the road all bloody and despearate and Nadeeka was able to rescue him.

“We have had small strange cases like doggies walking in to our homes too!! I guess they have a sense of who to go to when they need help” says Oshadie

the biggest goal is sterilization camps. The last camp was at Sella Katharagama where they sterilized 100 dogs. Their aim is to continue doing it every 2 months. The next one is due to take place in February. Kind donations are always welcome via Facebook where they collect donations for all their projects.

The Groups long term objective is to have a transit shelter for their puppies.

“I will continue to do welfare work. Short term plan is to finish the PhD soon, so I can start working. Earn and spend on doggies too ;)” replies Oshadi with a smile, when asked about her future plans.

“Education about sterilization is a must in schools and in papers. Sinhala papers epically should give more weight towards the importance of sterilization and rabies. We find it very difficult to re-home our girls even if we sterilize them free of charge. People are not aware that they will not have puppies or go on heat after sterilization. .”

Original article appeared on 06/01/2012, Daily Mirror