CSI Jaffna Diocese

Manna for the poor plantation Families in Nuwara Eliya

Manna for the poor plantation families in Nuwara EliyaThe pioneer work of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) among needy children and their families in the hill country, Central Sri Lanka which the Rt Rev Dr Daniel S Thiagarajah initiated in October 2006 before his appointment as a bishop, took a further stop forward when he conducted the first confirmation service since becoming bishop last year in Nuwara Eliya.

He was assisted in the service by the Rev Sebastian Antony. The work in Nuwara Eliya is being efficiently carried out by the Rev S Sawarimuthu Antony.

This work involves a Girls’ Home in Nuwara Eliya funded by the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ, USA and the Prinz Home for boys by Udo Prinz of Germany. A Sri Lankan Australian family, that of Dr Ranjit Thuraisingam supports one of the children in the Girls’ Home.
The work in the hill country was started in Labookelle December 1997and two years later, a Girls’ and a Boys’ Homes were launched at Bambarakelle and Nuwara Eliya respectively. Along with these Child Care Centres were established at Labookelle, Duncianan, Kondakelle and Bogawathana to cater to the needs and welfare of the children of the plantation workers.

In addition school-going children from the estates have been offered the much-needed tuition facilities along with a Vocational Training Centre for all communities – Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims.

There are also worship centres that were established for families in Labookelle, Nuwara Eliya and Ragalle and to facilitate the conduct and management of these developing communities, a parsonage was built, and on 4 October 2004 was dedicated and declared open by the then General Secretary of the Church of South India, Dr Pauline Sathiamoorthy.

In recent years, the JDCSI has reached out to communities in the hill regions mostly descendants of workers brought from southern India to work in the leech-infested tea and rubber plantations during the British period. They were ranked as the most exploited plantation workers in the world and lived in estate lines that were hardly suited for human habitation.

Bishop Thiagarajah from his days as a priest of the JDCSI has shown a special consideration for the welfare of these people, and along with his brothers and their families, they have established a great rapport with them.