Twenty years of TRUST Children
This big project started after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
While helping with disaster relief on the east coast after the tsunami, Thirumaran agreed to look after around 25 children whose fishing families and communities had been devastated.
You can click on any picture to see larger versions.
If you click here you can download a pdf document with some further details of the first 20 years.
Thirumaran had a link with a GAP year organisation and was hosting UK and other volunteers in local placements. These youngsters returned home, encouraged their families to support Thirumaran's project and encouraged their friends to visit. Capital donations were offered and a permanent campus was eventually created. There was a steady flow of foreign volunteers.
Further destitute children were added to the TRUST Children Home family, generally orphans and semi-orphans from the local area whose families were unable to support their child after a crisis or disaster.
• By 2009 there were about 40 children in the Children's Home and at the end of this year our UK Support Group (TRUSTchildren Support Group UK) was formed as a UK charity, to make it easier for Thirumaran's many contacts in the UK to make their supporting donations.
• In 2012, the authorities refused to allow boys and girls to continue to share the same campus. A very generous gift from a UK supporter enabled the purchase of a second site in the village and by 2013 a separate building, on this new site, had been constructed for the boys.
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Also this year there was the first wedding from the Children's Home, of one of the girls from the original twenty five. It was attended by several hundred local supportive guests.
There were soon almost 60 children (31 girls and 27 boys) and in 2014 the original Children's Home campus received official approval for up to 50 girls.
• By the time of the tenth anniversary in 2015 there were 75 children (43 girls and 32 boys) on two campuses, and a staff of 15. There was much local support, including local families and groups visiting to provide and share meals with the children - often to celebrate a family occasion. In one year over 200 such meals were provided for the children by the local community - 'one time food'.
• In the five years from 2014-2018 there was a total of 70-80 children all the time, and in 2017 the Boys' Home was awarded a Certificate of Registration (valid for 5 years) for up to 37 boys. The children were aged from about 5 to 18 and attended the local schools. When they completed school they were supported into further education or training, including colleges and universities.
• In 2019 two Hostels, one for boys and one for girls, were proposed for the post-18 young adults returning from further education to their 'family' during holidays and for those attending courses in local further education colleges.
• COVID struck in 2020 and good use was made of the Girls' Hostel by girls whose further education hostels had been closed. COVID also meant that it was impossible for local families to continue to support TRUST Children with 'one time food'. COVID was detected amongst the girls but not the boys. Fortunately none were seriously ill.
• In 2022 the Boys 18+ Hostel was opened and the Certificate of Registration was renewed for the Boys' Home - but the calculations had changed and the number allowed was reduced to 20 boys unless more dormitory space was added. Building an extra dormitory started immediately and was completed by October 2023.
• In August 2023, without any warning and with no formal paperwork or reasons given, the authorities closed the Children's Home and transferred all the girls to Government Homes and Hostels. This was traumatic for the girls and for Thirumaran and for all concerned.
• Considerable efforts were made, into 2024, to get the Children's Home re-opened and the girls returned, but the efforts were sadly unsuccessful.
• Now in 2025, on the 20th anniversary of the start of this remarkable project, the required extra dormitory has been built for almost two years but there are still issues with the paperwork and there are still only a maximum of 20 boys allowed.
Please click here to download a pdf document with further details of the first 20 years.
