Sponsoring children is not enough for an Alexandra woman who has hosted two Sri Lankan charity workers in the town so they can learn to better support children with disabilities in their country.
Charity workers Erangi Fernando and Vinopavan Kumarathasan, of Sri Lanka, have just finished a two-week course on working with people with disabilities from Living Options chief executive Alison Wildey, who paid for one of their flights and personally sponsored their visit.
They learnt what it means to live with a disability and visited schools, early childhood centres and homes to see how people with disabilities in New Zealand are integrated into society.
Miss Fernando develops Childfund programmes in Sri Lanka and Mr Kumarathasan manages partner group the Child Development Fund in his home town of Trincomalee.
Both funds work with disadvantaged children.
Ms Wildey sponsors four children in Sri Lanka through Childfund, two of them in Trincomalee.
One of the children is Nimesha (9), who cannot use her arms, but Mr Kumarathasan organised an artist to teach her to draw with her feet by holding crayons and pencils between her toes.
Ms Wildey and Mr Kumarathasan met when she visited Sri Lanka in 2014.
"I was amazed at what he has been able to do,'' she said.
Ms Wildey's connection to Sri Lanka began when she was told of the beauty of the country by her mother, who visited as a military nurse during World War 2.
Miss Fernando did not have much insight into disabilities before the New Zealand visit, she said.
"There is much more of a stigma in Sri Lanka and so we want to break that down.''
Living Options supports people who have disabilities to live in the community.
