Back in 2001 a group of concerned and pro-active citizens from the district of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, decided they needed to establish a care facility. The intention was to provide young boys at high risk of being recruited into militancy with an opportunity to get educated instead of march into battle.

With help from the Ramakrishna movement they had land donated to them from the Government in power of that time. The idea was to have the home in Government controlled territory, where militant groups were far less likely to persuade or capture the young children. All these young boys came from across the Batticaloa lagoon, a place that has seen many large scale military operations in the last 25 years. Crops had been incinerated, fields laced with land mines, and entire villages destroyed. This area is known for its supply of child soldiers.

Most of the children lost both their parents, and with no elderly protection are highly susceptible to be taken away. Having nowhere else to go, seeking some semblance of community after having their homes shattered, and enraged at the loss of their loved ones, many children join the rebel movement hoping to find brotherhood and purpose. Some of these young boys do have a single mother or father but due to issues such as extreme poverty and alcoholism they are neglected and often find themselves faced with recruitment. The project was successful in the sense that eighty-seven boys were now holding on to books and walking to school instead of holding M-16’s and walking through mine fields.

Hari Boys Home was nearly shut down in early 2005 after the Christmas tsunami devastated the region. Their building was not damaged during the tsunami but for many months there was simply no food or money to go around. It was a heartbreaking time for the providers of Hari as the faced a very real possibility of having to send all the boys away. A decision was reached to not abandon hope, nobody could handle the guilt of having to tell these children to leave. So, on the brink of near starvation Hari Boys Home kept operating. Food remained hard to come by over the next year, and Hari was able to remain afloat solely through the generosity of the community’s elite who began to sponsor the home.

In 2007 the war in the district intensified greatly, and the new head of Government told Hari that the land that had been previously donated for their use was going to be taken back by the government to make houses. They were told they had until December of that year to leave before being forced out. This is where Healing Humanity was able to provide some help. As the government spent over 40 million USD a week in their bombing offensive the price of everything in the area rose drastically, such as food, clothing, medicine and fares. Healing Humanity was first approached by Hari seeking any financial assistance we could provide. The orphanage was so desperate for food, that nobody gave much concern to the fact that by December of that year they would all have to leave. If everybody starved to death then finding a new home wouldn’t be much of a concern. The people of Hari were too humble to ask our small aid group to build an orphanage for them, thinking it was far out of our capacity to fund such a large scale project. They simply wanted to keep these boys in good health till they sent them away, to where, nobody knew. Finally a friend of both Hari Boys Home and Healing Humanity arranged a meeting and Hari’s real concern was revealed. Healing Humanity went on a mission to raise enough funds to build a structure, on land that was donated on a 25 year contract basis. The land was graciously donated by a wealthy Sri Lankan family who presently live in England.

Hari is a word created by Ghandi that means “of God”, or “unwanted by all except God”. It was chosen as the name of the orphanage by Mr. Chandrakumar, the founder of the center. Upon hearing the news, that a new care facility was to be constructed, Mr. Chandrakumar cried for a full day, while whispering his personal mantra “Hari Boys Home will live on”.