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Event raises $20,000 for Sri Lankan children
by Sultan Jessa, Cornwall Standard-Freeholder, June 6, 2005
Rachel's Kids in far distant Sri Lanka will have a little brighter and happier life thanks to a fundraiser in Cornwall Sunday afternoon.
All the funds raised at the inaugural garden party and charity auction will help children who were left homeless and orphaned following last December's devastating tsunami in the Asian country.
"Not one penny will be used for administration, the food or the tents,"
Dr. Rachel Navaneelan, a city dentist and chair of Rachel's Kids, told guests at the fundraiser.
She is spearheading a new humanitarian organization to help underprivileged children in Sri Lanka.
Navaneelan assured guests, many of them from Ottawa, she will personally ensure all funds raised locally goes where it is needed the most.
She is planning to go to her native Sri Lanka this winter to distribute the funds personally.
Dr. Shaukat Chaney, a retired dentist from Ottawa and a friend of the Navaneelans, urged guests to support the new charity to help children.
"This is a worthy cause and needs all the support it can get," he said.
Around $20,000 was raised from the inaugural fundraiser, which included a silent and a live auction by Murray Blair.
The dentist and her husband, Christy, an anesthetist in Ottawa, will be in Sri Lanka with their two children at the end of the year.
While in Sri Lanka, they will visit children's camps in northern and southern areas.
A couple of hundred children in Sri Lanka -- formerly Ceylon -- have been orphaned and displaced because of the past ethnic disturbances.
Many more children were brought to the camp following last December's earthquake and tsunamis, which hit 11 countries in Southeast Asia and East Africa.
Caroline Leonardelli, a harpist from Ottawa, entertained guests.
Navaneelan said funds raised at future events will also help local children in need.
"We hope to make this fundraiser an annual event," she said. "In future years, half the money we raise will be for local charities."
The Standard-Freeholder was one of the sponsors of the event.
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