Student establishes school for tsunami children
March 4, 2005
Amali Tower, an alumna of IVC who recently transferred to UCLA, has plans to build a Montessori school in Sri Lanka for children who were made orphans as a result of the Asian tsunami in December.
Tower, who graduated from IVC last year, grew up in Sri Lanka and still has family and friends living in the island nation. She will leave this month to sign a contract with the Sri Lankan prime minister for two acres of land that his government has donated as the site for the school in the southern district of the capital city, Colombo.
The school will be built with donated funds Tower and her partner, Bernadine Anderson, will raise both here and abroad. It is expected to cost about $127,000. Anderson, whose parents are Sri Lankan, operates a Montessori school in Connecticut. To help finance her venture, Tower has established “Links of Love,” a non-profit organization to build the school, promote education and combat poverty. She also hopes to build an orphanage at the same location if she can raise the capital. Tower recently received word that a prominent democratic senator is considering a $500,000 grant for the project.
The area in which the Montessori school will be built was among the hardest hit by the tsunami in Sri Lanka. Tower said she expects at least 50 of the school’s first students will be orphans. Several Montessori schools in the U.S. have pledged to provide volunteer teachers when the school is completed. According to Tower, “Education is key to upward mobility; we want to bring the victims the opportunity.” Tower is working toward a degree in International Development Studies at UCLA.