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History & Information

Updated April 2015

The Joseph T. Neary Memorial Foundation was founded in Colombo, Sri Lanka in November 1990 during the 51st International SKAL Congress to provide for the relief from suffering for some of Colombo’s poor, inner-city children and to assist a small group of Apostolic Carmelite Sisters in providing nursery and pre-school day care facilities for these children from ages 4 months to five years.  Aid was also provided for an Education/Handicraft Centre, also located at the small campus of the Carmel Piyuma Convent in Wanathamulla, for teenage girls for instruction in English and sewing skills.

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In 1990, Joe Neary (formerly a member of SKAL International New York and Past President of the National SKAL Committee of the U.S.A.) was the International SKAL Councillor for NSCUSA (now SIUSA) and looking forward to attending the 51st Annual International SKAL Congress in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a venue he had strongly supported.  However, sadly and quite unexpectedly, Joe suffered a stroke in the garden of his home just north of New York City on October 8th 1990 and died suddenly less than three weeks before he would have traveled to the Congress.  Bill Pullen, then NSCUSA President and Deputy International Councillor, attended in his place.

 

While in Colombo, and through some unrelated events (explained at the end of this section), Bill Pullen had reason to contact a small group of Apostolic Carmelite Sisters and, through this contact, he became aware of the work these dedicated nuns were doing to relieve the suffering of some of the poor inner-city children in the slum area of Wanathamulla in Colombo 8.  It was not unusual for these Sisters to go begging for food at local markets to sustain 70 to 80 youngsters from 4 months to 5 years old for whom they cared on a daily basis. A $5 bill could be a solution to the problem of giving these children their daily two cups of milk and a small meal for their lunch.

 

Moved by the needs of these Sisters and by Joe’s recent passing, Bill encouraged Liam Sexton (Boston) and Gene Leonard (Chicago) to visit the Sisters and learn of the work they were doing.  It seemed that even with only modest support, a little help would go a long way to relieving some of the difficulties these Sisters were encountering.    With Joe’s history of helping others, his love of children and his work in helping the homeless in his area, it seemed natural to dedicate any support for these children to him and his memory.  Thus, the Joseph T. Neary Memorial Foundation was founded.  SKAL became an instrument of Peace and would become the catalyst in the relief of suffering for some of Colombo’s poor.

 

In 1990, at the time of the Congress, a small convent and a building, which would become the Handicraft and Education Centre, were under construction, thanks to a grant from NORAD, a Norwegian agency giving assistance to projects in Third World countries.  The Bethlehem Creche, which housed the nursery and day care facility, was, and still is, part of the same small campus, which is located in an area especially prone to severe flooding during the monsoon seasons.  This contributed largely to the difficulties the Sisters had to endure.  For several years efforts were made to resolve these flooding and drainage issues but they were not successful and some of the buildings began to deteriorate.  Finally, in 2008, two of the buildings had to be demolished and the elevation of the land was raised sufficiently to prevent a reoccurrence of this problem.

 

Although support for the Foundation does not come solely from SKAL members, a number of individuals and clubs have generously participated since its inception.  Participating clubs include New York, Boston, Hartford, Albany, Long Island, Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches, Miami, San Antonio, San Francisco, Colombo (Sri Lanka), Manchester (U.K.) and the SKAL Clubs of Turkey.  Also, in response to a special appeal to the Asian Clubs by Cyril Lawrence (Colombo), the SKAL Clubs of Singapore, Bahrain, Colombo, Bangkok, N.Thailand, Taichung and Kaohsuing sent over $7,500 to help the Sisters with their work in trying to solve the disastrous flooding problems at their facilities.

 

Financial assistance has been given for various things, such as the education sponsorship of poor children and funding for special projects, such as providing interior furnishings, repairs to their buildings and emergency relief following the tsunami tragedy in December 2004.  Also, assistance has been given to the Sisters in support of various grant applications.  However, the primary focus has been to establish permanent capital funds from which the Sisters can draw the interest income on a monthly basis for the four projects approved by the trustees.  These funds, invested in various fixed interest deposits, have been earning interest at rates as high as 18% and 19%.  More recently (2015) the rates on new fixed deposits and rollovers have been in the range of 7% to 10%.

 

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CURRENT  PROJECTS

The initial project, started in 1990, provided support for the activities at the Carmel Piyuma (meaning Flower of Carmel) Convent in Wanathamulla, a very poor slum area of Colombo. These operations included the following:   

 

  • A Creche and Day Care Centre.  This is the “Bethlehem Creche” and here the Sisters take care of children from just a few months old up to three years of age.  These children are mostly from single parent homes, the fathers  being drug addicts, alcoholics or those who have deserted their families.  While the mothers go out to work, or look for work, the children are provided with food, clothing and medical care.

 

  • A Pre-School Centre. This is for children from three to five years old.  The center ensures that children of this age group, who are most vulnerable, are cared for in a safe environment until their mothers, or other care givers, return from work.

 

 

In April 2004, the Foundation reached a milestone of Rs.5 million (Sri Lankan rupees) in interest bearing certificates of deposit, which at the time was equivalent to approximately U.S.$52,000. Upon the recommendation of the Sisters involved, the Trustees agreed to cap this initial project at this level and to focus on another needy and worthwhile project, which had been proposed by Sister Sunitha, the Provincial Superior. Due to the fact the monthly withdrawals from the fixed deposits have been slightly less than the interest earned, the balance has been reinvested in new fixed deposits and as at December 31, 2014 there was approximately Rs.7.75 million ($58,270 at the current rate of exchange) in fixed deposits credited to this project.​

 

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The second project approved by the Trustees and adopted in April 2004, was to support the operations of the Apostolic Carmel School in Maharagama, a southern suburb of Colombo.  This is a small girls’ high school the Sisters founded in 1985 but which was in jeopardy of having to close due to the lack of dependable financial support.   The process would be the same as before, whereby funds donated would be held in fixed interest deposits which would pay out the interest on a monthly basis and thereby provide some dependable funding to help pay teachers’ salaries and some basic operating expenses, primarily for electricity, water and telephone service.  This project was capped in early 2009 when deposits reached Rs.5 million and, because the interest has accrued slightly more than the monthly withdrawals, as of December 31, 2014, there was just over Rs.6.75 million (approx. $50,725 at the current rate of exchange) in fixed interest deposits and savings credited in this account.

 

 

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In March 2009, the trustees approved adopting a third project at the request of Sister Carmella, A.C., the  Provincial Superior.  At the Carmel Piyuma campus, which had been subject to the terrible flooding problems, two buildings were demolished and the elevation of the ground was raised 51/2 feet to, hopefully, prevent any future flooding problems.  Two new buildings were planned to take their place. The first of these was a new convent for the Sisters and this was officially opened by the Archbishop of Colombo on February 20th 2010. The second building, a 40-bed Children’s Home to house 20 Tamil and 20 Sinhala orphans, was officially opened and blessed on Friday, April 11th, 2014.  These facilities include two small classrooms and areas for the nursery school. The Charity’s third project was established to accumulate funds in the same way as the other two but no withdrawals would be made until the Children’s Home was open and operating.  In the meantime, income generated from the new fixed interest deposits would be returned to the capital to purchase more fixed interest investments. As of December 31, 2014, there was approximately Rs.6.7 million (approx. $50,100 at the current rate of exchange) in this account.

 

However, in 2013 the Sisters were successful in locating a benefactor organization in the U.K., which committed to provide the funds necessary to complete the construction and provide for the on-going operations and maintenance once it was open.  With this new development, the funds we had accumulated for the future operations would not be needed and the trustees then agreed to transfer these assets in support of The Carmel Girls’ Home, an orphanage in Akkaraipattu on the east coast of Sri Lanka in an area which suffered severe damage and human loss of life from the tsunami which struck on December 26, 2004.   

 

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The Foundation’s fourth and current project, starting in May 2014, is in support of another orphanage, the St. Joseph’s Girls’ Home in Trincomalee on the northeast coast of the island.  This is an area which was badly affected by the 25-year civil war and the December 2004 tsunami and houses between 35 – 40 girls.  A more detailed description can be found under ‘Donations and Contacts’.

 

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The patron of the Joe Neary Charity is Joe’s widow, Barbara, and there are presently seven trustees.

 

These are:

 

 

  • Clair Moore, Past President, SKAL International, New York

  • Wing Commander (Retired) Noel Fernando, Past President SKAL International, Colombo

  • Mary Bennett of Galway, Ireland and Past President SKAL International

  • Sister Marie Lourdes, A.C., Gampaha, W.P., Sri Lanka

  • Andrew Wunder of Denver, Colorado (Joe Neary’s nephew)

  • Wendy Richter of Gurnee, Illinois (Bill Pullen’s daughter)

  • Bill Pullen, Past President SKAL Intl. U.S.A. and currently a member of Skal Intl. Orlando, who serves as the Managing Trustee.  

 

Information and periodic updates are posted on the Skål International website under “Links” on www.skal.org.

 

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Note: The “unrelated events” mentioned in the second paragraph, refer to the reason Bill Pullen contacted these particular Sisters. Bill’s wife, Anita, was a Secular Carmelite and in February 1990 she attended a small meeting with members of her Carmelite group in Port St. Lucie, Florida.  At that meeting she met Mrs. Jessie Benedict, a native Sri Lankan then living in Port St. Lucie.  Upon learning that Bill would be visiting Sri Lanka in October later that year to attend the SKAL International Congress, she asked Anita if he would deliver a package of rosaries and rosary making kits to the Sisters at the Carmel Convent in Borella, a district in Colombo.  The rosaries were then to be delivered to the Carmelite Sisters in Trincomolee, in the northeastern part of the country where Jessie Benedict was from and which, at that time, was subject to some of the LTTE terrorist activities.

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