Colombo, Sri Lanka
-- An Austrian, Natascha Kampusch who hit world headlines in 2006
after she was rescued from a secret cellar where she had been
confined for eight years has in an act of benevolence donated a
children’s hospital to Sri Lanka built at a cost of Rs.15
million.
She raised the funds
to build the hospital at Bulathsinhala by selling books written by
her where she depicts the sufferings she underwent in the cellar in
Vienna. The
hospital was declared open by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena
last Tuesday.
When asked why she
chose Sri Lanka to donate the hospital, she said she loved Buddhism
and Sri Lanka.
She was abducted
while travelling to school where she was a Grade Four student.
Natascha had spent eight years and 176 days as a prisoner and had
to survive on a meager ration of food provided by the abductor
during her ordeal. She was 18 when she escaped from the
cellar.
The
abductor had told the police that he wanted to marry a girl who
pure and untouched by anyone else and therefore had abducted the
girl. Natascha’s book explains her ordeal at
the hands of the abductor become a best seller and was translated
into several languages including German, French, Russian, Japanese
and Chinese.
The
Children’s Hospital constructed at Bulathsinghala from the funds
provided by her has been named as ‘Natascha Kampusch Children’s
Hospital’.