”Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world!”
-Nelson Mandela
Education has been given extreme importance in the Sri Lankan context, which aims to provide democracy with regards to education in terms of moral, physical and spiritual development along with continuous learning. Due to the state run education system, Sri Lanka has a literacy rate of more than 90 percent, which is one of the highest in South Asia. However, the access and the development of Education for certain underprivileged sectors is regarded to be comparatively low. Well, Rotaract has set the ground to embark upon facilitating the needy and providing them with consistent support towards the betterment of the community. Here we have five remarkable initiatives undertaken by our fellow clubs which were awarded at the 30th Rotaract District Assembly under the category of ‘Education’.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා සන්දර්භය තුළ අධ්‍යාපනයට අතිශය වැදගත්කමක් ලබා දී ඇත. එහිදී ඉලක්කය වී ඇත්තේ සදාචාරාත්මක, ශාරීරික හා අධ්‍යාත්මික සංවර්ධනය තුලින් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදික අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයක් අඛන්ඩව සැපයීමයි. රජය විසින් පවත්වාගෙන යනු ලබන අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය තුල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාක්ෂරතා අනුපාතය සියයට 90කට වඩා වැඩි ප්‍රතිශතයක් ගන්නා අතර එය දකුණු ආසියාවේ ඉහළම අගයක් ගනී. කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඇතැම් වරප්‍රසාද නොලත් අංශ සඳහා අධ්‍යාපනයට ඇති ප්‍රවේශය හා සංවර්ධනය සාපේක්ෂව අඩු යැයි සැලකේ. මෙය කරනකොට ගෙන රොටරැක්ට් කණ්ඩායම් විසින් අගහිඟකම් ඇති අයට පහසුකම් සැලසීමට සහ ප්‍රජාවගේ අභිවෘද්ධිය සඳහා අඛණ්ඩ සහයෝගයක් ලබා දීමට පියවර ගෙන තිබේ. මෙහි දැක්වෙන්නේ 30 වන දිස්ත්‍රික් සමුළුවේදී “අධ්‍යාපනය” යන කාණ්ඩය යටතේ ඇගයීමට ලක්වූ රොටරැක්ට් සමාජයන් විසින් සිදු කරන ලද කැපී පෙනෙන මුලපිරීම් පහක් වේ.
கல்வியை பொறுத்தவரை தொடர்ச்சியான கற்றலுடன் தார்மீக,உடல் மற்றும் ஆன்மீக வளர்ச்சியின் அடிப்படையில் ஜனநாயகத்தை வழங்குவதனை இலங்கை இலக்காக கொண்டுள்ளது.அரசு நடத்தும் கல்வி முறை காரணமாக,இலங்கையின் கல்வியறிவு விகிதம் 90 சதவீதத்திற்கும் அதிகமாக உள்ளது,இது தெற்காசியாவில் மிக உயர்ந்த ஒன்றாகும்.எவ்வாறாயினும்,சில பின்தங்கிய துறைகளுக்கான கல்வியின் அணுகல் மற்றும் மேம்பாடு ஒப்பீட்டளவில் குறைவாகவே உள்ளது.ஆகவே, நாம் ரோட்டரக்ட் மூலமாக ஏழைகளுக்கு வசதி செய்வதிலும்,சமூகத்தின் முன்னேற்றத்திற்கு நிலையான ஆதரவை வழங்குவதிலும் எங்கள் பங்களிப்பினை செலுத்தி வருகின்றோம்.30 வது மாவட்ட சட்டமன்றத்தில் “கல்வி” என்ற பிரிவின் கீழ் அங்கீகரிக்கப்பட்ட எங்கள் சக கழகங்களால் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட குறிப்பிடத்தக்க ஐந்து முயற்சிகள் உங்களுக்காக இதோ.
Gold
Nena Aruna (RAC University of Moratuwa)
The Rotaract club of University of Moratuwa executed project ‘Nena Aruna’ on the 13th of July 2019, holding the motive as to uplift and to contribute to the betterment of certain underprivileged schools in terms of fulfilling their educational needs. The project closely focused on providing educational support to the students sitting for the ordinary level examination and chose 11 schools across the country that were found destitute in aiding their students. The club was able to successfully conduct 49 seminars on Mathematics and Information Technology in those selected schools. The mathematics seminars conducted in 9 schools located in Panadura, Matale, Kurunegala, Malabe, Galle, Piliyandala and Kandy, played a distinct role in the project where each student was assisted by 2 volunteers and was given individual attention during the seminar to ensure that the students were thorough enough on the subject matter. In addition, past papers were also discussed along with conducting spot tests to determine the impacts and the progress of the students through the project.
Furthermore, Rotaract Mora enforced a subproject named ‘Univac 1.0’ through which they assisted students of 2 schools from Moratuwa, to be prepared for the ordinary level Information and Technology paper. Moreover, With the support of Cambio Software Engineering, the club donated 3 computer tables to the computer lab of Somadevi Balika Vidyalaya, Buthagamuwa, on the 31st of January 2020 and 600+ English workbooks were also planned to be donated to rural schools, with the support of Rotary Club of Colombo West.
More information can be found on;
https://blog.rotaractmora.org/
Selalihini – Let them fly (RAC Centennial United)
“Be the light to humanity and be the 911 to humanity”
Rotaract Club of Centennial United initiated this two year strategic community service project, “Selalihini- Let Them Fly” in order to ameliorate the living standards of a very challenged community residing in Bloemendhal, by offering them wings through education, youth and women empowerment as well as health and sanitation.
The project was commenced focusing on education in the area as ‘An investment in knowledge would pay the best interest on the society as a whole.’ The only government school, Agamathi Vidyalaya was chosen to be served with the aim of creating a promising learning environment within the school in an attempt to increase the level of daily attendance rate and reduce the school dropout rate. With the support of Bloemendhal Police Station, RAC Centennial United had provided the required essential amenities by means of infrastructure renovation, education and grooming programs, leadership programs and Spoken English programs for a complete educational process.
As there is a high number of substance abusers within the community, this remarkable project also intends to facilitate mentoring programs and drug rehabilitation sessions to troubled youth in collaboration with the area Police Station. Further, focusing on the unemployment of women in the locale, the project expects to conduct Women Development programs endowing education on self-employment opportunities and financial management. Last but not least, this marvelous project has particular emphasis on improving health and sanitation via medical clinics and sanitary guidelines for a safe environment in the community.
To know about RAC Centennial United, you can follow them on:
https://www.facebook.com/CentennialUnited
Sneha (RAC Achievers)
The Project Sneha is an educational project implemented by the Rotaract Club of Achievers Lanka Business School in October 2019 with the objective of educating unprivileged students in slums. The initiative was an idea of Mr. Ravi, a much-loved fixer at Achievers Lanka Business School who explained the necessity and brought up to the clubs’ consideration.
Targeting the children of the slum areas around Kirulapona, Koombi Kale Project Sneha carried out two days per week with a team of four members headed down to slums to enlighten the future of these students.
The youngsters of Sneha also known as ‘Rangers’ organized exhilarating and thriving group activities to children in slums to enhance their skills such as leadership, communication and to improve their mental well-being. The programme was organized by pastor and included activities such as singing, dancing, camping where the talents of these youngsters were showcased through a concert.
More information can be found on the Official Blog of RAC Achievers:
http://rotaractachievers.org/blog/
E-Mithudama (RAC IIT)
Rotaract Club of IIT initiated project ‘E Mithudama’ aiming to enhance the learning environment of dozens of students with the current technology. This remarkable project was firstly commenced in year 2018/19, partnering up with Uniliever to provide computer labs for schools in need.
With a sustainable perspective, the project was planned to fulfill the technology needs of 6 schools per year, for 4 years. Not just supplying the equipment but equipping those computer labs from the scratch had been done through this project, providing the materials as well as the needed man power. Till this date, project ‘E Mithudama’ has successfully completed the wonderful endowment in 11 schools, allowing the path to knowledge for many souls.
More information can be found on the RAC IIT Blog;
https://rciit.org/blog/
Elevate (RAC Colombo East)
The Rotaract Club of Colombo East initiated project Elevate 2019, with the motive of uplifting the quality of education for the students of Debahera Kanishta Vidayalaya in Nittambuwa, a school located in the outskirts of the Gampaha Disctrict. The club was able to identify a few of the basic facilities that needed improvement for a more conducive environment to carry out the educational activities, through a need survey and Elevate 2019 focused on enhancing these facilities by building a Library, an IT lab, a staff room and a canteen for this school. The Sod turning ceremony for launching the project was held on the 12th of June 2019 and was planned to be completed by August 2019.
More information can be found on the RAC East Blog;
https://www.racce.lk/east-writes-blog/
Educational Development is certainly a long-term investment in poverty reduction. A huge applause to all the clubs for coming up with such prominent initiatives in order to improve the underlying necessities which could ultimately contribute to the betterment of our Mother Nation. As we always say, it’s beyond competing for awards! This category of awards too is yet another driving force for clubs to Strive as One!
Thank you to all our fellow Clubs and fellow Rotaractors for providing us with the details!
Written & Compiled By:
The Blog Team 2020/21
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