Stop the Spread – Back to School

With the outbreak of COVID 19 global pandemic the schools were closed for a long period of time which negatively impacted the education system in Sri Lanka.

Community Service Avenue of RACUOCFMF implemented the project Stop the Spread – Back to School with the goal of curbing the spread of COVID-19 by donating protective gear to school students and creating a COVID-free, safe environment in the school with a mission to stabilize the Sri Lankan education system.

கொவிட்-19 பரவுவதைத் தடுக்கும் நோக்கத்துடன் “Stop the spread – Back to school” என்ற திட்டத்தை RACUOCFMF இன் சமூக சேவை அவன்யூ செயல்படுத்தியது. இச்செயற்றிட்டத்தின் கீழ் மத்தேவில எத்கன்துரவில் அமைந்துள்ள மத்தேவில கனிஷ்ட வித்தியாலயத்திற்கு மிதி மூலம் இயக்கப்படும் குப்பைத்தொட்டிகள், முகமூடிகள், கையுறைகள், துடைப்பான்கள், திரவ ப்ளீச்கள், கை கழுவும் நிலையம், கை சுத்திகரிப்பு போத்தல்கள், கிருமிநாசினிகள் மற்றும் சவர்க்காரம் போன்ற பல பாதுகாப்பு உபகரணங்கள் வழங்கப்பட்டன. இதன் நோக்கம் உலகளாவிய தொற்றுநோய் பரவல் சூழ்நிலையில், பாடசாலையில் கொவிட் இல்லாத பாதுகாப்பான சூழலை உருவாக்குதல் ஆகும்.
இத்திட்டம் ஜனவரி 28 ஆம் திகதி வெற்றிகரமாக முடிவடைந்தது. முடிந்தவரை நன்கொடை அளித்த மற்றும் பங்களித்த அனைவருக்கும் எங்கள் மனமார்ந்த நன்றிகள்.

COVID 19 ගෝලීය වසංගතය පැතිරීමත් සමඟ දීර්ඝ කාලයක් තිස්සේ පාසල් වසා දැමුණු අතර එය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපන පද්ධතියට අහිතකර ලෙස බලපෑවේය. RACUOCFMF හි ප්‍රජා සේවා අංශය විසින් පාසල් සිසුන්ට ආරක්ෂිත ආම්පන්න පරිත්‍යාග කිරීම සහ COVID-19 ව්‍යාප්තිය මැඩලීමේ අරමුණ ඇතිව Stop the Spread – Back to School යන ව්‍යාපෘතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලදී. ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය ස්ථාවර කිරීමේ මෙහෙවරක් සමඟින් මද්දේවිල ඇත්කඳුර පිහිටි මද්දේවිල කනිෂ්ඨ විද්‍යාලයට රුපියල් 21,000 ක මුදලක් සහ සැලකිය යුතු ද්‍රව්‍යමය පරිත්‍යාග ප්‍රමාණයක් රැස්කර ගැනීමට කමිටුවට හැකි වූයේ සමාජයේ සියලු දෙනාගෙන් ලැබුණු අතිමහත් සහයෝගය නිසා ය. සියලුම භාණ්ඩ ජනවාරි 27 දා එකතු වූ මුදලින් මිලදී ගෙන මද්දෙවිල කනිෂ්ඨ විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පතිවරයා වෙත පරිත්‍යාග කරන ලදී. Stop the Spread – Back to School ව්‍යාපෘතියට ස්තූතිවන්ත වන්නට, පාසල් පරිශ්‍රය ආරක්ෂිත ස්ථානයක් බවට පත් කිරීමට සහ සාමාන්‍ය පරිදි දෛනික පාසල් ක්‍රියාකාරකම් නැවත ආරම්භ කිරීමට සහය වීමට RACUOCFMF සමාජයට හැකි විය.

The project commenced on the 9^th of September and Maddewila Kansihta Vidyalaya located in Maddewila Ethkandura was selected as the beneficiary for the donation drive. A total of 129 students are studying in this school. During the initial visit to the school on the 1^st of November a list of items that were required to the school through the donation drive was obtained from the Principal Mr. Jayarathne which included a pedal-operated bin, masks, gloves, cleaning wipers, toilet brushes, mops, mop buckets, liquid commercial bleaches, hand washing station, hand sanitizer, sanitizer refill bottles, disinfectants, soap, soap holders and hoe blades.

All the items needed for the donation drive was collected through monetary and material donations from the public. On the 9th of January, the first donation post was posted, which featured a list of products wanted by the school along with the bank account information needed to collect monetary donations. It was great to see the enthusiasm of the community who came forward to donate and contribute in every possible way making it easy for the committee members to reach their target.

The committee was still short of funds after publishing the first post, therefore on the 15th of January, the last contribution post was released, which listed the remaining goods needed as well as bank information. We were able to raise Rs 21000 and a substantial number of material donations thanks to the overwhelming support we received from everyone. All of the things were purchased with the money gathered on January 27th.

Finally, on the 28th of January, the Co-Director of Community Service Rtr. Gajaba Senaratne, along with President Rtr.Arshad Ismail and Vice President Kethni Wjiesinghe, donated the items to the principal of Maddewila Kanishta Vidyalaya.

For the past two years, students and staff have been denied access to school grounds due to safety concerns, and have been forced to stay at home while participating in online learning activities. Fortunately, thanks to the back-to-school initiative, we RACUOCFMF were able to assist in making the school premise a safe heaven and resuming daily school activities as usual, giving students and staff members peace of mind in the knowledge that they are somewhat safe from the global pandemic while at school.