Helping a Rural School in Ratnapura

Somewhere around May 2007, 10 of us talked in the lunch table about the money we are spending for daily dessert. One of us suggested that can’t we collect that money and provide studying material to poor students in a rural school. The idea was greatly supported by most of the fellows.

Our target was to collect around 50, 000 rupees which we finally did. Duminda found a school in Ratnapura that needed help. Even though they were somewhat ok with a few facilities. After a small discussion Duminda and Asanga(two from our lunch bunch) told us the principal told them that quite a big number of students don’t have shoes. So if we could provide them shoes the principal said it would leave life long memories with the students.

So we agreed to buy shoes as many as we could with our budget. We got a list of 172 needed shoe pairs. But the most we could buy was 61 pairs. So in the end we bought 61 shoe pairs and socks pairs. With the spare money we bought mathematical instrument sets for 25 students and books for year 5 scholarship, O/L past papers, and IT books written in Sinhala etc. We got a request from the principal to hold them a workshop on computers as their knowledge on the subject is not so good. But due to the busy schedules of our friends we could not travel the place on a week day. So to prevent delaying the help we decided to deliver the stuff on 19^th Saturday of January 2008.

We are planning to visit Ellawala Maha Vidyalaya on a convenient day to hold the work shop.

Six of the guys from our bunch visited the school to hand over the donation. Sudantha along with his father provided us transport all the way from Colombo to Ratnapura and back to Colombo as well. Duminda and Asanga arrenged the

shoes and socks. Me and Swarnamali bought the learning materials. All of us collected money for 6 months and spent them on this. On the day we handed the stuff, guys who went there(I could not go as I had to stay at home for an important visit of my fiance) told me they felt really sorry for the students. Duminda told two of the fellows fainted in the 15 minute long small gahtering. This place was 3 hours distance from Colombo. If the situation is like this in such a distance we could imagine how it is in a place like Ampara or Monaragala.

That school still needs a lot of help. If anybody is willing please contact us so that we can direct you to the place.

Posted by Theja Kotuwella