PROJECT නුவna : A step towards a complete education in rural areas

by Int.Naveeth Amith

‘’Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all’ - Aristotle

The idea of creating a positive impact on development of underprivileged students was the initial idea which arose amongst the members of the board of the Interact club of Wesley College Colombo. We decided to donate some educational and fictional reading material to a school with a shortage of books. In the debate of this idea we came across the thought of doing something greater. So we decided to do this service a much grander scale.

So once the base notions of the project were established we elaborated on the final results and expectations of this venture. To scale up the idea of uplifting education standards, we listed our contacts and planned on how we could utilize them. We had contacts with the Zonal Director of Nuwaraeliya and the director of a children’s village in close whereabouts of the district. Through the Zonal Director we realized that there were rural schools without even the most basic methods of accessing information outside the curriculum. It was from this point that we decided to create a library for an underdeveloped school in this district.

Now that the project particulars were decided we had begun to accumulate the resources required to furbish the soon to be library. The board decided to collect the most essential items, which were the books necessary for the library, through the members of the club. Each member had a quota of books to be collected individually, which translated to a large number of books totally. This quota was easily collected, over a reasonable period of time, due to our enthusiastic members and by the local libraries and bookshops who showed great interest in this project. The other required essentials proved to be more elusive than books. The required bookshelves, board games, computer and computer desktop took more time to find. The bookshelves themselves where bought through accumulated funds of the club by prior finance projects and a computer and was supplied through a member of the club. Meanwhile the Zonal Director had informed us of a school named “Madduma Bandara Maha Vidyalaya” and that it was a school in desperate need of such resources. He also gave us an official notice to create a library in the school.

Once all required resources were collected by us, the challenge of travelling to Nuwaraeliya and installing the items still persisted. As mentioned earlier, through a contact of a member of the club we were allowed to lodge for one night at a dormitory in Nuwaraeliya. Once this was confirmed we obtained permission from the Principal of our college and Staff Adviser to authorize the absence of a few of our members from school as the installation of the library was to take place during school days. The green light was given and the project was activated. The Principal also provided the school bus for the travel purposes of the project.

The project was scheduled for two days. The first day was planned for arrival and furbishment and the second for the reveal and travel back to Colombo. On the first day a few members, our Staff Adviser and a Parent who had volunteered to come along to

Nuwaraeliya had gathered at the school premises at 4 am. The journey began at 4.30 am, it took us seven hours and we reached there at 11.30 am, stopping only for breakfast. Once we reached the school we met with the principal and allocated a time period to design the library. He granted us time and we started right away. The trucks which were transporting the furniture had arrived then and the furniture was brought into the school. With the guidance of our staff advisor and the parent who came along with us the creation of the library was underway. Initially we were shown the rooms in which the library was to be furbished. We began work by cleaning the room, which had been unused for a long time, and prepping the area for instalment of furniture. Simultaneously we categorized the books we brought into specific categories. Once these activities were complete we installed furniture and placed the books in the areas assigned to them. We also placed tables for playing board games and the computer. This was no mean feat as temperatures were at 14 degrees Celsius and as there were large quantities of dust that accumulated through the decades. Our lunch was a few buns we had purchased in a local bakery and it was late since we were focusing on preparing the library on time. The painting of a few large tables the school had commenced at 6 pm when temperatures plummeted and darkness had fallen. Since the tables were painted in the main hall they had to be transported to the library. Tired and filthy after refurbishing the library our members carried the heavy tables through the darkness of night by only their will to complete the project on time. Meanwhile the computer was being set up and we had also installed some required software on to it. After the final touches we headed out to the Children’s home, in which we were to be staying the night, at 8 pm. We reached the dorms at 9pm and went to sleep at 12 am after completing all our requirements. The next day we headed out at 7 am, a few hours before the reveal, to do the final touches of the library after a final cleaning we assembled at the main hall where an event had been formed to thank the club for its service. After this the library was opened by the Principal of the school and the project was completed. The school had also taken steps to give us a meal before we left off back to Colombo.

The relief and happiness felt after completing such a project was indescribable by words but we felt as though we had done the club and our school proud by achieving such a feat. Such a project truly showed us the importance of interact as through this the students of the school have gained a dependable source of information, access to technology they had never used before and a clean environment suited to learning which would benefit the students for generations to come! Ora Et Labora