Voice of Humanity
View(s):‘Manusath Handa – Voice of Humanity’ is a project done by Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa which was chartered under Rotary International District 3220 Sri Lanka and Maldives in 1995.
This project aims at reducing the difficulties faced by the visually impaired in their education. These difficulties faced by visually impaired children are further amplified owing to the fact that they do not possess access to sufficient educational resources that cater to their special requirements. Though knowledge of the world and the universe is endless and ever growing, the educational resources on such subjects that are perusable to these individuals do not exactly keep up with the rate at which said knowledge is generated.
In order to address this issue and contribute to bridging this divide in any way we can, we at Rotaract Mora have embarked on a new path to help the visually impaired community with resolving such challenges that they face in terms of receiving a viable education.
The project ‘Manusath Handa’ strives to enlighten the lives of visually impaired students by delivering digital audio support for their education.
Starting from the year 2018, we have thus far been able to publish audiobooks of G.C.E Ordinary Level papers, along with answers, for 9 subjects for the years 2016-2019, 2019 G.C.E Ordinary Level Tamil medium papers, along with the answers, for 7 subjects and 2019 G.C.E Advanced Level papers, along with answers, for 5 subjects. Moving a step ahead from question papers, over 300 audiobooks of Wijeya newspaper articles on various topics were published and added to the compilation to nourish these minds with an extra bit of knowledge.
Finally, as a result of utter commitment towards this noble project, in 2019, the first and largest digital audiobook library of Sri Lanka was established for the visually impaired, containing all the recorded past papers, marking schemes and articles.
This year, with the initiation of the subproject “Andurata Athwalak”, the project entered its newest phase by turning its attention towards enhancing the employability of the visually impaired in Sri Lanka by improving their English and computer literacy skills.
Thus far we have been able to do 600 audio recordings with the help of over 300 Rotaractors and Non-Rotaractors across Sri Lanka.
The project always had the privilege of obtaining guidance and tremendous support from entities such as Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped, Foundation for Empowering the Persons with Disabilities, the Department of Examinations, Wijeya Newspapers Ltd, and many visually impaired individuals themselves who invested their time heavily in this project.
Our club wishes to continue these valuable partnerships throughout this year as well. While that process continues, we, as Rotaract Mora, intend to expand into many more avenues to spread out the message of this noble cause.
Through the “Manusath Handa” website, the digital library has been made wide open to visually impaired students across the country. (https://manusathhanda.rotaractmora.org/)
Anyone who’s interested in joining hands with ‘Manusath Handa’ is warmly welcomed!
- Pasidalee Dissanayake and Imalsha Liyanage