Many students in rural Sri Lanka give up their studies before they even reach Ordinary Level classes. The reason behind it being that education is becoming more and more competitive and the demand for good education and more recognised educational qualifications are fast becoming the trend. Also, a majority of students lack the basic necessities in their schools and are plagued by many setbacks which deprive them from a proper education.
The students of American National College (ANC) have joined hands with Children's Upliftment Programme (CUP) in a project which will encourage under-privileged children from Ratmalana to have a library at Bodhirukkarama temple in Ratmalana. CUP is said to provide the children with books and help them in managing the small library. The students of ANC will be helping CUP to improve and develop this reading corner for the children.
The old library which the temple had housed was a small storage space at the back of a class room in which the books had been kept in a cupboard. The library which has around 250 students within the age of 6-15, makes use of it and is said to be regulated by ten student leaders under the supervision of the Sunday school superintendent. This project is focused on inculcating the habit of sharing among the children and for them to gain knowledge by borrowing and reading the books from their own library.
The ANC students plan on being physically involved in setting up a "little library" in a community centre, where they will be providing the library with educational books, chairs, tables, and many other basic facilities.
The students also hope to donate a computer in the future, while also setting up and conducting workshops where they will teach the children how to manage the library, and encourage them to read and use the books.
In a bid to raise funds for this project American National College in association with E Fm will be holding a paintball tournament as a fundraising event. Scheduled to be held on November 30, from 8am – 6pm, the venue for the event will be the Hustler's Paintball Arena, Excel World. Everyone from schools, institutes and business organisations are invited to participate in this fundraising event. Apart from watching the tournament, the audience will be entertained throughout the event with live performances by a popular disk jockey. Food and beverages will also be available throughout the day.
Participating teams for the event should have 5 members. A non-refundable fee of Rs. 2000/- per head will be charged for registration.
Candidates are invited to register through intensive print and radio campaigns. The winning team will receive Rs. 30,000/- as prize money and the 2nd and 3rd Runners up will receive consolation prizes. |
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