IMAGINE WHAT US$30 CAN PROVIDE FOR THE EDUCATION OF A RURAL STUDENT FOR A WHOLE YEAR….. WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!

It doesn’t take much to bring a heartwarming smile to the face of a child who goes to school with hardly any proper supplies of his/her own. Imagine what it must be like to possess just one exercise book to write notes of eight different subjects in? Or share the supplies you have with your sibling? We do not know what it is like so it is our opportune duty to provide these vital supplies for children who suffer various hardships just to go to school to receive an education. An essential school supplies pack comes to a total of about $30 (Rs.3300). That’s not much, is it? Some of us are known to spend Rs.3300 plus on a single meal or a single shopping trip in an hour or even entertainment. That value is enough to send a child to school with school supplies for a whole year. Do think about it.

The Foundation of Goodness’s Essential School Supplies Programme is nearing its tenth year and this year they have aimed at supplying essential school supplies packs to a targeted 1500 school children from various parts of the island. The Foundation of Goodness considers the Essential School Supplies Programme as one of the most significant projects of the year. In 2009, FOG distributed a total of 1255 essential school supplies packs to needy and deserving school children from remote areas all over the island. Having started this vital project in 2000, the Foundation of Goodness has distributed over 9000 essential school supply packs to school children since the inception of the project.

Every year, the large number of schools and children who have benefitted from the essential school supplies packs programme has grown. Each school supplies pack contains a uniform, shoes, socks, a school bag, pens, 8 exercise books, lunch box, water bottle and other necessary items required for the school year. Out of the targeted 1500 school children 2010, FOG plans to distribute half of the school supplies packs to school children in the North of Sri Lanka. The children in the North of Sri Lanka have suffered tremendously due to a bitter war which ended in May 2009. It is necessary that these children receive the packs in order to go to school in peace and perhaps the first occasion to receive this blessing in decades.

Last year FOG did however provide school children in the North with school supply packs. From the district of Mannar, 300 school children from a very remote school, Arippu RCTM School pictured above were the recipients of essential school supplies. The Arippu RCTM School is located at the heart of a former LTTE naval base in Mannar. 100 school children from the Pankudavely RCTM School in Batticaloa received school supplies packs too. This school is located in a former LTTE territory and due to the long lasting conflict; most of the children from this school are left orphaned.

Other beneficiaries of essential school supplies packs

1. Mannar/Arippu Roman Catholic Tamil Navodya School - 300 School Children

2. Pankudaweli Roman Catholic Tamil School, Batticaloa – 100 School Children

3. Mahaellagama School, Kekirawa – 203 School Children

4. Udawelayagama Junior School, Seegiriya – 152 School Children

5. Balapitiya Junior School – 105 School Children

6. Gomera Tamil School, Digana – 46 School Children

7. Udagala Debokka School, Theldeniya – 30 School Children

8. Galamuduna School, Theldeniya – 37 School Children

9. Millewa Junior School, Horana – 75 School Children

10. Halwathura Junior School, Horana – 97 School Children

11. Dombagoda College, Ahangama – 36 School Children

12. Anula Wijerama Girl’s Orphanage, Balapitiya – 22 School Children

13. “Lahiru” Pre-school, Seenigama – 58 School Children

TOTAL = 1261

As is customary, the Foundation of Goodness will travel to the remote areas in late November this year to hand over the packages of essential school supplies to the school children just before their schools close for December holidays. By doing so, they will have a brand new set of supplies come January when the new school year begins.

As always, this essential school supplies packs programme would not have been made possible if not for the kindness of several donors all over the world. There are some special donors who have been supporting this vital programme conducted by the Foundation of Goodness for the last ten years. For this, Kushil Gunasekera, Founder/Trustee of FOG is forever grateful to them. The time is now to make a change in the world you live in. Start small. Just think of the happiness of the children when they realize that they have sufficient school supplies to last them a whole year. The smiles and warmth radiated from these innocent children are enough to make one feel that we have in fact done the right thing by being a donor to this meritorious undertaking.

Kushil says that at an early age he was inspired to give more after seeing children walk to school without any footwear.

Murali has always supported children in critical need and consider this as really crucial for disadvantaged children to study without pressure and worry.

Can we visualize our own children going to school without shoes or any other essential school supplies for that matter?

You could donate on line for this worthy cause. Thank you

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

- By Sarah Kellapatha

2010.09.06