Endowment of Library Books and School Material

A joint project by the Royal College of Moneragala and Saraswathi Tamil Vidyalaya of Nuwera Eliya

The Sri Lanka Unites Chapter members of Royal College, Monaragala implemented their CoC(Champions of Change) project by donating library books and school material to Saraswathie Tamil Vidyalaya. The project was conceived during a reconciliation and leadership promotion programme organised by Sri Lanka Unites, titled ‘Solidarity of Two Hearts’.

In addition to fulfilling a long felt need of the beneficiary, the project aimed at building interrelationships between the schools involved and promoting greater understanding between the two ethnic groups, Sinhala and Tamil by exchanging ideas as well as traditions and customs.

The whole project spanned over five months during which the SLU Chapter members collected funds from the local community, selected and purchased reading material and delivered the material to Saraswathie Vidyalaya, a school which has students from grades one to nine, with very little resources in their library. Books worth LKR 11,910 were donated on August 2, 2012, which included several dictionaries, Sinhala learning material and classics such as Oliver Twist, Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre etc.

The event kicked off with a warm welcome from the Principal of Saraswathie Tamil Vidyalaya and a number of performances by the students. The speeches made at the event highlighted and appreciated the worthy contributions made by SLU Chapter members of the Royal College for reconciliation and a united Sri Lanka.

Reaching Saraswathie Vidyalaya proved to be a herculean task as it was situated on a remote hill called G’elon, where the British had established rubber estates. The local community consisted of the descendants of the workers who used to work in these estates. These difficulties apart, the students were truly able to achieve their goals by helping out their fellow students at Saraswathie Vidyalaya. It was a novel experience for the SLU Chapter members of Royal College who came from a predominantly Sinhala speaking school to interact with a Tamil speaking community as well as an excellent opportunity to develop leadership skills.