Every child needs a pencil and a book to learn. “Sihina Tharanaya” is another major community service project that consists of two phases which are organized by the Rotaract Club of Sri Lanka Institute of Information technology with the intention of donating stationary items and other essential items; required for an entire term, as the first phase. The second phase of the project is concerned with renovating and improving school infrastructure facilities and donating other necessary requirements that are needed in order to make sure students enjoy a better learning environment. The focus of the project is on MR/Paragala Kanishta Vidyalaya – Morawaka that has 200 students from grade one to grade eleven which is situated in a rural area in Matara District.

In order to make our friends, families, and relatives aware of the project, we used several techniques. Ultimately with the help of all our brothers and sisters at SLIIT, we were able to collect a considerably high amount of donations. Then we located several collection points at SLIIT Metro and Malabe campuses for the purpose of collecting these donations.

On the 8^th of December 2017, we; SLIIT Rotaractors went far away from Colombo along with the donations received, in order to do the community service. The project was co-chaired by Rtr. Gavindu Saranga and Rtr. Venuri Mallikarachchi. We donated needed stationary items such as books, pens, pencils, erasers, drawing books, etc. The items we donated would definitely be a great support for those underprivileged poor students to carry on their studies and achieve higher results.

The principal and the teachers of Paragala Kanishta Vidyalaya had arranged us a charming welcome, together with breakfast and tea but since our tummies were not ready to accept a heavy meal, we only ate some small stuff. After the warm reception, there was a small gathering and there we gave out some of the stationery item packs which we have packed by accumulating all the needful items for a student in a particular grade according to their grade. It was followed by a small instant speech of our president 2017-18 Rtr. Vinura Ganegoda.

Thereafter, the principal and the teachers of the school invited us to have lunch with them and it was truly a delicious meal. Shortly after having the lunch, we had a walk around the school and the small fellows were so friendly and they even asked us to play Volleyball with them so we got into groups and played Volleyball but due to the lack of time, we had to finish it soon. That day was indeed a wonderful day.

Rotaract Club of SLIIT would like to thank everyone who helped us in numerous ways to make this event a success and our special thank goes to the Rotary Club of Battaramulla for being the main contributor by extending their helping hands to make a smile on those poor children’s faces.

Written by-

Rtr. Venuri Mallikarachchi

Director- Community Service 2017-18