Lak Daruwo - Investing on our future

Investing on our future

Embilipitiya Project

	Introduction

	How we started the center

	Progress

	Future Plans

	Sankapala Raja Maha Viharaya

How we started the center

Towards the middle of year 2002, Mr. Anurudha Kulathunga in our strategy team found out about an English language teaching program launched at this center by his relative Mr. Iranga who worked in the area. Lak Daruwo team was invited to see that program and to assist them if possible. In response, Mr. Sanjeewa Samaranayake, Ven. Basnagoda Rahula Thero and Ven. Sumangala Thero of Houston Buddhist Vihara, and Mr. Anurudha Kulathunga visited the place to meet the people and the children involved. After this fact-finding mission, Lak Daruwo team decided to assist these children by starting our third Lak Daruwo center in Sri Lanka. We were very impressed by the relentless dedication showed by Ven. Nagitha thero to help the children who severely lacked the opportunity to have a proper education. We also noticed the courage and the positive attitude showed by the children to realize their talents. These observations encouraged us to establish a Lak Daruwo center at this particular temple.

Our teachers from Attanagalla then visited this center and worked with children and the teachers selected by the temple in order to initiate Lak Daruwo sponsored educational programs. Initially, we installed one computer in the center and placed English teaching material to facilitate the English language teaching program.

Our next goal was to build a computer center for the children. "Yuthukama," a California-based organization formed by expatriate Sri Lankans, provided the initial money to build the computer facility for the program. With their contribution, we started building a computer facility in a room allocated for us by the temple. There were many obstacles to overcome. We had to wire the whole room and then have a separate power line to the room from the main electric power distribution point outside the temple. This area of Sri Lanka experiences many electric power related problems. We had to take extra precautions while building the computer facility. Evntually, the room was wired to place 5-6 network computers.

Deepal (computer teacher at Attanagalla) giving a demonstration on how to use the computers

Iranga and Anuruddha talking to children

We started to build and place computers using the funds we raised from the Sri Lankan Variety Show 2003 held in March of 2003 in Houston, U.S.A. Five network computers were place with UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) units to address the heavy electric fluctuations the area experiences. Still we did not have a proper instructor to teach computer technologies to children. We assembled a team of candidates and gave them special training in Colombo and in our Attanagalla center on hardware and software usage. In addition, we also sent the person we selected as the computer instructor to some computer training courses in Rathnapura, Sri Lanka. We were very pleased to finally start a full Lak Daruwo program in Sankapala Rajamaha Vihara amidst of all the difficulties we had to go through. We must also mention that the team members at the Embilipitiya center, including the children, provided their best help during the process of constructing the computer room and establishing the facility.

@Copyright : Lak Daruwo Email your comments and questions to Webmaster