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Investing on our future
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Wattegama Project
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| How we started the center |
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During the middle of 2003, Lak Daruwo received a request from Ven. Piyarathene,
the head priest of the temple, to establish a Lak Daruwo center in his temple.
Mr. Sanjeewa Samaranayake, national coordinator of Lak Daruwo, paid a visit to
the temple to collect some background information to determine the suitability of
the location and to find out the level of commitment of the people involved.
According to the information we received, a decision was made to start our 4th
Lak Daruwo center in this location. Most of the children of the village of
Meegammena were already attending to the Damma School conducted by the temple,
so we made a decision to select our initial batch of children from that school.
A second visit to the temple was made by the Lak Daruwo implementation team to
select children for our programs. Using the strict selection criteria developed
over the last year, we select 35 children out of 400 who participated in the Damma
School in the temple. We wanted to start with a manageable group of students until
Lak Daruwo is fully established in this location.
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| Ranjith (English teacher from Attanagalla) introducing Lak Daruwo English Lanuage program to the children. |
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The program was launched on 23rd of August 2003 with English education classes.
Mr. Ranjith Pushpakumara, our first Lak Daruwo English instructor from the
Attanagalla project, talked to the children and divided them in to manageable
groups and then introduced our English teaching methods to the children. A
computer was installed in a room provided by the temple with all the software
required for English Education, and selected students were trained to handle
the computer and the software. The instructor was chosen by the temple from a
local school, was also provided a guideline on conducting the English language
program. Listening devices with the "Speak English" tapes and
other computer-based English learning material ( Video CD's, Encyclopedia, Dictionary, etc. )
were given to the center. These material had already been evaluated and used successfully
at our Attanagalla Lak Daruwo center.
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