Projects at Dimbulwala School
About Dimbulwala School
Dimbulwala school is located in a rural area in Sri Lanka approximately 1 hour away from Rathnapura ("City of Gems") near a scenic river "Wey Ganga" (see map below). This region is world renowned for Blue Sapphires and other rare, expensive gemstones.
However, these riches don't benefit the poor laborers toiling in the mines and their families. The students attending Dimbulwala school are from families who work as day laborers in the gem mines or surrounding tea plantations. Often they do not earn enough income to feed their families. Many students leave school to earn a living following the footsteps of their parents, ending up trapped in the same cycle of poverty.
The COVID-19 epidemic and more recent economic crisis in Sri Lanka has heavily disrupted the learning of children. However, the teachers and the Principal of Dimbulwala school have put in extra effort to keep classes running even during the time schools were closed.
We are working with the Pahansila Scholarship Foundation, a U.S. based charitable organization, to collect funds and support multiple projects at Dimbulwala School.
Families go through many hardships and their only hope for a better future is through providing a good education for the children and opening career paths. There are many career choices and opportunities that require English language fluency, computer literacy or programming ability. Through multiple projects at Dimbulwala School, our goal is to bring these families and the whole community out of poverty.
Daily Meal Program
Most children arrive at the school without breakfast or packed lunch. Incidents of students fainting due to hunger during school time are common. The previous government sponsored school meal program has stopped due to the current economic situation in Sri Lanka.
Since hungry children cannot learn effectively, we have started a program to provide a free nutritional meal to all students daily. The cost of cooking and preparing a basic meal is kept very low with the help of parent volunteers. We purchase locally grown vegetables to support village farmers and keep costs at a minimum.
With the start of the meal program, children are now attending school with greater enthusiasm. With help from donors, we plan to continue this program in the future.
Skill Development
Students at Dimbulawala school are eager to learn, with the very limited resources available to them. However, the school has only a few teachers and no computers.
Fluency in English, computer literacy, and programming skills are in high demand, and can be one of the easiest ways to break the cycle of poverty in these communities.
We have hired a qualified teacher with a monthly salary to offer regular classes on English and basic computer literacy to all students. Through generous supporters, we were able to donate and ship one used laptop, which the students are using now for their learning.
We intend to expand this program further, donate more computers, establish a broadband internet connection, and start regular online lessons with the help from volunteers from USA.
Facility Improvements
The school does not have a proper library, currently it consists of few stacks of books that are worn out and damaged.
Children's playground and other facilities are also in dilapidated state and need renovations.
These are not the most urgent needs for the school at this time, and students are thankful to continue their learning with limited facilities they have.
We plan to address these needs in the future once the primary learning needs of the students are met.