Sooriyawewa School

UPDATE on March 2022: Our efforts to build a computer lab at Sooriyawewa School has been paused!

Update on October 2021: We have started the renovation of the building that will be used for the computer lab, see pictures below on our progress.

Update on August 2021: We have raised sufficient funds for this project through our 2021 Summer Coding Classes! We extend our sincere gratitude to all who donated.

About Sooriyawewa School

Sooriyawewa School is located in a remote northeast corner of Sri Lanka. The school has 70 -100 students and 6 teachers, and funding from the government is limited. Parents are mostly poor farmers, who suffered a lot during the time of war. Although they don’t fear terrorist attacks anymore, wild elephant attacks are common, and the jumbos roam school grounds during most nights.  

 

Among the many other schools in the area, this school is unique in terms of the dedication of teachers and its Principal. They go out of their way to teach the kids, conducting extra classes during afternoons and weekends. The outcome is evident in the Grade 5 scholarship exam results every year. The results have been by far the best among 102 other schools in the Welikanda division. Ten students passed the exam in 2017, one with the highest marks of 189 out of 200. In 2018, four students passed the exam, one with the highest marks of 187. Multiple students qualified to attend top-tier schools in the nations’ capital, Colombo.

Families go through many hardships and their only hope for a better future is through providing a good education for the children and opening up career paths. There are many career choices and opportunities that require computer literacy or programming ability; starting a computer lab to teach computer literacy and coding to these students at a young age can be one of the best ways to bring the community out of poverty. 

Our Project

We have identified an existing building in the school to be converted to a computer Lab. Our plan is to