Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid City donates stationery to underprivileged students through AKURA project

By Dinu Induwara 

Education breaks the cycle of poverty and hopelessness and enables children to look forward to a good career and bright future. The objective of AKURA, the signature project of the Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid City, was to provide all necessary school stationery for a calendar year with the intention of furthering students’ academic and professional prospects. We believe that lending them a helping hand in their career will help them improve their life.

Phase 2 of AKURA successfully concluded on 29 December at Kosgulana Vidyalaya, Mathugama. The project is being conducted for the third consecutive year and our main objective of this phase was to provide students with the stationery they need for the coming year.

Even though this village is located in the Western Province, poverty is still a huge issue here, especially for the parents of students of Kosgulana Vidyalaya. Most of them do not even have proper housing in which to seek shelter. This is why we believe we have chosen the best place to conduct this project.

There are 200 students studying at this school and stationery packs were donated to all of them during this phase. We were able to provide the entire 

booklist of students from Grade 1 to the Ordinary Level.

These students battle adverse conditions due to poverty. Furthermore, they lack the motivation to study due to this poverty. So the main motivation for this project was to encourage them to complete their education right until the completion of their Advanced Level without them having to halt their studies in the middle of their school life. The students and their parents were thrilled with the project and we hope our donations motivated the students to continue their academic progress.

The project was planned since the first week of October. The Chairperson assembled a committee and shared responsibilities with everyone at the club. All members of the organising committee were assigned a task. Our fellow Rotaractors have worked hard to get basic things done. We were able to find sponsorships and donations for this charitable service.

We believe that this project will allow these children to broaden their world and, by aiding their academic journey, pave the way for a brighter future for each of them.

(The writer is the Director of Community Service of the Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid City).