Village girl's speech makes wonders

CF to provide spoken English, IT education:

President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched 2009 as 'Year of English and IT' on Friday February 13, 2009. At the conclusion of the event the vote of thanks was delivered in English by a rural village girl. She made a moving speech that made it the talking point of the event, and left many in the audience in tears. Moved by her speech, the Founder and Chairman of Infosys Nayana Moorthy, who was the guest of honour, promptly offered her a scholarship to study at the Infosys Institute in Hyderabad.

The student, Nimesha Priyadarshani, is from Katawela Kanishta Vidyalaya. She was one of the students sponsored by the Rotary Club of Colombo West to follow the Toast Masters 'speech' Program. The Chart Foundation, formed under the auspices of the Rotary Club of Colombo West, plans to take the next step by making the Katawela village an integral part of the global village.

The foundation will continue to provide extra Spoken English and IT education, to students of the Katawela Kanishta Vidyalaya and begin a similar program at the nearby school Saraswathy Vidyalaya. Both schools are in Mawathagama.

Chart Foundation has funded 144 XO laptops for children of Grades 1-5 in both schools. Chart Foundation chose this laptop because it features an inbuilt video camera, high-resolution dual-mode screen, waterproof, long battery life and solar panel re-charging capability together with mesh networking that enables children to connect and work together without the internet.

On December 10, 2009, President Rajapaksa officially launched the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project at Temple Trees and Chart Foundation was recognized as the donor of the XO laptop for Katawela Kanishta Vidyalaya and Saraswathy Vidyalaya.

At this event, twenty students from each school received an XO laptop each. The remaining laptops for each of the Chart Foundation sponsored schools were handed by Chart Foundation officials and their sponsors on Saturday, February 13 at two ceremonies conducted at each school.