Euro 1,000 international donation for school water project

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Travel2change, a new international NGO specializing in travel and community work, will for the first time inject 1,000 Euros to fund an electricity connection, a water pump and water tank together with a toilet which will provide running water to a school in the Bulathsinhala electorate.

Arosha Jayasundera

The school is at Pahala Naragala. Their main sponsor is Kuoni and they were established in 2010. They chose Sri Lanka out of as many as 60 different projects in an international competition which was held last July.

This will be their first time in Sri Lanka and will be providing a grant of 1,000 Euro for their project. This will be used to for the Pahala Naragala School. Currently only 16 or so children attend this school which is far less than the numbers which once attended, the promoter of the project Arosha Jayasundera told Daily News Business.

Surprisingly this school, which is not more than 45 kilometres from Colombo, lacks such basic facilities. The kids who are from parents of few means, do not even have the basics such as shoes, umbrellas to attend school when it rains and have very few books, pencils, pens etc, she said.

Travel2change are partnering the Rotary Club of Cinnamon Gardens to undertake this project. There will be an opening ceremony for the commencement of the project at which some senior members of the local authorities are expected to attend.

Travel2change have travellers who have come down to assist with this project together with journalists, a journalist from Kuoni and a photographer to cover the project. The project will commence on September 11 and finish within two weeks.

The objective of the project which they have called 'Getting kids pumped for school' is to provide drinking and flowing water to the schoolchildren. This district has been very poor to date and only recently has had the benefit of the road being resurfaced.

In the future, Naragala may become more prosperous with the bridge expected to be built connecting Naragala to the Ratnapura Road. Already big companies like DFCC Bank have also decided to set up offices at the nearby Naragala Junction.

This project proposal was drawn up by Arosha Jayasundera, a former banker and a former President of Rotary. She built what is now known as Cinnamon Eco-lodge as long ago as 2000 as a passion and hobby and for it to be her retirement home. This is part of her company Tropical Cinnamon Gardens which also specializes in cinnamon wholesale and retail products.

The very private Ecolodge looks out to a lovely garden, stream and ponds and is built on a small hill so that it look down into the valley. It is currently registered with the Tourist Board as a bungalow under their homestay and bungalow programme.

The bungalow is situated amongst cinnamon plants and rubber trees on a 4 acre block of land and grows cinnamon and vegetables organically.

Arosha Jayasundera also recently set up Colombo World Sports and Arts Pvt Ltd which will specialize in selected events and award ceremonies in Sri Lanka seeking to add value, bring media attention and funding for gifted persons in sport, arts, the less abled and women.

Arosha Jayasundera went to London School of Economics, has an MBA in Marketing and is a member of SLIM. She is also a member of the National Olympic Committee, competed in Sri Lanka in over 6 sports at National and very high levels and has recently represented Sri Lanka in the Equestrian field in Endurance Riding.