CHART stands for "Catalyst to Harness and Advance Rural Talent"

In 2007 the Rotary Club of Colombo West identified Ketewela, a rural village in the Kurunegala District as having great talent and potential for children to develop their English and IT Skills, The Club built a library and a computer lab.

The Club decided to form the CHART Foundation in August 2008 to further its objective in empowering rural youth to be a part of the Global economy. The foundation consists of a seven member Board of Trustees and 13 member Management Committee.

Under Phase I of their project, they decided to focus on Ketewela Kanishta Vidyalaya providing 80 laptops to the primary grade students and invest further in improving English education and IT Skills of the children.

The Project further envisages connecting the Children and the Community to the rest of the country and the world through the eventual provision of internet access.

This one laptop per child programme was initiated by World Bank and the Ministry of Education. Under phase II of their Project CHART Foundation has started work on Saraswathie Maha Vidyalaya in the Kurunegala District.

The CHART Foundation has to-date handed over 170 Lap-tops with funds raised by them through their friends, family, well wishers and fund raising programmes. This handing over ceremony was held in November 2009 at Temple Trees and patronized by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

This project is innovative because it plans to use English and It initially to educate children and provide OLPC laptops for every primary school child. The total expenditure of Phase II of the Project includes the cost of providing 80 laptops and teaching resources for a period of one year in English and IT is approximately US$ 30,500. Your contribution can be remitted to the Bank Account below or a cheque in favour of Chart Foundation.

Account Name 3ACHART Foundation, Bank '9 3ANations Trust Bank PLC, Branch 9 3ACorporate Branch, Bank Address 9:No. 242, Union Place, Colombo 02 , Sri Lanka Account No.9:006100012577

Trustees of CHART Foundation

Heinz Reuter (Chairperson), Entrepreneur, ,Tissa Bandaranayake, Chartered Accountant, Prof. Lalith Gamage, IT Professional

Mrs. Jezima Ismail, Educationalist, Anthony Page, Chartered and Management Accountant, Moksevi Prelis, Corporate Leader, S.S. Wijeratne, Attorney-at-Law

Committee of Management

S.Karunakaran, Ms. Rehana Wijesinghe, Harin Fernando, Nihal Bogahalande, Sunil Wijesinghe, Shan Shammuganathan, Jerome Rajendram, Raju Arasaratnam, Mano Sekeram, Lothar Schuster, Haroon Careem, Ms. Rohina Macan Marker.

Children helping lesser Previleged Children

Exhibition

Students of Mrs. Lathifa Ismail's Art class have been having exhibition of their paintings almost every year for the past 30 years. Funds raised by the students have always been donated to some Charity Organization or hospitals. This year too 12 children between the ages of 6-13 have come forward to hold an exhibition of their paintings for a worthy cause. The proceeds of the sale will go towards CHART Foundation - A Trust formed to enhance the life of rural children through English and IT skills.

Knowing educating the children of today ensures a bright future for their generation these children have aptly titled their exhibition "OUR FUTURE".

The exhibition will be held from February 24 from 5 p.m to February 27 at 6p.m. at Gallery Red Gandhara, Stratford Avenue, Kirulapane, Colombo 06. There will be an auction of the feature canvas which was painted by all the 12 students Savini Jayasuriya, Zayna Zubair, Vaisnavi Ransinghe, Shivendra Naidu, Kavindu Perera, Sheraya Amaratunga, Humairah Yousuf, Sarah Karunakaran, Zainab Akbarally, Vaidehi Ranasinghe, Kanchani Chandrasiri and Praneeth Jayasinghe on Saturday. February 25 at 5 p.m..