Newsletter

Handz

Gift a Smile

Poya Day Project

The Film Week

Session on Higher Education

Other News

Handz

It was a remarkable day for Rotaractors, for the most successful project ever done by ROTARACT Club

was on the verge of another episode. Keen Rotaractors gathered at the University Premises at 2 a.m. on

25th of September 2010, since according the plans they were to be at Polonnaruwa in the morning. The

bus ride was a fun and enjoyable as Rotaractors enjoyed singing and dancing. First we arrived at Siri

Parakumba Pirivena which was our destination at Polonnaruwa. Then the Rotaractors got ready to

conduct the first seminar of the day. It was targeted for the children who were sitting for the G.C.E. O/L

for the second time. After the welcoming speeches of the chief Thero at the Pirivena the Rotaractors

motivated the children with encouraging speeches. Then mathematics model papers were distributed

among the children .These mathematics model papers included questions taken from educational

departments model paper achieves. The whole question paper was discussed at length in the following

ours.

While some were busy at mathematics seminar, others

conducted an IT workshop for little school children and

Saamaneras. The main idea was to cultivate an interest

about the IT technology for them. They were showed how

phone calls can be made over internet and other

interesting stuff. We were moved by the keenness of

children to learn despite the lack of facilities in that area .

On the 26th the crew divided into two groups and went to two

locations. There were more than 700 children from 14 schools

gathered in those two locations. One location was Vijitha Madya

Maha Vidyalaya Polonnaruwa. The students were from grade 9,

10, 11. After some welcoming speeches by the Zonal educational

director and the principal the seminars were conducted. First the

children were divided into three groups.

Grade 11 children were given the model paper and it was discussed at length. Grade 9 students were

given some motivational speeches and afterwards they were given chance to involve in some fun

activities which the Rotaractors and the children

enjoyed very much. This leadership development

program along with personality development

activities was done with much enthusiasm by

ROTARACTORS. The children, who are taking

Information Technology as a subject in GCE O/L, were

given a chance to clear their doubts in subject matters

by our IT workshop. Even they had government

provided textbooks they lacked skillful teachers. Their

interest for the subject provided us a deeper meaning

in our effort to teach them. After sharing our

knowledge on HTML, Visual Basic, Photoshop all

gathered to the closing ceremony. Children were thrilled by the distribution of certificates. They were

given certificates, certifying that they participated in Handz Seminar Series at Polonnaruwa.

The whole journey was a fountain of experiences. We enjoyed every moment of it, and finally we

completed another phase of Handz continuing the legacy of 15 years, continuing the success …..

Gift A Smile by Rtr. Sajini de Silva

Gift a smile is one of the community services

done by Rotaract club of University of Moratuwa. We

passed the second phase of the gift a smile project last

month. This time we choose Sneha children’s home at

Bambalapitiya as the place where we want to gift a

smile. There were 21 children around 4 years old.12 of

them were girls and 9 of them were boys. Most of the

children are caught when they were begging at streets

and some of them have left by their parents.

We reached there at about 3 pm to spend the

tea time with them. When we arrived there all of

them were sleeping. Therefore we got a chance to look around and talk to the matron of that children’s

home. After a few minutes a bell was rang and small kids around 3 or 5 years old came out from their

rooms. It seems to me that most of them were well familiar to the outstandings like us. They all

welcome us with their smiley faces and tasted a piece of cake which we brought for them. After a having

a nice tea time they all gathered at one place to show their talents to us.

“How talented they were …”. We were really amazed. They were not only good in singing but in

dancing too. Children who were going to pre school were very talkative and talented. They sang many

songs which they learnt from their pre school in front of us. Some of them were dancing while others

were singing.

The most interesting part of the event was started at the end. That was playing games and

distributing gifts among winners. We played many games with them and introduced some new games

also. The most interesting game that they enjoyed well was musical chairs. After distributing the gifts of

winners we distributed presents for all of them. When we looked at their faces we realized that we have

full filled our project goals. In the other words we have really gifted them a big smile.

When we come back they all said only one thing which added a drop of tears to our eyes. That

was “Please come again akka, come again ayya”.

Poya Day Project by Rtr. Vajindra Wijewickrama During a catastrophic period of local universities, two

university Rotaract clubs in collaboration with another

district Rotaract club joined their hands to organize a

community service project as the monthly Poya day

project. Rotaract Clubs of University of Moratuwa,

University of Colombo, Faculty of Science and the

Colombo Up-Town are the three organizations who

volunteered to serve the community with a Poya day

project. The venue we selected was the “Children

Development Center” at Pamunuwa road, Maharagama,

which was established in 1928 by the Child Protection Society of Ceylon Inc. There were about 30 boys

at that place who got alone in this society. Therefore the Rotaract clubs decided to have a day out to

the “Viharamahadevi Park, Sathutu Uyana” with the children from this place along with the Rotaractors

of all three clubs with the participation of the Rotaract District Committee. Though the children’s home

was already reserved on the Poya day, they decided to allow us organizing this project by considering

the fact of contribution to the society by the energetic youth.

Poya day for the month of October felt of the Friday the

22nd and there were several meetings about organizing

this project among three Rotaract clubs. After lot of hard

work and dedication we concluded the project with the

faces of happiness and tears of joy. Morning 8.30 to

afternoon 1.30 we all had a very beautiful day. All of us

really enjoyed by playing various games, singing songs,

dancing and site seeing. Morning breakfast, tea and a

really nice lunch was provided to all the participants.

This project was a relief to us for our stressful busy lives as

well. And for the children also it was a really good day out

from their ordinary home. We cannot forget our childhood

so at the final stage of this amazing event we offered them a

surprise gift with full of chocolates.

The best parameter that measures the success of this event

is the big smile on all of the participants during the day and

tears of joy after concluding the event.

The Film Week

The film Week was held during the week starting from 25 th October. Four interesting films were showed

during that week. The purpose of this film week was to raise funds for future projects of the club.

Rtr.Dileepa Fernando chaired the event. On that week Rotaractors were busy selling tickets to eager

audience and tickets had to be reprinted because of the high demand. The films were chosen to suit a

more general audience covering many film genres. The four films showed was,

Little man (drama ) Predators ( action ,thriller)

Raavan (Hindi) Prince of Persia: Sand of time (Action ,Adventure)

The films were shown in JG hall with super quality sound systems. Around Rs. 4000/= was raised from

that event.

Session on higher education opportunities by Rtr. Buddhi Mahindaratne

The Rotaract Club of University of

Moratuwa organized a session on higher

education opportunities in United States

and Canada on the 6th of October in

collaboration with SL2College. The session

was held at the Electronics Auditorium in

the Electronics and Telecommunications

Department in the University premises.

At start of the session, former chairman of

the University Grants Commission,

professor Aluwihare joined on video chat

through skype from UK to enlighten

students on the importance of higher

education in and outside Sri Lanka and their responsibilities to the country and the world afterwards.

This was followed by a presentation on the application process and tips on selecting a suitable university

by Miss Yoshani De Silva, a Sri Lankan national PhD student from university of Toronto.

Later, Dr. Ranga Rodrigo, senior treasurer and staff advisor for the Rotaract Club also expressed his

views and concerns with regard to graduates studies abroad.

The session then went on to the most important section, live skype chat with students engaged in higher

education in U.S. and Canada. Two panels consisting of five graduate students were engaged in a

discussion with the audience for 45 minutes each on their experiences. The audience was given the

opportunity to direct questions to the panel. The participants for the skype session were as follows.

Skype session 1:

Gayan Gunawardane MBA, Texas

Sashika Makandura - Mech Eng, California

Saliya Ekanayake - CSE, Indiana

Ruwan Janapriya - CS, Indiana

Eran Chinthaka – CS

Skype session 2:

Oshani Seneviratne - CS, MIT

Dayan Wickramaratne - Chem Eng,

UCLA

Ajith Ranabahu - CSE, Indiana

Primal Wijesekera - CS, Vancouver

Sanjeewa Herath - ECE, Montreal

There was an attendance of around 70

students and there were a lot of positive

feedback on the session as it was seen by

the students as a refreshing change in the

way of conducting such sessions.

Other News

FIRST MEETING FOR THE FRESHERS

The very first meeting for the newly entered batch (2010) was held on 23 September 2010. This was the

first meeting for them after a wonderful orientation. The success of the orientation was very much evident

as the club witnessed a participation of around 100 new members.

The president Rtr. Dilina Fernando welcomed all the prospective members to the club and they were

given an inner view about the Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa and what they can gain and what

they should give back to the society. A number of fun activities were organized which helped the

newcomers to’ be at home’ .

T.R.R. RAJAN 20/20 CRICKET CARNIVAL

The T.R.R. Rajan 20/20 Cricket Carnival was held for the eight successive year, on Sunday , the 17th of

October. This was organized in memory of late Past President Rtn. T.R.R. Rajan. The carnival was held

at the Nittawela Play Grounds, Kandy.

A team of six led by Rtr. Asanka Seller; from Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa played in this

fantastic event. They enjoyed the fun filled tournament and had so many unforgettable memories to bring

back to Colombo.

Editors note

I thank all the Rotaractors for supporting me by providing information and assisting me in writing and

editing this newsletter .Most of all I thank all the fellow Rotaractors for their active participation for the

events that were held in September-October 2010. Hope we can continue our efforts for the future events

as well.

Editor : Rtr .Gayashan Fernando