Mission in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Our partnership with Janavijaya Foundation is a huge factor in our success by providing generous organizational support in Sri Lanka. Especially, our thank goes to Ven. Rajawelle Subhuti Thero, Maharagama, Sri Lanka for his effect to distribute our books to underprivileged children.
 
Learn more about our partners
Special Projects in Sri Lanka
Now in progress:
-
Eye Glasses to villagers in rural Sri Lanka!  Mobile eye clinics!
-
Teen Pregnancy, Drug, Alchol and Breast Cancer awareness workshops.
We need your support. You can donate your used eye glasses. We are ready to send mobile eye clinics to village to village. Soon we will be in Sri Lanka to visit Anuradhapura. Donate! |
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages, but an uneasy calm exists between the official government and Tamil terrorists.
The children who are living in Sri Lanka horrified their life by a raging civil war that is going on for several decades. Biggest problem in Sri Lanka is the most of the people in North and East mainly use Tamil Language and South and West predominantly use SinhalaLanguage.
  Since the school curriculum design today with medium of study in schools is either Sinhala or Tamil depending on the native language. In this situation created these Sinhalese and Tamil people divided further more from their language barriers.
According to 2007 World Bank report 23% of population live below national poverty line and also urban population only 15% of 19 millions populations. Mainly children who are living in rural areas don’t have the same luxury like city children such as library facilities or good school with better facilities. Therefore rural underprivileged children have less resource than children who are living in cities since majority live in rural areas.
Common language is needed to effect deep community commitment to a new concept or practice for an identified people or segment. In this case it might be English. As the world gets even flatter due to the Internet, tourism, and international relations, English is becoming a more vital tool in everyone’s daily life. After all the havoc and unrest of more than two decades, “English” could play a pivotal role and will be the link language in bringing people together from all ethnic backgrounds in Sri Lanka.
Rural schools have only basic facilities and mostly understaffed. Urban school attract most of the qualified teachers because difficulties in transportation, accommodation and the lack of basic facilities in rural schools. But Sri Lanka continued commitment to free education has been enhanced by extending its scope to include the provision of free textbooks and free school uniforms.
Also, we believed if English is introduced to underprivileged children at young age, which we expected to create their courage, enthusiasm and motivation to build- up their confidence, with other ethnic group as well as preparing the passage to the critical foundation for improving their access to education, computer literacy and the Internet as well as social status. We believe that small libraries with English children’s books can be motivating children for reading and be valuable learning resource to widen their knowledge. In particular, libraries, which target ESL learning in school settings, appear to be a promising approach for complementing the existing formal schooling system.
2009 book donation - Technical
College
Anuradhapura
  
  
  
Sri Lanka embassy in US
|
Sri Lanka ambassador to US, Mr. Jaliya Wickramasuriya
|
Sri Lanka ambassador to US, Mr. Jaliya Wickramasuriya
|
Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Sarasi and Mr. Jalia Wicramasuriya
|
|
Former ambassador to US, Mr. Bernard Gunetilake
|
Keep Reading Foundation, that fosters educational development; promote reading and the importance of English as a universal language among disadvantaged children in the not only tsunami affected areas but also other rural areas in Sri Lanka.
The true causes of unrest are sometimes difficult to determine. Frequently, there are a mixture of political alliances, economic differences, ethnic feuds, religious differences and others. Our quest is to solve these differences through English language and give good education to rural disadvantage children. Our goal is to promote reading and the importance of English as a universal language among disadvantaged children in the rural world. Not only does Keep Reading Foundation donate books to establish libraries, but also help restore their confidence of achieving a higher education, a dream that every child should have when they grow up. These libraries aim to teach underprivileged students, skills for success in their own futures by specifically introducing them English language at an early age. It also tries to pass important virtues to every child such as peace, tolerance, and respect and hope that had been repeatedly shattered by the civil wars. We use education, and specifically English,
as a link language, as a vehicle for bringing students together from all ethnic backgrounds.
Future Goals
- For 2009 to create 100 mini libraries.
- We seek your support to officially launch its first-ever national campaign aimed at promoting early childhood literacy among rural families and to declare one month in each year as a “Reading Month” in Sri Lanka. The campaign includes making a parent training video and public service announcements through TV programs featuring television personalities (any well known, educated people from Sri Lanka).
- Get closer relationship between different ethnic groups by having English as link language.
- Create a video presentation to promote English reading and send it to all the schools in the countries through relevant authorities.
|
