A Wish Upon A Star – “Intellect” Phase 1
“Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to answer all questions.”
~William Allin~
Intelligent, brain-power, wisdom… Do any of you think these things are only in the minds of the rich, who have the monetary power to attend a decent school? According to me, it has always been a huge NO. This is where “Intellect – 2016” steps in to prove the opinion of the majority on education is WRONG.
Not long ago, a few Rotaractors got together and formed a committee to initiate a larger scale project called “Grama Prabodhaya”, having the intention to lend a helping hand to those who are in need in our country. Hence, they found a nice and calm village in Monaragala district called Ranugalla, and decided it is the best place to proclaim the concepts of this project to all the human beings. Though this was planned as one large project, the committee has decided to have it in several phases as the village has many issues to be resolved. As the initial phase, “Intellect – 2016” kept its first step on last Saturday, the 1st of October, 2016.
“Intellect” committee did not want to just go to the Ranugalla Kanishta Vidyalaya – the only school which has only up to grade 11 in the Ranugalla village – and teach the students without letting them know the true meaning of what they do. Therefore, Rtr. Tharindu Suraj, Rtr. Matheesha Abeysekara and myself did a motivational session as the first thing in the morning for the students from grade 8 to 11.
The intention was to let them know the value of passing GCE Advanced Level examination rather than stopping their education right after Ordinary Level examination. What we showed them was how we managed to reach where we are while facing many obstacles came to our lives, despite the famous stories of the “so called Heroes” in the world.
“Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
~Steve Jobs~
The motivational program went for about 3 hours which included a rocket-making game and several math games. The most beautiful part of that session was, our Rotaractors could witness every student’s hand raising up at once for one special statement – “Raise your hand if you are willing to sit for the GCE Advanced Level examination even if it is the hardest hurdle you will ever face in your life, with no doubt.” Yes! We succeeded in the most difficult session by giving those kids a hope of life, making them believe about their dreams, and most of all, letting them know we will always be there for them.
With hearts full of happiness, our Rotaractors started their next session – the mathematics seminar targeted for grade 10 and 11 students. That was not just a typical seminar on Mathematics, but a supervised learning session which let the students work on a paper on their own at first and then the discussion about the paper. This session went till Sunday evening and witnessed a better conclusion than expected, because of the immense dedication of Rtr. Matheesha Abeysekara, Rtr. Kaveesha Munasinghe, Rtr. Dinuka Kavinda, Rtr. Anushka Nuwan and Rtr. Rusiru Gurusinghe.
All these Rotaractors sacrificed not only their whole weekend for the sessions, but also every bit of their free time arranging papers, preparing the sessions, arranging transport and many other things. With the eagerness in all of us that was flowing out to help someone in need, we could conclude the very first step in “Intellect – 2016” on the 1st and the 2nd of October, 2016 in style.
