The Tale of True Champions – Beyond Boundaries - Grama Prabodhaya

Rtr. Sumadhurie Hansika,

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships”

– Michael Jordan

Our Rotaractors gathered together to help the volleyball team of Ranugalla Kanishta Vidyalaya, Monaragala as a sub-part of the project Grama Prabodhaya. Those students have only a very few options when it comes to sports facilities due to lack of space, equipment, and the number of students. Somehow they have managed to form a good strong volleyball team under a well-talented coach, Mr. Lakmal, who is one of the primary teachers in the school.

It is amazing how they have managed to build such a firm volleyball team since they have only 31 students in grades 10 and 11. One of the main challenges they have faced was the lack of sports equipment. So we, the committee of the project Grama Prabodhaya decided to donate them some volleyball equipment which includes volleyball net and a few volleyballs. We were more than happy when the “XIPHOS eSports” team volunteered to donate the above mentioned sports equipment and for their participation during the event. After some planning, we decided that we will be hosting a motivational and a supporting camp to help them with much-needed knowledge and motivation, and to sum it all up a friendly volleyball match between the Rotaractors and the Volleyball team of Ranugalla Kanishta Vidyalaya. This became the concept of the new sub-project, “Beyond Boundaries.”

9th of April, 2017, it was indeed a very hot day with the Sun rising a lot nearer than the other days. Yet, the Rotaractors never fall back in such situations, and also the members of the school volleyball team have the same spirit of rising above in any condition. That day started with the motivational and support camp which was hosted by Rtr. Savindu Herath and Rtr. Achini Herath which was mainly divided into three parts which included the Motivational Session, Health and Food Awareness session and most importantly a session on Injuries and Medical Knowledge.

The foremost idea behind the Motivational program which was conducted by Rtr. Savindu Herath was to motivate the students of the school to reach the top in sports, education, and as well as in life ignoring the fact that they have very little resources to work with, above all showing them fascinating paths which can lead them to a successful life. After that, the awareness session on Health and Food was started and conducted by Rtr. Achini Herath. The main focus of this session was to guide them towards good health and food habits and teach them the value of good food habits when it comes to sports, especially volleyball. Finally, the session on injuries and medical knowledge which was again conducted by Rtr. Savindu Herath was to give them the much-needed insight about accidents which may occur while playing and how to treat and prevent them.

After these 3 sessions, we had a little chat with some of the students and we realized that they have gained a lot from these sessions, and that was the utmost goal we all desired to achieve with “Beyond Boundaries.” The most awaited latter part was the friendly volleyball match between the Rotaractors and the school team.

It didn’t take much time for us to realize that all the rumors about the school team being very strong and many other schools rejected playing matches with them because they were scared of the team of Ranugalla Kanishta Vidyalaya, were true and they were all over us. More than anything we were surprised how a team can be this good even when they have a very little amount of facilities.

The result was obvious and we, the Rotaractors lost for 2 – 0. As a strength, even their coach played along with the team of Rotaractors, but still the players of the school team were talented and trained enough to defeat their own coach.

The players of the school volleyball team have proven the saying that Arthur C. Clarke has once said;

“The only way to determine the boundaries of the possible is to go beyond these boundaries.”

 These kids are the meaning of true talent and we know that they deserve much more than this life has offered to them. As Rotaractors, we think we gave them what we can give at the best of our abilities and we gave them the knowledge and most importantly hope, which will guide them to be humble champions and remain in that title.