Sarvodaya – Day 3
After an adventurous day at the eco hotel on day 3, it was time to experience yet another adventure at Sarvodaya, a most recognized eco village of Srilanka. The team gathered at around 6:30 am to discuss on the questionnaire specific to the Sarvodaya. As the place was quiet far from Weligama, we had to leave a bit early at around 7 am having a light breakfast at the hotel.
The weather was not that hot compared to the previous day and this helped to keep our energy high for the big day despite travelling for 2.5 hrs to reach the destination. The eco village was located in a small town called Kaluthara, where Sarvodaya ran many projects related to housing, education for physically challenged children and so on which infact made it difficult for us to find the eco village related to the scope of project. Mrs. Kamala, an assistant of Mr Bandula Senadeera was very helpful in guiding the driver over phone about finding the eco village. Finally at around 10:30 am, we reached Sarvodaya eco village which was located between the green hilly region, a perfect place to carry out a environmental friendly project. Sarvodaya carried out a housing project building 55 houses for tsunami affected families as a part of this project. As soon as we reached the eco village we were greeted by Mrs Kamala and an eco village representative. There was an other team of students from United states who had also come to Sarvodaya for their study purpose. After getting to know each other, Mrs Kamala gave an introductory presentation briefing about Sarvodaya, its objectives and its projects. Later Mrs Kamala and team took us to visit the first site, which was a pre nursery school. There we met small little cute kids in the age range of 3-5 years. We distributed the pens, pencils and bubble game packs brought by Charles among the kids. It was a great feeling to see the kids get overjoyed playing with those bubbles, singing rhymes and dancing. The learning environment was really motivating with the facilities like computer room, clean open classroom which had attracted 17 small kids as students from local community. Later we were taken around the medical facilities where the doctor visited every Monday, IT facilities which was being used by the younger generation of the village which served the purpose of education, usage of internet and so on. We also visited the library which was very well maintained and definitely inspired anyone with its ambience. We are later taken to one of the house built by Sarvodaya. A 2 bedroom house, with facilities like solar, rain water storage tank with filtering facility, small garden looked as an ideal place for dwelling. The last session was a question and answer session where Mrs Kamala and team helped to clarify various questions the team had with respect to infrastructure, finance, energy and waste management and social or community infrastructure. The session was very informative and the Sarvodaya members were very helpful in providing the necessary information relevant to our project. The session came to end by around 1 pm after which we headed towards Weligama. On the way we visited a large Budda statue for some photo session and finally reached Weligama at around 3:30 pm.
The weather was not that hot compared to the previous day and this helped to keep our energy high for the big day despite travelling for 2.5 hrs to reach the destination. The eco village was located in a small town called Kaluthara, where Sarvodaya ran many projects related to housing, education for physically challenged children and so on which infact made it difficult for us to find the eco village related to the scope of project. Mrs. Kamala, an assistant of Mr Bandula Senadeera was very helpful in guiding the driver over phone about finding the eco village. Finally at around 10:30 am, we reached Sarvodaya eco village which was located between the green hilly region, a perfect place to carry out a environmental friendly project. Sarvodaya carried out a housing project building 55 houses for tsunami affected families as a part of this project. As soon as we reached the eco village we were greeted by Mrs Kamala and an eco village representative. There was an other team of students from United states who had also come to Sarvodaya for their study purpose. After getting to know each other, Mrs Kamala gave an introductory presentation briefing about Sarvodaya, its objectives and its projects. Later Mrs Kamala and team took us to visit the first site, which was a pre nursery school. There we met small little cute kids in the age range of 3-5 years. We distributed the pens, pencils and bubble game packs brought by Charles among the kids. It was a great feeling to see the kids get overjoyed playing with those bubbles, singing rhymes and dancing. The learning environment was really motivating with the facilities like computer room, clean open classroom which had attracted 17 small kids as students from local community. Later we were taken around the medical facilities where the doctor visited every Monday, IT facilities which was being used by the younger generation of the village which served the purpose of education, usage of internet and so on. We also visited the library which was very well maintained and definitely inspired anyone with its ambience. We are later taken to one of the house built by Sarvodaya. A 2 bedroom house, with facilities like solar, rain water storage tank with filtering facility, small garden looked as an ideal place for dwelling. The last session was a question and answer session where Mrs Kamala and team helped to clarify various questions the team had with respect to infrastructure, finance, energy and waste management and social or community infrastructure. The session was very informative and the Sarvodaya members were very helpful in providing the necessary information relevant to our project. The session came to end by around 1 pm after which we headed towards Weligama. On the way we visited a large Budda statue for some photo session and finally reached Weligama at around 3:30 pm.
Later in the evening, the team spent time on discussing the project issues, preparing the daily report, comfirming the appointment for Samakhanda and speaking to Mr Jagath, the hotel owner about his stories on Tsunami. Jagath is a very inspiring friendly person and his heroics during the tsunami and a contribution towards Srilankan society is highly motivating. I personally was very satisfied for spending the whole day in a more meaningful way and the memoirs of this day would be cherished forever. Its now time for a glass of beer and go to bed early so that we come out more energetic for an other exciting journey tomorrow. Au Revoir!!