I had the rare opportunity to attend and appreciate the annual book donation programme of the Dehiwala – Ratmalana Development Foundation and the Lalith Athulathmudali  Commemorative Foundation. The programme kept its promise to over 1000 children in the divisional secretariat division of Maha Oya, in addition to their regular book donation programme to 3000 students in Dehiwala- Mt. Lavinia area. The organizers have supported the children of Maha Oya, since 2005. 

The initial book donation programme I was told, was launched by Late. Mr. Athulathmudali in the mid1980’s when he was a MP and a Minister, with the intention of helping 10,000 children from low income families in the district of Colombo.. It has been a low key event even then. The intention was to provide all the writing books and stationery items to school going children so that they will enjoy their right to education. Although text books are provided free of charge from the Government, Mr. Athulathmudali knew that without exercise books and other stationery items children of low income families were at the risk of dropping out of school. He knew that poverty was a wicked factor that stood in the way of children’s education. After the unfortunate demise of Mr. Athulathmudali the book donation programme also came to an end in 1992. It was given a new lease of life in 1996 by Mr. Kesaralal Gunasekera (MP). The programme has grown tremendously since then. Today, the book donation programme reaches about 3,000 children not only from Dehiwala and Ratmalana but also from the bordering areas of Kotte, Kesbewa and Moratuwa. The allocation of the donation for the schools is based on the student population and a certain percentage is given to the needy schools that make requests. In the recent years, the book donation programme has been able to oblige the requests made by the education authorities from Maha Oya area, and regularly support the children from low income groups.

The Reach and effort
The Book Donation programme is aimed at helping 95% of the poorest of the poor households. But the numbers are growing every year, as a vast number of poverty stricken families find it a burden to send their children to school. As food prices and prices of other basic items soar, children’s education become the first victim. Children are coerced to drop out of school and start supporting the family income. 

Packs of books were made by the dedicated staff of the Foundation in Dehiwala. The lorry load of books had left Colombo the previous night at 7 pm. The organizing committee left for Ampara around 8 am , broke journey in Mahiyangana, spent the night   and arrived in Maha-oya  the following morning.  Children from about 14 schools in the Zone had arrived at one location for the ceremony. 

When the team arrived at the Keppetipola Maha Vidyalaya, the children, parents and teachers have already arrived there by 7.30 am, eager to receive packs of stationery. Rows of children stood to receive the organizing committee with sheaves of betel.  I was told that the  school  was clearly lacking in many ways to provide a holistic education. There weren’t enough teachers to begin with , it is an established fact that  some of the Colombo schools have a surplus of qualified teachers. It was clear that when standards of urban schools were raised, the standards of rural schools are being lowered invariably. 

There is a rush to enrol children in school which have more facilities and this poses a threat to small schools and they may even run the risk of being closed down permanently, due to non availability of human and material resources.It is heartening to note that a handful of brave and dedicated teachers stay on in these schools to provide a genuine service.  

Complete packs of books and stationery according to the book list recommended by the Ministry of Education were handed. The Foundation raised over 3 million rupees for this years’ project. The interest among children to learn and that they have a fundamental right to receive an education made the organizing committee cater to the growing number of requests each year.  It was a happy occasion for all. Among the recipients were some Veddah (indigenous) children who were keen to   receive a formal education. “It is such a relief for us that our children receive this complete parcel of books.” Said one parent. “We cannot afford to give them all the books they need. We somehow ask them to manage with one or two books” He added with heartfelt gratitude in his voice.

The Maha Oya Division in Ampara district has been affected by the war for many years and also natural disasters like floods in the latter part of 2012.  The Foundation has made many exceptions during such times and have even helped 100 families who were affected by the floods with dry rations at the request of the Divisional Secretary during the past . In addition to this, the Foundation also has  built three houses for three poverty stricken families whose houses were destroyed in the floods. The benefactors were Sri Lankans living in Australia. 

The families were mostly those who were old and sickly and unable to fend for themselves. This year the Foundations promised three more houses for the poor, the Divisional Secretary was extremely happy that three more poor families were going to be benefited. 

Teachers pay facilities Fees of Children
This year, the Foundation visited another primary school in Padiyatalawa  named Pallegama Vidyalaya  which had about 80 children and most parents could not afford to provide writing material for their children. In a country where a certain section could pay as much as Rs  30,000 to see an international artist perform live, these parents could not even pay the annual facilities fee of 300 rupees. 

At a time when certain Principals  are alleged of minting money to enrol students in Colombo schools, we were touched by the fact that the Principal Mr HB Karunapala  and the dedicated members of staff were contributing from their own salaries to pay the facilities fees of the students!!

Free Education; 
Free to Leave?
This visit, made me question once again what we as a country mean , when we claim that we have ‘Free Education’? What is really free about it? It’s often not free to enroll, or to stay in school. It seems only free for any child to leave school.  Parents in this area, like in many other rural areas simply cannot feed their children let alone buy the books, stationery, shoes, and school bags for their children. Without proper nutrition how can children learn? What absolute poverty does in situations like this is that parents feel compelled to remove their children from school and send them to work. 

At the Centre and Provincial Level, issuing text books, vouchers for school uniform material and allocating teachers and building laboratories, may seem like great contributions to the field of education, but if children do not come to school because they have nothing to eat or because they have no books to write on, the authorities should really tackle the socio-economic issues before anything else. Especially providing a nutritious meal MUST be considered.

Foundations to serve the people
I don’t think anyone has taken stock of the number of ‘Foundations’ set up by ,established as well as emerging politicians. The popular understanding is that these are the ‘best’ ways to receive money from different sources. A majority of these foundations use the monies to provide hand- outs for the voters in their electorate during elections and hardly does any service to society. 

But when a Foundation goes way out of their geographical location to serve people, expecting nothing in return, I think we ought to applaud them. The two foundations in this venture are such, because they seem to be founded on values and principles.

Following the strong belief that ‘the war against poverty can only be won through education’ the people of these two Foundations continue to deliver a yeoman service to the nation by keeping children in school and helping them to receive an education.