Randombe School part of nationwide school rebuilding project
(Colombo, Sri Lanka, 5 December 2005) - A primary school destroyed in the Tsunami will reopen as a completely rebuilt model school at a ceremony next week. The Randombe Junior School, located in Ambalangoda, in the Galle District, will be officially dedicated on 8 December at 9:45 a.m. The dedication is the first of planned 25 schools being rebuilt by the Rotary clubs of Sri Lanka. The Tsunami completely destroyed 92 schools and damaged a further 90 others leaving a total of 85,000 students and 3,400 teachers without schools after the disaster.
The ceremony will be attended by senior leaders from Rotary International, local Rotary club members who directed the project, representatives of the overseas donors, North Devon Schools in the UK, Ministry of Education representatives and other project partners. Schoolchildren, parents, school officials and other supporters will also be on hand for the dedication. The rebuilding project, called Schools Re-awakening, is spearheaded by Rotary Sri Lanka in cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank and the Sri Lanka Ministry of Education.
The ceremony will open with the unveiling of a specially- commissioned monument with a threefold dedication. The monument is in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the tsunami, in celebration of those who survived; and in gratitude to those special people who helped build the new school.
Randombe Junior School, a primary and secondary school with 18 teachers and 264 students, will open for classes when the school year starts in January. The schools are being built to meet government standards, and have been upgraded to provide all modern facilities including well-equipped libraries, state-of-the-art computer centres, gymnasiums and science laboratories.
Rotary Sri Lanka was one of the first organizations that offered to participate in a massive school rebuilding effort set forth by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Education. Twenty-five schools across the country were assigned to Rotary for rebuilding. Funding for the estimated US$12 million project has been provided by Rotary clubs around the world and The Rotary Foundation, with a major contribution from StandardChartered Bank. The pledges received up to date exceed US$10 million.
The project is also supported by Microsoft who have provided the software for the Computer Centres and who will also handle the curriculum for the next three years. They will provide intensive training to teachers and assist in the teaching of all students. In addition, 'Room to Read,' an US-based organization, will provide books for the school libraries, and the American Red Cross will donate the sewerage and sanition systems for all the schools.
A second model school, Al-Aqsa Vidyalaya is expected to be completed in early December. This primary and secondary grade school located in Pottuvil in Eastern Sri Lanka serves 504 students. Work on several other schools is also progressing on schedule and many are expected to be completed in time for the new school year.
Founded in 1905 in Chicago, Rotary is a volunteer service organization with a worldwide membership of 1.2 million businesspeople and professionals who belong to 33,000 clubs in nearly 170 countries.
CONTACT: Dion Schoorman at 94-714-221177 or Howard Chang