01st February 2007 was a day of excitement for the children and teachers at the Rathanasara Maha Vidyalaya in Kahawe, as it opened the doors of its first computer room. Having waited for this moment for months with much anticipation, it was indeed celebrated in style. A traditional band parade welcomed the guests of honour, Mr Stewart Ritchie and his wife Mrs Heather Ritchie from the street onto the school premises where the students gathered on either side of the road in delight as they applauded together. 

Upon hoisting the school flag by Rathanasara School’s principal Mr Vijitha Yapa, along with the guests and FoG’s founder/trustee Mr Kushil Gunasekera, the crowd was lead to the computer room for the most awaited moment. Mr Stewart Ritchie did the honours and lead the students and teachers into the room where the students and teachers gathered to take a glimpse of the new modern computers, kindly donated by Walt Disney and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida and Ms Margaret Paterson and the Turwick Parochial Church Council, of which they all had a turn in experimenting with.

The children and the staff of the Kahawa Rathanasara School could not stop smiling. It is not always that a less privileged school such as theirs is blessed with such a facility where disadvantaged children have access to computers. It is a gift of knowledge and a step forward in empowering children of skill and talent and enhancing their learning abilities.

‘It is an exciting day for us as we are given the opportunity to have our own computer room which has been a blessing to the students. They can now expand their computing skills which will no doubt provide them with better opportunities in the future,’ commented Mr Yapa.

According to Mr Gunasekera ‘It was a dream come true for most of these rural schools to be blessed with computer training owing to the waves of compassion making their future look that much brighter’.

Special acknowledgement needs to be made of the sponsors such as Highgate School (UK), Mr David McEwan and staff of Transocean (Scotland) and Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund of Queensland (Australia) for their magnanimous donation to construct the computer centre, whilst Ms Margaret Paterson and the Turwick Parochial Church Council (UK) and Walt Disney and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida Inc,.(USA) for providing the much needed computers for the school.

‘I salute all the donors who have reached out in making such an important facility unfold which otherwise may deprive many of them in accessing computer knowledge,’ said Mr Gunasekera.

To conclude the day, a special concert was organized where the children displayed their dancing and singing talents to entertain the crowd. This combined with a fine display of food treats indeed made it a successful and fun-filled day all-in-all.

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