Just bringing into your thoughts, flowers usually get the spring, as the peak of their blooming. The bloom, we never get bored of, starts to end when the peak comes along on the final days in spring. But even if nature limits us from perceiving the beauty of its flowers in bloom, we are still able to perceive the same from those who live among us. And, that’s why those who beautify our community should be seen by us. 

The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom(1940 – 1945), Winston Churchill once said “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give ” and as for this quote, as volunteers we have that urge to make the lives of people more meaningful. As the Community Service Avenue of Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura “For Them to Blossom” is a recurring project being carried out which was initially launched in the Rotaract year 2018/19 and in 2022, this being the fourth  consecutive effectuate.

The project “For Them to Blossom 4.0”, in its fourth consecutive year making a great impact on various communities focused mainly on lending a helping hand to the marginalized communities residing in Sri Lanka and on supporting school children in improving their English linguistic skills in order to enhance the literacy level this year. Our project was operated in such a tedious period of COVID-19 pandemic and Economic Crisis of Sri Lanka. 

The execution of the project which was purely intended to aid many struggling lives with vulnerability was not that easy because we were going through times of toughest luck in Sri Lanka’s economy. However we are humbly delightful to have the project successfully concluded, being strongly motivated to support those who were in need. 

Among the various communities who are true victims of societal marginalization we selected to support Elders and Down syndrome having children as the beneficiaries of the 1st phase. 

The first phase of For Them to Blossom 4.0 was organized with the aim of covering a wide range from dry rations, personal hygienic products were donated to City Home for the Elders – Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, Salina Alwis Elders Home – Piliyandala, Prithipura Communities – Wattala.

With immense support of our generous donors, guidance of many individuals, donations were collected by our team and we visited the aforementioned centres on the 11^th of March 2022.

We reached a community of 220+ individuals who need to be served and cared for. Donations worth Rs. 160, 000 were distributed in terms of dry rations, personal hygiene products and essential medical supplies with the helping hand of our partners and generous donors which pave the way to energize our young volunteers to serve these communities with love and affection.

According to nature’s plans we are different. We are slightly or unsightly unique inside or outside with respect to our reflection. This cannot be denied for the child populations in every nation regardless of borders among them. In some special cases a few or more children may seem to have shown signs impairments but this never means anyone to call “Disability” in terms of them. 

With the successfully completed 1st phase, we targeted differently- abled children for the betterment of their life under the 2nd phase. As the second step of the project all we wanted was to draw a smile on their little faces. 

Specially designed educational sensory toys worth more than Rs. 50,000 were donated to create indoor play areas for 200+ Autistic kids at Sumaga Autism Center – Kelaniya and Sri Chandrasekara Special School – Horethuduwa to uplift their inner talent and creativity. 

Elevating English & IT Literacy Up…

Nowadays, the Education sector is evaluated based on various parameters. English and Information Communication Technology Literacies are the main parameters of interest used in assessment of the sector. Thus it is required to take necessary actions to keep English Literacy along with Information Communication Technology literacy being focused by education institutes including schools, universities and other academia. 

With this surrounding from the 3rd Phase we attempted to bring a novel sphere to ensure quality education of Sri Lanka which we focused on to improve the English & Information Communication Technology literacy of school children. According to statistics from Rotary, more than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. 

With that situation we strode forward to improve the English literacy of students in Minu/Asgiriya Sudarshana Kanishta Vidyalaya by initiating an English unit and donating a computer with the immense help of our partners. As a community service avenue, we thoroughly believe that our effort strengthens their keenness to learn.

It is with immense pride and humbleness that we can mention that all the educational tools required for the learning activities were created by our own organizing committee members in such a creative manner. 

Furthermore, we created a mini English library inside the classroom. We donated English books to read, books with activities, which will assist the students to improve their knowledge.

By the completion of 3rd Phase, we realize this phase is worth more than the amount we spent by seeing how happy these little people are, which is the best part of being a volunteer. and we are glad to state that we were able to make a positive impact of social awareness about the equality of quality education with this emerging step. 

Apart from having three successful conclusions of the project phases, executing the 4th Phase, which was the last phase, was again challenging for us. By this period, the country was showing major signs of political instability. But the team didn’t hesitate to carry out the execution despite the inconsistency we had been facing personally. 

As the first part of phase 4, we conducted an educational program for the children who are vulnerable for alcohol and other types of drugs at Makola Certified School. We wanted to educate them regarding the types of drugs, their impact on health and how to stay away from those misleading drugs.

It was conducted on the 20th of March 2022 by Mr. Sugath Pathirana from Healthy Lanka nonprofit organization, registered with the NGO Secretariat. It was really an impactful and inspirational session for the children as they mentioned that they learnt a lot from the discussion with the facilitator. 

We took our 4th phase a bit further with the sole intention to provide necessary career guidance for the drug victims who are marginalized and neglected with discrimination attached to them. 

With the immense support of Alumex PLC, we were able to give a vocational training for 37 drug victims at Bethesda Reincarnation Center, Negombo. We believe that this step of our team will create their career ladder more strongly after leaving the rehabilitation center as matured and responsible persons.

Eventually, another successful project by Community Service Avenue of RACUSJ was concluded during a strenuous time period for all Sri Lankans. Throughout this project, the best thing we got from the entirety of the project “For Them to Blossom 4.0” is tears of happiness by looking back the way we came so far with thousands of ups and downs we encountered in unexpected ways.

As passionate youth who have embraced true meaning of volunteerism to the bones and blood, veins and nerves, we are delighted to say that we would be able to make these beautiful souls’ lives better from what we give by proving the quote “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give ”. Even though our strong desire to see the full blooms within society is our utmost inspiration, making lives in need of supportive hand to bloom is absolutely up to every able-bodies’ shoulders, not only volunteers. Thereby we encourage you to grasp that the mission of blooming those lives is as more effective antidote as to overcome marginalization. With that Ultimately, another successful blooming of FOR THEM TO BLOSSOM 4.0 came to an end with hope of returning in the next Rotaract year.

Petals in Flowers, Blossoms of Souls will Never hide Beauty They Cope……!!!

Written by Rtr. Sachith Gomez and Rtr. Chamodi Alwis