By Anna Andersson and Pontus Fridheimer
Stockholm, 01 March, (Asiantribune.com): The twelve sttudents who visited Sri Lanka recently expressed the hope "”All of us together can make the world a better place.” The students from Sweden helped a school in Bentota along with two of their teachers Anna Holmlin and Monikar Linder. While on tour they combined lectures and actual observations of peole and things in Sri Lanka, visiting temples and museums. They were able to assist the school in numerous ways and raise funds also bakng cookies, selling them at the school caferetia and organizing discos. Fun time was had by all according to the group who visited Sri Lanka.
Swedish students and teachers who visited Sri Lanka
Here is their story:
At Mörby School, Danderyd, we got an offer to do some charitable work in a global setting, as opted by the students. We were twelve youth who took up this unique opportunity. With the leadership of our two ambitious teachers; Anna Holmlin and Monika Linder, we started our project.
The lectures varied between lessons on how people live in poverty the world over, films in this connection and visits to museums, temples, etc. A great deal of time between lessons was spent on finding ways of collecting money.
We baked cookies which we sold at the school cafeteria, organized a disco for the youth and did various other things. The money collected has been deposited in our account and all the money will be sent to a school in Sri Lanka, namely, Gomate Darmapala in Bentota with whom we have had regular contacts during the whole project, through our contact person, Nandasena Kodipelli.
Our wish was to travel to Sri Lanka and donate the money collected on a first hand basis and above all, to meet all the people and see the school. We had the financial ability to travel there with our stipend for Spring 2007. Unfortunately, because of the unstable situation in Sri Lanka, we were advised by the Swedish authorities not to travel there.
Playing volley ball at the school grounds
Time went by; we continued our studies and went on our own ways. At that point none of us had the hope of traveling to Sri Lanka.
At the end of September, 2007 we received an unexpected letter from Anna Holmlin, that the Swedish Scouts had recently made a trip to Sri Lanka and that the situation had improved. At the end we left for Sri Lanka on 17th November after a lot of negotiations, including officials of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Stockholm who encouraged us to go ahead with the project.
On the day of our first visit, the students were having their National Examination but we were welcomed with a fantastic bouquet of flowers. During our visit, we played volleyball which is the national sport of Sri Lanka and baseball with the Sri Lankan students, attended classes and watched a dance show. We also gave them gifts which we bought in Sri Lanka. A ceremony was held and we gave them three computers, three monitors, one modem with one year’s internet facility, one printer, one TV, one DVD player, twenty five books for the library as well as a volley ball signed by us and a net.
It was a wonderful feeling to see how happy all the children and the teachers were in spite of their unstable situation and we left for our hotel with great content. We wish to thank all those who helped us to reach our goal and those who are striving for a continued global responsibility.
All of us together can make the world a better place.
- Asian Tribune -
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