Reclaiming schools in Sri Lanka
by Nicole Charky
The Rotarian -- September 2009
Photography by Alyce Henson
The Schools Reawaken project rebuilt 22 coastal schools, including Dharmarama Kanishta Vidyalaya, which accommodates about 800 displaced students in the south.
W hen the tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, more than 187 coastal schools were damaged or destroyed. In the January 2006 issue, The Rotarian covered the Schools Reawaken project, for which District 3220 raised more than US$12 million to build 25 schools. The district received help from The Rotary Foundation, Rotary clubs around the world, and other organizations. As the project nears its end, 22 schools are back in service, providing for about 12,000 children affected by the tsunami. Staff photographer Alyce Henson, who covered our first story, went back this year to see the extraordinary results at five of those schools. Henson met up with Imesha Udari de Zoyza again, four years after her school was destroyed. Now a graduate of Randombe Kanishta Vidyalaya, she said, “My school is a beautiful palace.”
Get more of the story in the latest RVM: The Rotarian Video Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1