This is a fundraiser project conceived by Altru Circle to fundraise to provide a daily meal & other necessities for 120 underprivileged students in the identified school (Vidyaartha, Awissawella) for a minimum period of a month.
This cause was prioritised due to the significant student dropout numbers in rural schools due to lack of meals and the inability of parents and guardians to provide the children with their basic school necessities to continue as the current economic conditions of Sri Lanka are the most difficult for everyone, and especially this economically challenged class.
Most students drop out after 9th grade as that is compulsory according to the Sri Lankan law, all children must go to school till grade 9 (age 14) at which point they can choose to continue their education or drop out and engage in apprenticeship for a job or farming. However, some drop out even earlier or continue doing labour work while attending school in their spare hours.
Furthermore, the identified 120 children contain a large percentage of children with no parents or come from families with zero income and survive on the bare minimum produced on their lands i.e. roots, coconuts etc.
Altru Circle intends to plan the pilot project with a 3-phased programme to achieve the necessary funds for the planned disbursement. The 3 phases will be followed up with a programme that will initiate breaking the dependency cycle among these students by introducing them to educational and vocational opportunities.
1st Phase
To kick off the pilot project, Altru Circle will fund uniform fabric purchases, packing and delivery logistics to provide sufficient uniform fabric for the above-selected number of students. These fabrics will provide them with enough material to make themselves up to uniforms comfortably.
2nd Phase
For this phase, we have set up a collection structure of school supplies that support students of 6 different grades starting from the 6th grade to the 12th grade. The supply structure has specific booklists and other supplies for each grade incorporated in a per-child pack format.
Donors may donate funds, donate individual items or donate an entire pack and drop them off at the partner venues where a collection box with Altru Circle branding is set up.
3rd Phase
The 3rd phase will be a series of Fringe events with a main festival event with vendors & activities that are expected to bring in the funds necessary for this project. The main organisers intend to fund part of the event cost to raise the funds and are looking toward the partners to help the programme hit necessary financial targets through this project which will bring in a CSR-based commercial value to our partners.
The recently graduated students of Vidyartha College will have the opportunity to gain valuable work experience through being involved in this event in various capacities.
As a part of the program, the main organiser intends to host a few art and cultural curated fringe events (as listed below and not limited to) alongside the Festival phase. The art pieces created from these workshops will be sold at the Festival, proceeds of which will be donated to the fundraiser. The primary components of the fringe events are expected to include the following:
- CURATED COMEDIC BRUNCH
- POTTERY WORKSHOP
- LOOKBOOK
- IMMERSIVE ART EXHIBITION
- SIP & PAINT ART WORKSHOP
- BEER & BUILD
- INDIE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
- PRE-LOVED GOODS VENDORS
- ART AUCTION
- AUCTION A CHEF
- FOOD & BEVERAGE STALLS
- OTHER SUSTAINABLE VENDORS
Goals of the Third Phase
- Daily Meals: Provide a daily meal with protein for 120 students for at least two months.
- Monthly Scholarships: Offer Rs. 5,000 per month to 20 selected students for one year, under the mentorship of assigned teachers.
About the Beneficiary School
Vidyaartha College, Kosgama Awissawella is the school identified to have 1200 students enrolled out of which some come from families in extreme poverty conditions. Due to the current cost of living increase and the food price cost increase most of these students are now facing both malnourishment and/ or having to drop out of school.
To tackle a part of this situation the teachers in the school themselves have set up a room within the school which has now been dubbed “Buth Kaamaraya”, now evolved into “Udawu Kaamaraya”. The teachers voluntarily bring an extra packet of rice with their own and leave it in this room daily, for any child that is in need.
Thus the funds raised by the festival intend to elevate morale, nutrition and some educational needs standards for a limited period through the following efforts that are divided into three phases.
- Provide sufficient uniform fabric enough for two uniforms for the identified students. (complete)
- Identify the stationery/textbook needs of students who are facing the risk of dropping out.
- This phase is divided into the following 2 segments:
- Provide a single daily main meal with an item of protein set up within the “Buth Kaamaraya”, for 120 students for a minimum of two months.
- Identify 20 students from the 120 to provide Rs. 5,000 per month per child for a year for educational purposes under the mentorship of an assigned teacher per child.
Charity Execution
Once funds reach the estimated total, the following actions will take place within 30 days of fundraising.
- Finalisation of students requiring the meal service.
- Finalisation of students requiring the educational needs list
- Finalisation of the 20 children for the monthly sponsorship for one year.
(The above will commence during the initial planning stages)
- Printing the daily meal stamp card.
- Figuring out whether meals could be cooked on school grounds or if they need to be outsourced to a service provider.
- Daily follow-up of the monthly meal provision
- Social media updates once a week.
- Quarterly updates on individual beneficiary children to their benefactor.