Message fromSamanthi Hewage
My name is Samanthi Hewage. I work for an organisation called AdoptSriLanka, who have been working in Sri Lanka since the tsunami in 2004. Kudawella school is an under resourced school in Southern Sri Lanka who we have partnered with Gorseland School in the UK through our TWINS Program which supports global school partnerships.
Before this link, the children had little experience or knowledge of a country other than their own. Most of the children had never used a computer as the school does not have electricity.
The first project the schools exchanged was pen friends letters. This gave the children the chance to make friends in the UK and helped increase their interest in the English language.
The icookbook project gave the children further opportunities to learn and share more information with Gorseland. The children from both schools went to the market to learn about ingredients, enjoyed practical lessons and then shared all the information with each other.
The icookbook website is now a way for the children to share information on a range of topics. The children here recently went to the harbour to gather information and photographs about the fishing industry which is so important to many of the families in the area.
They have also compared Sri Lankan and UK weddings, recipes and traditional musical instruments.
This project has given the children here an opportunity to learn many things about there own country and the UK. The children are now looking outside of their village to the wider world. The English level of the children has improved. They are very excited about their partnership with Gorseland School.
Through this joint website and the BT challenge competition the friendship between schools has strengthened.
This would not have been possible without the enthusiasm of the teachers and pupils at Gorseland School. The teachers always come up with great ideas for project exchange and BT has given full support to help develop the joint website.
As the link developed the children and teachers came to our office and were able to talk to their friends at Gorseland via webcam with the help of the Eyeball software. This was very exciting and an unforgettable thing for the children here.
The icookbook website won the BT Challenge award in 2007. The prize money awarded by BT was used to provide musical instruments and band costumes for Kudawella. Now these instruments are very helpful for the school and will also be used for the Take one tune project which is to begin in February.
The icookbook website that initially started off with food has now been expanded to share information on many different topics related to both schools communities and lifestyles. The children can compare similarities and differences on this website.
I must thank BT challenge on behalf of Kudawella School and AdoptSriLanka TWINS for their support to make this all possible. Through developing this website both schools focused on the project and have taken it forward, this has helped to strengthen their partnership and friendship.
The teachers and pupils at Kudawella are equally enthusiastic about the partnership. So I can only see this partnership developing and getting stronger in the years to come.
I wish you all a bright future.
Samanthi Hewage
Field Officer for AdoptSriLanka TWINS for Kudawella J.W. School