Anna Saillet, UK with SAF
Having contacted the Social Aid Foundation prior to leaving England, I arranged to spend some time visiting their home town area of Badulla to experience first hand the work which they are carrying out here.
The journey to Badulla was as beautiful as I had expected, with rolling hills and mountains in every direction covered with lush green trees clearly flourishing in this up-country area. The city itself is situated in a basin amongst the hills, and is the size of a small English town, free from the smog of the bigger cities like Colombo and Kandy, with a much calmer atmosphere in the air; I can’t understand how this place managed to stay off of the tourist track as it is amazingly beautiful.
Computer centre
The Social Aid Foundations office is situated in the city centre, in a small two storey building. Within this building they have a Computer Training Centre, a Sewing Centre (both facilities are offered free to voluntary students) and an Internet Access Centre, for which there is a small fee and which is open to the public. The students are enrolled onto the course which lasts for 6 months; on completion of the course the students have the skills to confidently undertake challenging employment opportunities, giving them a head start on other people of their age. The average age of the students is 20 years old, although there is no particular age range for joining the training programme. The course is taught for 8 hours per week, 4 practical and 4 theory, and is made up of 7 modules:
1. Basic Concepts of I.T.
2. Using Computer and managing files
3. Word processing
4. Spreadsheets
5. Databases
6. Power Point Presentations
7. Information and Communication
There are assignments to be completed for each module and essential subjects in English are also included within the course.
To date an impressive 400 students have completed the Higher Diploma in Computer Applications, and a further 700 students have successfully completed the Basic Diploma. Despite these figures, the drop-out rates are also unfortunately high due to enormous family pressures. Many families here are very poor, and are therefore unwilling to support their children to continue any type of education once they have reached the age where they are able to work, as they require extra money to support themselves and the family as a whole. This inevitably leads to numerous intelligent young people taking very poorly paid jobs, such as in shops or bus stands, or as servants in houses, to help with supporting the family; sadly the long-term benefits of a good education are often overlooked with many parents being unable to see past the here and now.
The computer training centre has 7 full time volunteers who have already completed the computer training course working within the office, increasing their skills and knowledge in I.T., and gaining valuable experience of management skills through helping with the management and organisation of the Social Aid Foundations other projects, such as the pre-schools and children’s home. In an area where good jobs are few, and competition is relatively high extra training is essential for those who wish to create a stable future for themselves within this society. The success of the centre is evident in the numbers of students who have gone on to Further Education (around 50%), and in the remaining students roughly 27% became data entry operators, 36% became teachers or lecturers in computer studies, and almost 12% became highly paid sales representatives. Under 10% have remained unemployed since completion of the course.
All of this work is being carried out by the Social Aid Foundation as a voluntary service, and there are no fees charged for the course. All of the instruction of the course is carried out by the Director of Social Aid Foundation, but he does not receive a set wage for his extremely hard work. The rent for the office alone is 12,000 Rupees per month (approx. £60), which is a significantly large amount when you consider that an average monthly wage in this area is 5,000 to 8,000 Rupees (approx. £25-40), and that the Social Aid Foundation is operated entirely on donations.
Sewing Centre
Also based within the office building is a small sewing centre, consisting of three extremely old sewing machines. At the present time sewing classes are only offered to the pre-school teachers who work for Social Aid Foundation due to the lack of funding available and the inability to pay the sewing teacher for any extra classes at this time. The sewing lessons take place 3 days per week, for a duration of 4 hours per lesson, for which the teacher requests a salary of 5000 – 8000 Rupees from S.A.F.. By teaching the pre school teachers how to sew it enables them to make the pre-school uniforms for the children in the establishment, therefore keeping the costs to a minimum, whilst still being able to provide a neat and suitable uniform for each of the children.
The SAF hopes to be able to conduct free sewing classes to the public in the near future, but at the present stage there is not sufficient funding to enable this to take place.
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