Students of The Overseas School of Colombo Light up Killinochchi

“Two million people in Sri Lanka still live in the dark. I will initiate a plan to change that” was the thought of Chayan De Silva, a student of the Overseas School of Colombo. He says that the idea was mooted because of regular blackouts in the country due to heavy reliance of coal power plants. His study patterns were disturbed by these power cuts and this made him reflect of the plight of people who had to live and study in the dark daily. He is a member of the Housing and Habitat service project of the school and this became the forum for him to bring his plans of providing low cost solar electricity and lighting to the underprivileged families, into action.

Along with Amanda Amarawansha, the student leader of this service group and the other members, Chayan set up a prototype system within the school for testing purposes. The test results showed that it can provide sufficient light to two rooms continuously for 6 to 7 hours. The next stage was the collection of funds. The service group managed to raise Rs 30,000/= which was estimated to be sufficient to provide electricity to about 30 houses. A war-torn area in Killinochchi where abject poverty prevailed, was chosen as the area for this service to be implemented.

A preliminary visit to Killinochchi was organized to enable to devise a plan for the actual installing during a weekend. The contact person in Killinochchi was a Pastor and they visited the houses with Pastor Ashok. The first two houses that they visited were under enormous trees and as such they had to come up with a design for mounting the solar panels away from the houses on a metal pole. Almost of the houses that they visited received direct sunlight and many of the houses were built with cardboard, plastic sheets and thatched roofs. Some houses were not accessible by any kind of a vehicle. They knew therefore, that much planning is needed before the organization of the installing of the devices.

Back in school, after much discussion about the difficulties of the actual implementation of the project, they decided to design portable solar kits. These were simple wooden structures with the charge controller, battery and solar panel that can be left out to charge in the day and plugged into the lights wired inside the houses at night. Many practice sessions were also organized to train the members of installation procedures.

On the day chosen to make the long journey to Killinochchi with all the solar kits and other required equipment, a team of 10 students and 2 adults left on a Friday to start work on the next day. They decided to install the units in the 15 houses in the jungle area first where the access was most difficult. About 1km of the way had to be completed walking and it was an arduous journey for them carrying not only the solar units and equipment but also food and water. They worked separated into 4 teams of 2 with Chayan and Amanda rotating amongst them to help with any difficulties. During Lunch, Chayan thought of checking one of the units and connected the battery to an installed kit. But the controller was not giving positive results. They tried moving the unit and swapping the connections but still it refused to work. Then they figured out that the battery is a defective one and checked the other batteries with the voltmeter and found out that all batteries were defective. They later found that the batteries had been in storage since 2015 at the shop where they purchased them. After further discussion, they decided to go ahead with the installment of the units and take back the defective batteries to Colombo for replacement.

On the Sunday, the rest of the houses were attended to. It was an exhausting day with the unforgiving heat of Killinochchi. However, the simplicity and contentment of the people although with wretched poverty and their childlike joy of being given a reliable source of light, gave the team courage and purpose to complete the tasks that they had planned. In Chayan’s own words “We learnt that one of the houses belonged to a man who had his face disfigured in the civil war that ravaged this part of Sri Lanka and it was horrifying to see what an effect it had on the locals. Another house belonged to two ladies who had lost their arms due to a shell. Out of 30 people who were running away only they survived. It was then that it dawned on me that the reason that many of these people are living like this was because of the war, and the destruction it caused to their lives”.

They returned to Colombo on the Monday along with the defective batteries. Two weeks later Chayan along with Theo Belmas who is another member of the Housing and Habitat service g roup, retur ned to Killinochchi to install the new batch of batteries. Pastor Ashok has confirmed that they are all in working order now and that the people are extremely happy and grateful.

This project was called ‘Light it up’ and these students having reflected on their involvement in this extraordinary service project state that the accomplishments were possible because of good team work where everyone worked together building on their strengths and accounting for weaknesses. Chayan needs to be congratulated for his skilled initiative and Amanda for the sound leadership provided. As the quote of Mary Anne Radmacher states “As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way”.

OSC is regarded the most prestigious international school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Founded in 1957, OSC remains Sri Lanka’s oldest internationally accredited educational institution. It is the only school in Sri Lanka to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme from Pre-school to Grade 12. At OSC parents and teachers partner in working together to create the kind of environment where children not only learn, but thrive. OSC develops the whole person as a responsible learner striving for personal excellence within a culturally diverse school.

Nimal de Silva The writer is a member of the faculty of the Overseas School of Colombo.