Since its opening, the Overseas School of Colombo has been dedicated to giving back to the community and paying it forward to the people of Sri Lanka. Being an international school, global services groups such as Housing for Habitat, Care for Paws, etc., have ‘branches’ that operate within OSC, run by a team of students and supervised by teachers. This grants OSC students the privilege of easily accessing the community around us and a glimpse of what we can do to help those in our capabilities. Additionally, several service groups have also originated from OSC, such as Room to Read.
Room to Read is a service dedicated to addressing and bridging the gap in literacy and education that prevails in Sri Lanka. We can achieve this goal through a myriad of methods, such as partnering with local schools, fundraising to help improve infrastructure in the partnered institutes, donating books to local libraries scattered throughout the expanse of Sri Lanka, and, more recently, inviting students from this year’s local school (Vidyaloka School) to conduct English language fluency and literacy lessons. As a group, we collaboratively develop short-term goals and ideas to optimise the time we have in our school year to help in every way we can. So far, in my time in Room to Read, we have raised funds through a karaoke night, book sales, re-opening our second-hand book store, hosting literary festivals, and food & fun fairs. The events we organise are based on the theme and objective of our service: books and literacy.
Being a Service Leader
This year, I am one of the Service Leaders, which means I lead the rest of the service members in our tasks while ensuring everything runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. As part of this responsibility, I also have an opportunity to develop new ideas and weigh in on how we choose to raise funds, help the community, and operate the service overall. I have spoken about my goals in the service and how I hope to make the transition of the new members smooth, as well as focusing on creating real change through the English programme (the initial implementation of which I was a large part last year). My experience as a leader has been one of stepping into responsibility and out of my shell simultaneously. Having joined Room to Read last year, I had not had experience with service before and went in relatively blind. However, I quickly understood the order and operations of the service and found a role for myself, soon branching out to share new ideas to help reach our goals. This active engagement in the service through my involvement in the planning and execution of the karaoke night and the literary festival eventually proved to be very useful as it exhibited my abilities, leading to my achieving the role of service leader. As a service leader, I have understood the time, energy, and dedication it takes to be in charge and oversee/decide what is to come for our service. Whether it be having regular meetings with the other service leaders (giving up lunches to do so), creating lesson plans, or being present at service events, the role of service leader demands total commitment.
Impact of Being Part Of Room To Read
That being said, this also means that as service leaders, we get a conclusive understanding of the change we are able to create in Sri Lanka. Being part of something greater than us as individuals or as a school is an enriching experience that cannot be replaced with anything of material value. I feel the change created is most evident when we see the development in the children we teach, as they directly link us and our work. Seeing their enthusiasm for our Thursday service time lessons and ever-growing confidence in the English language shows us the impact of the work being done as opposed to us solely acting as financiers to the cause. Similarly, seeing the development of the library building we are working towards building and supplying through funds and donations is incredibly fulfilling as it reassures us that the work we are doing in teaching these children can be continued on their own time, perhaps on a larger scale (with more students) now that they have the place and resources to do so.
