Helping Hendala

This is something which I never expected to be involved probably few months back. Helping Hendala is a voluntary teaching project which i got into through one of my friends. My friend at work, asked me whether I would like to join him in conducting a free computer class for few kids in Hendala Temple in the newly constructed Computer Lab. Hendala is a town in Wattala area and the name Helping Hendala is something we came up just so that it could be easily called and referred to.

This may sound really good but we both knew it was also a humongous task. It was not just about going there and conducting classes, it was more about making a commitment and making sure that some work is being done to develop and assist in uplifting the knowledge of those children.

We managed to start off with a few ruddy computers some of them which still have Windows 98 and even 95 as its operating system. It was no easy task teaching a bunch of kids from grade 8-10, some of them who had not even touched a computer before.

The lab only has around 8 computers in good working condition where as we had over 50 initial applications do deal with. The choice we had was not quite easy, we either had to abandon the classes or had to conduct classes over the whole day for all the children just to make sure no one was left out. So we decided to have three classes on Saturday from morning to evening. Each class has around 20 kids, who share one computer in groups of three or two.

Even though this is the 11th week for our classes there is still quite a lot to be done. We have started off sessions about windows and slowly taking them to Microsoft office and other software. With so much to do and things to be done, we have set up a small page on this project for those who wish gain further information. The blog is still in its infant stage but we wish to populate it with more details and contact information.

Please access the Helping Hendala Blog from here…

Helping Hendala - http://hendala.wordpress.com/