This school is located in the beautiful town of Panvila on the road from Katugastota town to Kabaragala via Wattegama in the Central Province. In late January 2022, Mr. Madhushan, the school’s Sports and Environment teacher, contacted us, after seeing a Facebook post. Resulting from lengthy conversations with him, we received an invitation from the principal to come to the school and discuss the project, as he was very impressed with the concept of good hands. Accordingly, we went to the school on the eleventh Friday in March and after discussions with the principal; Pre-awareness activities for nursery locations, nursery methods, village parents / students had been organized in advance. Thus, in the last week of March, the good hands team arrived at the school and everything was ready as we had planned before. Our team conducted an awareness program for all teachers and students who met with the school principal on how to “become self-sufficient in cultivation”. This was followed by practical explanations on coconut cultivation from the planting of the coconut seed nursery in the open space of the pre-prepared school.

The next step was to plant more than 120 seeds on the school premises with the initial involvement and interest of the students. One of the seeds of the nursery for the students involved and their responsibility was to care for it until it germinates and to record growth, was assigned by good hands as an extracurricular activity since it greatly contributes to the basic mental development of children for a self-sufficient future. This was followed by a Coconut planting program at the school premises led by parents and the school cadet corps. As the principal had earlier stated that there was a high level of wildlife damage in the area, we took steps to protect the planted coconut saplings along with parents at the same time.

Finally, the parents and teachers of the village were also provided with coconut seeds for the nursery. Here, it was a remarkable and commendable event for parents to give half of the number of seeds they received to their children to run in the school nursery. The good hands manual was then handed out to all those involved. The school program concluded amidst praise from teachers and parents for providing students with this extracurricular activity rather than giving away coconut seeds and seedlings for free.

On request made by the Panvila police station with the aim of extending the concept. Acting OIC of the Panvila Police Station welcomed us and discussed the concept of good hands and the problems of the audience. Coconut seeds and coconut saplings were also planted at the police station premises. Finally, the good hands handbook was also handed over to the officers and villagers present at the site.

22/04/2022