{"id":72831,"date":"2017-12-16T16:54:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T23:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=72831"},"modified":"2017-12-16T16:54:39","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T23:54:39","slug":"into-uab-reaches-beyond-campus-to-support-girls-education-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/12\/16\/into-uab-reaches-beyond-campus-to-support-girls-education-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"INTO UAB reaches beyond campus to support girls\u2019 education in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0 The University of Alabama at Birmingham<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Education for young girls in Sri Lanka does more than bring the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic to an under-served population; it also can be an agent of cultural and social change.<\/span>This year,\u00a0Room to Read Sri Lanka<\/a>\u00a0will receive $9,800 to help fund its current projects because Achala Gunasekara-Rockwell, Ph.D., INTO UAB\u2019s Indian culture and language adviser, nominated the organization for an INTO Giving grant, which support education projects in developing countries.<\/p>\n

INTO Giving prioritizes projects that help children in first through 12th grade, and Gunasekara-Rockwell \u2014 who was born and raised in Sri Lanka \u2014 thought Room to Read\u2019s literacy and girls\u2019 education programs would be a natural fit for one of its grants. She was correct; it was one of six selected this year.<\/p>\n

According to the Room to Read website, $300 can keep a girl in a developing country in school for a year, so the $9,800 grant can help more than 32 children during the next year.
\n\"room<\/span><\/p>\n

A near-and-dear issue<\/h4>\n

The educational issues that children \u2014 young women especially \u2014 face in rural Sri Lanka are close to Gunasekara-Rockwell\u2019s heart. She said less-fortunate families will send their boys to school, but girls generally are expected to remain home and take care of the younger siblings.<\/p>\n

As in many countries, opportunities often are tied to the availability of resources, and families have to make difficult decisions about how to allocate their scarce share of those,\u201d she said. There\u2019s a huge gap between the haves and have-nots. I\u2019m a fortunate one. My parents gave me a good life, and I even went to school by car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GRInterested in partnering with Achala Gunasekara-Rockwell (above) and INTO UAB to support other international initiatives like Room to Read? Email her at achalaro@uab.edu.<\/span>But she remembers others not being so fortunate; her family had what she said they called maids,\u201d who were younger children from local families whose parents didn\u2019t have money to raise them.<\/p>\n

They were just helping around the house,\u201d Gunasekara-Rockwell said. My mom was kind of doing a favor, because some parents would say, \u2018Could you please take my kid. They\u2019ll help you, just feed them.\u2019 I felt like they were missing educational opportunities. Just basic learning was missing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education is the gateway for meaningful social change, and Room to Read has proven itself a reliable ally in that struggle.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

She remembers not receiving sexual education until age 12, but many young women never receive it at all; that is not unsurprising in a culture in which gender relations has traditionally been a taboo subject in public discourse, Gunasekara-Rockwell said. Many sexual assaults go unreported because of the stigma attached. Some of the victims may commit suicide or be forced to marry someone who provides a large enough dowry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different world there,\u201d she said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education for young girls in Sri Lanka doesn\u2019t just bring the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic to an under-served population; it also can be an agent of cultural and social change, Gunasekara-Rockwell said.<\/p>\n

With projects like Room to Read, girls are not just staying home,\u201d she said. At least they\u2019ll go to school and get educated, and teachers will tell them, \u2018Just because you\u2019re a girl doesn\u2019t mean you have to stay home to care for younger siblings or get married or abused.\u2019 Room to Read is looking after girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"roomNot only is it important that our students understand the benefit of creating a global community on UAB\u2019s campus, but also how their efforts impact people from around the world.\u201d<\/span>Continuing the change<\/h4>\n

Gunasekara-Rockwell plans to continue to support organizations like Room to Read in the future by continuing to apply for the annual INTO Giving grants. Room to Read itself has benefited more than 11.6 million children in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia and Sri Lanka, and countless other nonprofits are trying to improve literacy in developing countries.<\/p>\n

Education is the gateway for meaningful social change, and Room to Read has proven itself a reliable ally in that struggle,\u201d Gunasekara-Rockwell said. I am happy that INTO will be partnering with the organization to further that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

INTO UAB<\/a>\u00a0is an initiative begun in 2016 to increase the global diversity of UAB\u2019s student body and expand global opportunities for its domestic students and faculty to pursue international teaching, research and service. David Hofmann, executive director of INTO UAB, said the Room to Read initiative mirrors the kind of community INTO UAB is building on campus.<\/p>\n

As a new INTO partner, we are thrilled that our first proposal was accepted,\u201d Hoffman said. Not only is it important that our students understand the benefit of creating a global community on UAB\u2019s campus, but also how their efforts impact people from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0 The University of Alabama at Birmingham Education for young girls in Sri Lanka does more than bring the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic to an under-served population; it also can be an agent of cultural and social change.This year,\u00a0Room to Read Sri Lanka\u00a0will receive $9,800 to help fund its current projects because Achala […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}