{"id":1246,"date":"2025-09-01T22:55:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2025-09-04T23:01:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:01:43","slug":"a-beacon-of-hope-in-the-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/?p=1246","title":{"rendered":"A Beacon of Hope in the Jungle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes, all it takes to lift your spirits is a school with a working signal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today marks the start of the fourth phase of our online English program. This means we’re welcoming a new group of third-grade students into our program. For the next year and a half, they’ll be with us, attending classes twice a week until they sit for their scholarship exams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, we got a request from a school that wasn’t part of our feeding program. They had no English teacher and no signal to teach English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a lot of hard work, we managed to find a signal. We did it with a massive, 53-foot tall antenna. Thanks to that, we were able to include their primary classes in our remote English teaching program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the students in grades 6-11?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the twenty students taking their exams this year, we have two different programs running to help them get at least an “S” pass in English. A second-year university student who is waiting to go to campus next year has volunteered to stay at the school for six months to teach them English. In addition, a group of volunteer teachers from our Pikupahi SFP Volunteer Teachers Pool is joining them to remotely discuss English past papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, some of the kids from the primary classes connected to our remote English program. Here are a few photos from the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This picture is a testament to the dedication of many people who worked hard to make it happen. We see this picture today because of their sacrifices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a small tribute to them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 * Asanga Aiya, who, inspired by his own kids’ desire to help a school with their pocket money, donated a computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 * Erandi Nangy, who provided the routers and antennas needed to get a signal at the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 * Good Neighbors, for donating the lecture hall chairs for the children’s computer room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 * Gayani Gamage, for offering to cover the monthly internet bill for the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 * The school principal and staff, who worked tirelessly to create this opportunity for the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 * Most importantly, our Pikupahi SFP Online English Program and our newest teacher, Lakmali Nangy, who joined us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a long pole, we can catch signals drifting through the wind in the Ritigala jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not every student in Sri Lanka gets to fully enjoy the right to a free education. But we can at least give them a little taste of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that’s enough, isn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here we are, enjoying a beautiful September, filled with happiness!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#equitable_education_for_all<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Dr. Kiloshini Hendawitharana for “Pirunu Kusak Pirunu Hisak”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sometimes, all it takes to lift your spirits is a school with a working signal. Today marks the start of the fourth phase of our online English program. This means we’re welcoming a new group of third-grade students into our program. For the next year and a half, they’ll be with us, attending classes twice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-online-educational-programmes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6248-1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}