EWB Peradeniya Chapter

Student groups, organisations and startups are nothing new for the university ecosystem. Universities are the breeding grounds of new ideals. They are the early adopters of new technology and lifestyles. They are capable of nurturing fragile yet ambitious ideas that one day will expand in to multi-million dollar companies or world class charity organisations.

Its also true for such organisations to turn in to universities as a hunting ground for their ambitions, which may range from recruitment of new talent to expanding their ideals. So it is always exciting to have a insider look at such new startups to know what they do and what are the challenges they face in their infancy.

So we took the liberty to take a deeper look in to Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Peradeniya students chapter, one such new startup in the Engineering Faculty of University of Peradeniya. 

 

Wait a minute! Engineers Without Borders? What does that name even mean? 

 

Good question! That’s why its best if we first understand what Engineers Without Borders( or simply EWB) really is. A simple Google search and a some trolling in Wikipedia will reveal that the term Engineers Without Borders is used by non-governmental organizations(NGOs) in several countries, to describe their activity based on engineering and international development work, with the primary goal of improving the quality of life of disadvantaged communities worldwide through education and implementation of sustainable engineering projects. 

EWB organizations exist in many countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, all which are independent of each other, though there are different levels of collaboration between such groups. 

 

The EWB Peradeniya began on last October with the help of the EWB Australia and EWB Moratuwa. Its not more than 6 months old and is already preparing for s big showdown in the coming months with a dedicated group of active members guided by two prominent Academic staff members, Prof. Ranjith Dissanayake and Dr. Shameen Jinadasa.

 

In a short conversation with current EWB Peradeniya chairman Mr Shyanaka Dananjaya, who is a final year student, he expressed that how the group of interested people got together to make a lasting contribution of their engineering know-how to the betterment of the society and how they gained so much traction in just a few months and is about to debut its first community program ever. 

 

The primary and most crucial hurdles that any startup  has to deal with are ‘making things work’, ‘financing’ and ‘gaining traction within the community’.

EWB had to face the same problems. How to contribute to the society? The answer was rather simple and was nothing new. Many students in the Peradeniya Engineering faculty are familiar with its Arunella charity program which at some level also coincides with the ideal of EWB.

So what they initially needed was to find a community in need and figure out how they could help. They as usual gathered info and made some field visits and came up with a plan to implement a electricity in Poppitiya primary school which is in Theldeniya Educationa Zone. The project is now in the finalization phase and will soon commence. They are also working closely with EWB Germany in a project to build a bridge in the village of Ududumbara. 

Financing is one of the epic problems in any startup. But its not something that will hold back young minds. While EWB has not figured out a way to generate funds to cover their expenses yet they are exploring few methods from traditional sponsors to volunteering/partnerships in other NGO projects to generate some liquidity to keep the ship afloat. On the long term, the fundraising is expected to get easier as the public awareness campaign kicks-off.

Mr. Shyanaka aslo expressed his ideas on importance of gaining traction within the University community. As a new startup its always not so easy to convince people. Its always a uphill battle. Even though people tend to get excited when something new happens they might just as easily lose interest if they were not engaged effectively within the organisation and if the whole thing becomes just another drag. EWB has taken a preemptive approach to raise awareness within the university in the coming weeks various activities in the near future.  

He also said that they have also taken the initiative to register the EWB as an non-profitable organization in Sri Lanka.

They are also making arrangements to launch the EWB chapter officially in June and possibly enhance cooperation with foriegn EWB organizations in the future, with the support of the local engineering community. This will provide the EWB with more exposure to generate awareness( specially within the local engineering community) which will lead the way for better and more community projects in the future.

 

Twitter Group Messaging

I thought of writing on how to setup a very own zero-cost group messaging service using twitter.

This might not be news for some but for those who are unfamiliar might find it useful.

Since in the university there are various groups of students, clubs and unions the ability to message to masses is a handy tool. This is where online tools like twitter come in. All you have to do is follow these simple steps.

Lets say you are in a club like “University Explorers Club“. 

• Go to twitter.com
• Make a account for your Group (So in this example lest assume your username is “PeraUEC“) 
• Now go in to Settings and under Mobile fill-in your mobile number(This will be the number of someone who will be responsible for updating messages for the group)

Now you are almost set!.

• Finally, ask your group members to text the following message through their mobile phones to the number 40404.

FOLLOW PeraUEC

Simple as that you will have a very own and efficient messaging system. And the best part of it is unlike in facebook only one person needs to have an account!

Yet remember that this is not a secure way to publish confidential messages but since when group messages have been secrets.?!

Just in case, someone can easily unfollow by sending the following message to 40404

UNFOLLOW PeraUEC

Read the twitter mobile help page for more information. I have just covered the basic setup of the messaging system. There are far more advanced tools which utilize twitter API to do the same thing with much more control over the content published such as allowing multiple contributors to publish from a single account. 

PERA BEATS!

Yeah! Its happening! Pera Beats is the latest online campaign of the Peradeniya Sports Council, to promote and support sports within the Peradeniya student community.Even though Pera Beats is in its early stages right now with only a Facebook group the whole idea sounds very promising. Pera Insider learns that Pera Beats will launch their official website(perabeats.lk?) and the “Pera Beats” magazine by the end of this month!

The Facebook Page has been up for nearly a week and has nearly 500 members as of this moment. Yet the whole campaign is in its “figuring itself out” stage and they are still to come up even with a logo. According to the posts in the Pera Beats Group the logo will be community designed and anyone can submit their ideas online.

Pera Beats magazine is also in the works and they are also recruiting anyone who is interested in areas like photography, writing, marketing and so on. But the good news is that no one has to be a sportsman or some one even closely related to be in the business. If you have the passion, if you have the will, that’s all it takes (More information on how to contribute or to volunteer can be found on the Facebook group).

We have also learned the Sports Council is ready to go all out thermonuclear on the Pera Beats sports campaign this time with huge, unprecedented marketing stunts to be performed in the following weeks. Some of which may include various publications and events to increase awareness, exposure and collaboration among students.

Pera Insider would also like to note that Peradeniya University as the largest and the leading university in Sri Lanka has failed to live up to its reputation when it comes to  sports in the past few years while Universities of Moratuwa and Colombo managed to grab a larger share of the pie. Pera Beats is supposed to be the catalyst for sporting within the university and with the ultimate goal of reclaiming the top spot in inter university sports competitions. 

3 Students Remanded

3 out of the 25 students of the Arts Faculty were remanded today by the Kandy Magistrate until February 9th. The remaining 22 students were bailed. The students were charged with alleged ragging, assault and sexual abuse of a new entrant last year. 

The situation here at Peradeniya remains not cool at the moment and from tomorrow onward the Student Unions vow to fight back with even more stern measures.

The course of action taken by the PSU is still to be seen. With growing criticism of activities conducted by the student unions the PSU will have to walk a fine line where they will have to successfully fight for the release of the remanded students and to make its voice heard in a right and appropriate manner.

 

PROTEST AGAINST SUMMONS

Today the PSU staged a second protest after the protest held yesterday by the Arts Students Union. The situation here in Peradeniya remains tense in the light of summons issued for 25 students regarding a alleged ragging incident reportedly taken place inside the university premises. All the summons were issued for students from the Faculty of Arts and  Pera Insider learned that there are some female students among the summons. 

About 3500 students from all the faculties began their march from within the university at about 12.30 PM boycotting lectures and they were blocked by the police at the Galaha Junction where a large number of police personal equipped with riot gear and tear gas blocked the Galaha road using barricades and barbed wires. The students staged a protest and a rally at the place before  they dispersed peacefully after burning a effigy of the Higher Education minister Mr. S.B Dissanayake and successfully removing most of the barbed wires from the barricades.

The students claim that the summons were a part of a conspiracy by the government to cripple the state higher education system by instigating instability within universities in order to make them unattractive places for the masses and to establish private universities.

However Minister S.B. Dissanayake is blaming small student groups connected to ex-LTTE cadres and sympathizers are trying to destabilize the country and certain media are overplaying the situation. 

 

Peradeniya Students: Stop Student Suppression

Past two months have been largely dominated by the problems in the nations higher education sector. Most of the fireworks began after the police prevented the Peradeniya Students Union from carrying out a protest march from Kandy to Colombo in protest of the (then)proposed act to implement Non-State Higher Education Institutions.It was followed by an wave of protests and demonstrations throughout all the major universities in Sri lanka.

But that was not all. There were even more students activities in many universities against alleged students suspensions carried out by the authorities to suppress student activists. However the authorities have claimed ragging and other disciplinary issues were the causes.

Most notable of the demonstrations and protest were at leading universities like Ruhuna, Colombo, Rajarata and Ja’Pura.

Meanwhile Peradeniya has been struggling with a string of its own problems. There have been 2 suspensions in the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and  25 undergraduates from the Faculty of Arts have been ordered to appear in the Kandy Magistrate’s Court in connection with a complaint over a ragging incident alleged to have taken place on the campus.

Today (19 January 2012) there was another protest in front of the Senate building demanding the authorities to reverse the allegedly unjust suspensions and to stop student suppression. There was a fairly strong student turnout unlike the protest held last week.

Vets On Strike

In another interesting turn of events the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences(FVMAS) has come to a standsill with its students boycotting lectures in protest of a suspension of two students of the faculty.

The suspension was issued for alleged misconduct within the university and the student say the suspension is issued to suppress the student activists.

Today some students from the FVMAS staged a protest in front of the senate in protest of the decision to suspend the two students. The student turnout was some what low and they dispersed after sometime peacefully.

Meanwhile Peradeniya as a whole has been sailing on shallow waters in the past couple of weeks. No major twists or turns in events transpired due to some faculties being on “exam mode”.

No Problems At Peradeniya – VC

In a press briefing recently held in the University the Vice Chancellor has declared that there are no major problems in Peradeniya University as opposed to what certain sections of the media has been reporting, according to the DailyNews.

The press briefing was held at the Vice Chancellors office it self and it is reported that the Vice Chancellor S B Abeykoon has voiced his concern over the publication of false information about the university and creating public mistrust against the university system

He has also mentioned that there are over 10,000 students in the university and except for minor incidents(which is totally human by the way) there has been no major clashes in the university as portrayed by certain media outlets.

It is also important to mention that the Arts Faculty lecturer Anoma Abeyratne who was at the press briefing has said the “student recently hospitalized who complained that he was a victim of ragging had left the university 2009 (Pera Insider is not clear on the timeframe given in the above statement. So it was directly quoted as it was from the original article on 6th January 2012) and not attended a single lecture.”

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Medical Faculty Prof Vajira Weerasinghe and Engineering Faculty lecturer Dr. W M S B Weerakoon was also present at the briefing.

It was also stated at this event that the recent media reports about 150 students leaving the university due to ragging was erroneous and only 9 students have left of which 3 of them have left to study abroad and the rest for personal reasons.

Whats Wrong With Student Unions?

With the suspension of student unions lifted, Pera Insider believes its about right time to rethink the approach taken by Student Unions on various issues so far.

We briefly discussed this in one of our previous articles, A Study In Red, which mainly focussed on lack of transparency and innovativeness of the student movement.

We thinks it is necessary that this discussion continues for the sake of the students and the future generations who stand to experience the consequences of actions that are made now.

Even though there is a general sentiment in some student groups that this discussion should not be held in a situation where the stuident unions are supposed to stand up against the proposed Private Universities Act, it is our belief that the latter reason is why we should definitely encourage this.

In it lies the key to win the hearts and support of the student community and the general public. It will bring the ideological evolution that will ultimately determine whether the student movement of University of Peradeniya will prevail the test of time.

What is the problem?

It was not long ago, when major news stories were chronicled strictly by professionals using newspapers and over the radio, the student movement was a prime maker of history.

Back then, when students took to the streets to declare themselves opposed, it was the very definition of news. Their voice was strong, clear, important and often consequential.

It was the time that student movement  stood against the revoking of rice welfare to the poor and the infamous protests against the White Paper on Education in the 80s.

By the time Sri Lanka won the decisive war over the LTTE in 2009, its people were fed-up with all the chaos, bloodshed and destruction that has happened through a quarter of a century which was marked by the bloody separatist war and a violent uprising led by the JVP.

By the end of 2009 it was all over and most people were rightfully happy about the way things seems to be headed.

People have simply shut-down their minds on anything which seems to be a reflex from the past and resent what they though would lead the country back into it. And the government on its side did the best it can to push the society in to this state of mind and and did it so well. Well played!

Now, Sri Lanka is in a sort of standstill of ideological evolution. People has lost faith in the importance of having discussion about ideological issues. People who are supposed to lead the way are either distracted or following the wrong footsteps.

People are bombarded with stuff like patriotism, fancy living and sophisticated consumer trends through the media (specially on television). They are trying to live the dream life preached everyday through the television.

That is what the student movement has to deal with. They have to kick-start a ideological discussion which is in a coma and it has to do it in a environment where it is gradually losing public support. Still its actions feed more suspicion and misunderstanding to that sentiment.

We are not living in the 80s any more. And the student movement doesn’t have direct influence over, what controls the state of mind of the public, media.

It has to begin the ideological from within the movement itself.

1. How can we expect the public to react to our concerns if we are not responding to theirs?
2. When there is no discussion even within the university how is it justifiable that we preach others should have it?

This is why the student movement has to begin and promote an ideological discussion within the university itself to define their future course of action. Unless they have this discussion before they make another move, it would just backfire.

• They have to deploy new ways of communication with the student community as well as the public.
  
• They must make their actions speak for themselves rather than trying to chant them in slogans.
  
• They have to rethink the actions they choose.

Pera Insider thinks that it’s time to have this Discussion unless the Student movement in Peradeniya eventually wants to lose steam and die out like it has happened in some key universities in Sri Lanka. Open for debate.

Share your views in comments or in our Face book Page.

Prof. Carlo Fonseka, New President Of SLMC

According to Ground Report, Professor Carlo Fonseka has been appointed as the new president of the Sri Lanka Medical Council.

Professor Carlo Fonseka has been appointed as the new President of Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) with immediate effect from his previous position as Chairman of  National Authority On Tobacco And Alcohol.

According to the report “many colleges of Medical Practitioners and  Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) had appealed from President Mahinda Rajapaksha refrain from appointing Professor Fonseka for the SLMC President Post citing his appointment will become a political motivated one. Professor Fonseka has been appointed after former SLMC President Professor Lalitha Mendis has handed over her resignation citing personal reasons. However GMOA has wanted Professor Mendis to continue as SLMC President till a suitable appointment has been made.”

It has been reported that Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena had made this appointment despite the protests of GMOA and other Colleges of Medical Practitioners. – Ground Reports.

It is also reported that the Executive Committee of the Government Medical Officers Association(GMOA) is summoning a special meeting today(January 2nd) to decide their future course of action regarding  the appointment of Professor Carlo Fonseka.

Prof. Carlo Fonseka being a outspoken supporter of the government, Pera Insider would like to direct the readers attention to the new shift in balance of the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework, Quality Assurance and Accreditation Board in the analysis we published regarding the upcoming Non State Higher Educational Institutes act.