Sri Lanka Project (GROW II) Advisory Committee
January 19, 2006 (Thursday) 10 a.m. to 12 noon
Seminar Room, Learning Center
Present: Phyllis Cunningham, Jaya Gajanayake, Laurel Jeris, Murali Krishnamurthi, Kay Forest, Deb
Pierce, Lina Ong, Meena Razvi, Rick Orem, Ida Mandica and Nalika Diyadawa
Minutes of the Meeting:
 Minutes of the previous meeting was approved by Murali and seconded by Lina.
 Update on project activities
Jaya briefed the Advisory Committee on the project progress since the reporting during
the last meeting. The major highlights included the following:
 Diploma Award Ceremony was held on Dec 16 at SLIDA, led by CAG leaders.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and PAO delegates graced the occasion. Murali
represented NIU in the ceremony.
 Murali’s presence in Sri Lanka was regarded as symbolic.
 Second Diploma Program will be commenced on January 20, 2006.
 Thirty participants had been selected for the new program after a through
selection process.
 Open University has already begun the preliminary work related to the replication
of the diploma program in its 34 regional centers using the distance education
mode
 SLIDA is also exploring ways to continue present diploma program once the
funding period is over.
Following are some of the other items included in the update:
 200 children’s books given by Kay Forest (donated by local church) were sent to
Sri Lanka to be shared by the Literacy Centers in two of the model villages
 Meena’s donation of $ 100 was used to buy 50 eye glasses for t he needy in the
model villages
 30 copies of the training manual was sent to SLIDA for the new batch of the
diploma participants
 30 Webster dictionaries will be sent soon for the use of the diploma participants
Jaya also presented an overview of the recent Progress Report submitted to the State
Department in early January.
 Murali’s visit to Sri Lanka
Murali briefed on the major highlights of his visit to Sri Lanka.
Day 1 – Arrival
- Meeting with PAO staff and visiting the US embassy
Day 2 – (a) Chief Guest in an exhibition organized by Sarvodaya Women’s
Movement (arranged by Amara) to display exhibits on income
generation products of rural women
(b) Visit to Karenwila Model village (arranged by Seela). Important
activities included attending a meeting of Karenwila Village Society
and observations of the progress in the Model Village since the
project started.
Day 3 - Visit Pompekale literacy center (arranged by Amara)
Day 4 – Visit to Peradeniya University, Kandy (accompanied by Wijaya
Jayathilake)
Conducted a discussion on strengthening Faculty Development Center in
the university.
Day 5 – Attended the graduation ceremony of the Diploma cohort at SLIDA as
the NIU representative. Indicated that it was a ceremonial event with a good
audience. Chief Guest was U.S. Ambassador in Sri Lanka. PAO staff was also
present.
Murali touched on an evaluation of the one-year Diploma program he conducted on a request
from Jaya. There were many strengths as well as areas needing additional attention such as more
sessions on IT skills, gender and development. Diploma participants requested an advance level
program supported by the project
Murali’s feedback on the Model Villages
GROW I & II have given tremendous amount of self-confidence to the
villagers
Project has empowered people to be resourceful and innovative.
Mural’s visit to India.
Met with the Vice Chancellor – Open University, Madras, India. The Vice
Chancellor showed a keen interest in the proposed project.
Visited a very successful model village in Madras which has a focus on
empowering women
 Next proposal to the State Department
Jaya briefed the committee on the draft proposal on Sri Lanka to be submitted to the
State Department for the new Open Competition.
She explained that it is a proposal focused on Sri Lanka, different from what was
conceived earlier (instead of focusing on South Asia)
She presented highlights of the draft proposal to the advisory committee.
She thanked Murali, Laurel, Phyllis, Lina, Ray and Nalika for editing and/or giving
suggestions for further improvement of the draft proposal.
She welcomed any suggestions for its further improvement from the AC members.
Positive comments on the proposal: Study abroad component, youth involvement.
Areas to improve:
Make it different from the previous project
Strengthen the significance of the project
Make the outcomes more tangible
Clarify the need to train top-level leaders
 The schedule for the spring Advisory Committee meetings were agreed upon as follows
by all present.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. – Learning Center
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. – Learning Center
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
- 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. – Learning Center
 The meeting adjourned at 12 noon.