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Wednesday Oct 02, 2024
Saturday, 15 March 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Valaichenai is the nearest town of any size to Passekudah Bay, where Uga Bay by Uga Escapes stands amid palm trees and white coral sands. It is a small, sleepy place whose main claim to fame is that kottu roti, the fast-food staple of Colombo night-lifers, was invented there in the 1970s.
In Valaichenai, opportunities for making a good living are few. Most residents are employed in agriculture or fisheries, or as minor officials in government service. At Valaichenai Hindu College, the principal local school, some 1,500 students follow the national curriculum, but few will make it all the way through: this year, the school presented only 86 students for the GCE A-Level examinations, and only 16 gained places at university. The other seventy, along with hundreds who have left school at a younger age, must accept what limited economic opportunities their town offers them, or move elsewhere.
One ray of hope illuminating this bleak picture comes from tourism, which is now reviving after decades of depression due to Sri Lanka’s long civil conflict. When that war began, Passekudah was relatively undiscovered; even now, visitors are just beginning to discover its attractions. Uga Bay is one of a few upscale resorts now operating at Passekudah. As with all Uga Escapes’ properties, it offers the kind of holiday experience and levels of service few other establishments in the area can match.
In an effort to put tourism in Passekudah on a more sustainable footing and ensure that its benefits reach people living nearby, the management and staff of Uga Bay have begun a community-service project in collaboration with Valaichenai Hindu College and the local educational authorities. The purpose of the project is to help young people in the area take advantage of employment opportunities generated by tourism. It holds out a lifeline to young people who have diligently pursued their education all the way to Advanced Level, only to lose out on a university place.
The first stage of the project, now completed, involved the refurbishment of the school’s Advanced Level (Commerce) classroom with new desks and chairs. The classroom was also cleaned, redecorated and provided with a door lock to deter vandals and other unauthorised entrants. It was re-opened at a formal ceremony recently at the school.
In the project’s second stage, Uga Bay staff and other resource persons will make weekly visits to the school to instruct senior Commerce students on employment opportunities in tourism and how best to take advantage of them. This series of lectures forms the key phase of the project and will help forge closer links between Uga Bay and the local community. The lecture series begins on 20 March.
The third stage of the project involves education in sustainable agriculture for students at Valaichenai Hindu College. For this purpose, a plot of land on the college premises has been set aside for a vegetable garden where pupils can learn sustainable agricultural methods through practical example under with instructions from Uga Bay’s own sustainable-gardening experts.
“This project is just one of a number of ways in which Uga Escapes reaches out to the communities that surround its properties,” explains Uga Escapes Managing Director Priyanjith Weerasooriya.
“Uga is committed to sustainable tourism, not simply in terms of conservation and environmental protection but also through ensuring that local people are benefited and supported rather than inconvenienced by what we do and as a result, our guests are doubly welcome: not only at the hotel, but also by the communities among whom they have come to stay. Unlike some resorts, we encourage community interaction,” he said.
