Details below:

Award Background

To celebrate the 5th anniversary of ECOCLUB, we held our first annual Ecolodge project competition, the ECOCLUB Ecolodge Award 2004. ECOCLUB Members were asked to choose by email vote from project proposals submitted by Ecolodges around the world. 

Our Members chose the project by Ranweli Holiday Village of Sri Lanka, as the winner of our first Award. Ranweli proposed the creation of an organic vegetable plot and green house in school premises close to the Lodge. The all-girl school of Dankotuwa Balika Vidyalaya has over one thousand students.

Presenting the award at a live on-line event on July 1, 2004, ECOCLUB Director Antonis B. Petropoulos, noted that "this new Award is not a beauty contest, but aims to implement and verify the implementation of meaningful small-scale projects, by existing, successful, genuine Ecolodges, selected in a democratic fashion. ECOCLUB believes that genuine Ecotourism should be self-sustained, and supported from within, from its roots, rather than from governmental organisations and charities that arbitrarily splash out millions to the wrong hands, without even following up, and in so doing encourage corruption." The Award is accompanied by the monetary sum of Euros 500, raised by ECOCLUB Members, advertising revenue, and sales at the ECOCLUB.com Shop. Half of the monetary sum has been awarded immediately, and half will be awarded on completion of the project.

RANWELI Director, Mr Chandra de Silva noted that "the ECOCLUB Ecolodge Award will further strengthen us in our endeavour to link the community with our enterprise. We hope to extend our Bio-Vegetable and pesticide free farming project through school children to the community, to areas of environmental conservation and education of the children. We thank the members of the Ecoclub for giving us this opportunity of taking forward the project."

Project Completed ! | Initial Project Proposal Details

Transparency & Efficiency:

The project implementation is closely monitored, and details, including photos, is posted on-line at this page as soon as it is made available to ECOCLUB.

Progress so far: 

1 July 2004: Winner Announced
1 July 2004: Project Manager named: Mr. Vijitha Nugegoda, Ranweli Assistant Manager
14 July 2004:  First installment (Euros 250) paid by ECOCLUB to Ranweli.
20 July 2004: Mr. Chandra de Silva, CEO/Director of Ranweli visited the School with Mr Vijitha Nugegoda and a team of staff from Ranweli Holiday Village. They had a discussion with the principal and the school staff, and explained to them the rational of the project, declaring that "an important component of ecotourism is the welfare of the community", and that with this project they aimed "to reach the community through the children".
The following pictures are from the visit (click to enlarge):

Mr. Chandra de Silva CEO/Director and members of the project team discussing with the school principal.	The school green house (to be upgraded by the project) with the children who will assist the Ranweli team in the project .	The grounds on which the vegetable beds will be laid.	The compost pit as it is at present.

29 July 2004: A one-day workshop for students from the Dankotuwa Balika Vidyalaya school and other schools took place at the local Town Hall, attended by 570. Mr Chandra de Silva gave the keynote address on "Ecotourism, Organic Agriculture and the Community: the link". The workshop was followed by a traditional dance recital by the students of the school in appreciation of Ranweli's & ECOCLUB's sponsorship.

Dance recital	Full House	Mr de Silva's keynote address

17 September 2004: Enthusiastic schoolgirls of Dankotuwa Balika
Vidyalaya, preparing beds for planting (photo 1), planting seedlings provided by Ranweli Holiday Village (photo 2), tending to the young plants (photo 3)

preparing	planting	tending

27 October 2004: 

10 December 2004: Project completed, with the harvesting and selling of produce. Project Manager Vijitha Nugegoda reports: "Everybody involved had a great feeling of full fillment. However there are two beds which we had to replant that needs to be tended further. This will done by school children. As an extension of this project we have encouraged children who were directly involved with the project to have Bio Vegetables Plots in thier own home gardens. We have already provided them with Vegetable Seeds. The teachers at DBV have taken responsibility of following it up. We will of course keep in constant touch with them and provide all the necessary support."

14 January 2005: Fortunately the school and the vegetable plots were not affected by the Tsunami. The second installment (Euros 250) of the award was paid by ECOCLUB along with a small extra amount for any emergency needs of the school.

The initial project proposal details were as follows:

Project Proposal Details:

Introduction: There is increasing public awareness of the dangers from chemical contamination from use of chemicals in agriculture largely due to people suffering from numerous diseases. Consequently, a programme of public/school based education to create awareness is necessary.

Object: To establish an organic vegetable plot and a green house in school premises with the participation of staff and children of a school close to Ranweli Ecolodge. Experience gained to initiate home gardens to achieve self sufficiency in organic / pesticide free vegetables. The all-girl school has over one thousand students.

Strategy: Ranweli has established a link with the school to form a nature club. Discussion with the staff and school children demonstrated their enthusiasm to the project

Steps: Conduct a workshop on organic farming, with resource persons to motivate and sensitise young persons to sustainable farming practices.

1. Our ecolodge horticulturist has visited the school and identified 8 x 8 metres plot for vegetable beds. The beds will be prepared by the children with the assistance of the Horticulturist by introducing top soil and compost from a pit to be established.

2. Seedlings will be provided from the nursery in the ecolodge pending the establishment of a nursery in the school.

3. The existing green house will be upgraded to grow salads.

4. We expect to harvest the first crop within three to four months. A mini ‘harvest festival’ will be held with participation of the staff, children and parents of the school which has around 2000 children.

5. The produce will be sold immediately after harvesting in a carnival atmosphere with music and dance by the children.

6. The sale proceeds will be used for expansion of the project to make it a continuing profit center of the school while propagating organic farming.

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