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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
19 May 2024
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Description
Horizon Lanka Foundation is an educational program for Sri Lankan children aged 5 to 18, set in Sri Lanka. We teach the children in Anuradhapura (170 km from Colombo Airport), Kurunegala (75 km from Colombo Airport), and Nuwara Eliya (150km from Colombo Airport) districts from three Academies. Here we have the on-site online classes simultaneously for the children from any district of the entire country. We also support the nearby schools by sending our Workawayers to them during the mornings to assist those students if and when necessary.
We teach our students mostly through outdoor activities like walking, hiking, riding bicycles, singing, dancing, sports, field trips, camping, etc. as our students already go to public schools for regular education. At Horizon Lanka, we promote "edutainment, infotainment, and technotainment" to keep monotony away and let the students enjoy learning.
The Academy was set up 25 years ago and has played a pivotal role in thousands of students’ lives directly and indirectly. We aim to connect these very talented young people to the rest of the world and to allow them to realize the potential they have. We need to persuade them for higher educational opportunities, vocational, technical, sports, and fine arts-related careers as these students are full of those talents.
Volunteers would be required to teach English, (Spanish, French, German, Russian, computers, science, mathematics, geography, commerce, history, health, etc. Singing, dancing, music, drawing, and other forms of artistic expression are also strongly encouraged. Sports are given a big place in the evenings too. We promote American football, baseball, basketball, cricket, and soccer at the Academy. We need coaches for these sports. You can be a professional or an amateur coach, we don't mind as long as you are ready to find resources and techniques.
As a volunteer, you would be provided with food and accommodation from one of the students’ families. We ask you to give 5 hours a day, 5 days a week in return. You are free to take weekend trips to beautiful places of your interest and we can recommend the best places to visit if you want. (If you feel like relaxing the weekend also at the host family, you can do so with no extra cost.)
Each volunteer has to pay us 56 USD PER WEEK (8 USD per day) for food and lodging expenses. The volunteer can pay this DIRECTLY TO THE HOST FAMILY IN CASH and the volunteer will get A RECEIPT FROM THE FAMILY FOR THIS PAYMENT for the volunteer’s record purposes if needed. You are expected to pay this THE DAY YOU REACH THE HOST FAMILY AND WEEKLY thereafter.
Sri Lankan village families can cook authentic Sri Lankan cuisine. If you want, you can learn the ways by spending some time with your host family in the kitchen and learn yourselves. You can take the recipes back home. For many of our former volunteers, this was fun to do. If you like, you can cook a meal or two from your country to give a flavor of your tastes to your hosts too.
The work is enjoyable and thoroughly rewarding, and life here is very beautiful with a strong sense of community. If you're looking for an exchange of culture away from the tourist path, this may be for you! We provide a certificate with the number of days and hours you volunteer in case it becomes helpful to you in some way. Please collect it before you leave. If you forget this, we can still send you a digital copy.Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity WorkArt ProjectsLanguage practiceHelp with Eco ProjectsTeachingGardeningDIY and building projectsFarmstay helpBabysitting and creative playCreating/ Cooking family mealsHelp around the houseHospitality/TourismGeneral MaintenanceHelp with Computers/ InternetUN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
The area we operate in is semi-urban with beautiful and exotic landscapes. You would be living with a local Sri Lankan family who will share their culture with you in exchange for yours. The people here are very friendly and welcoming. Working with the children is also very rewarding, they are a very talented and wonderful bunch of individuals!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
Volunteers would be required to teach English, basic IT, social media marketing and play educational games with the children. Singing, dancing, painting and other forms of expression also strongly encouraged! Sports are given a big place in the evenings too.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.Accommodation
In a pretty decent house with a local family. You will have your own bedroom and will be provided with 3 meals a day and snacks between meals with tea. coffee or fruit juice and be very well looked after.
What else ...
There are attractive sites of archeological importance in the area. Also, the place where we operate is in the central part of Sri Lanka with easy access to any part of Sri Lanka by public transport (buses/trains) and professional taxi services with English-speaking drivers at affordable prices.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
Can possibly accept pets
This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (23)
Dori played multiple roles as an English teacher, friend, sister,… read more
If you know how to bond with kids and enjoy spending time with them, you are gonna love this place. There are… read more
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Dori played multiple roles as an English teacher, friend, sister,… read more
If you know how to bond with kids and enjoy spending time with them, you are gonna love this place. There are… read more
At first, you were not that confident that you would be comfortable teaching the students but with time you made yourself attractive to the students and they reached you with ease. I too struggled when I took up a teaching job 25 years ago but now I cannot live a single day without being with my sweet students. I am not that… read more
Kids enjoyed the trips they went on with you in Anuradhapura and Mihintale. They were good ice-breakers for some of the shy kids to start speaking English.
Online lessons were interesting. Discussions with the on-site kids gave them ample opportunity to expand their horizons too.
One request from all of us, come back!
I stayed at the house of one of the students they where super welcoming and i directly like a part of there family. They always tried to… read more
I liked it very much. My time at the… read more
You are really thrown in at the deep end and challenged to come up with activities but you quickly get into the swing of things!
My host family was… read more
The host family and their three kids miss her a lot even now… read more
Charlotte was a very good teacher and also a great humanitarian. She went beyond teaching by donating a wheelchair to a student… read more
It was my first workaway experience. I was teaching english to children in the afternoon after their school. Children were very curious and happy to learn new… read more
We stayed in Ralapanawa village for two weeks with the best host family we could have asked for. Nadeeka and Rohana took us in as one of their own. We can't speak highly enough of the two of them. They are always happy and up for a great laugh. Nadeeka's… read more
Aysen was an easygoing young girl who had a very creative mind. She was the… read more
I spent a week with the best host family, Nadeeka, Rohana and their two beautiful children at Ralapanawa. They're all so lovely, generous and smiling always and Nadeeka is a really great cook.
I was teaching… read more
Great local food, great sharing, thank you Nanda for the opportunity !
We would love to host her again and again if… read more
Living in the nature and sharing the everyday task with the family and the kids from school made me embrace the simplicity of life.… read more
I stayed with two Sri Lankan' families, they are really kind, they made me feel like home and as a men bed of their family.
I only have… read more
Lea’s outstanding teaching at school and foundation made her the center of attraction in this remote farming community. Her understanding about the Sri Lankan village culture made her… read more
I was teaching English in the public school in the morning and fell in love with the kids from the very first moment. I will keep their smiles and "teeeeacher, very beautiful, selfie selfie selfie" for… read more
I hosted by a local family , i feel like i were in my family , they are… read more
I was hosted… read more