Birthday Wish: Make a Difference!

As I complete yet another orbit around the Sun, I want to make a special birthday-wish, something that anyone could help with.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 285 million people have some degree of visual impairment. About 39 million are blind, and 246 million are visually impaired. About 90% of them live in developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Regions, and they are 10 times more likely to go blind than those in developed countries.

Now take a step back and think! How can we help the people with vision impairments to enjoy the beauty of the Universe?

To address this much neglected area, under the framework of Universal Design of Learning (UDL), we have created “A Touch of The Universe” project. It aims to build 30 sets of tactile astronomy KITS for children with vision impairments in underdeveloped countries in Americas, Asia and Africa.

How can you help?

The project is partially funded by International Astronomical Union - Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD). But we need more support to complete the project. Please consider making a donation. Your contribution will make a much needed difference.

Make a Difference at http://astrokit.uv.es/donate.html

Cheers!
Thilina

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Another Orbit

Universe is too wonderful to not to share with anyone, specially with children. Unfortunately many children discover the beauty of the Universe bit too late, or some never get to enjoy it. That's why I fully support Universe Awareness (UNAWE) - a program which put its heart and soul into inspiring every child with our wonderful Universe, regardless of the social status.

As I complete yet another orbit around the Sun, I couldn't have celebrated my birthday better than with children from an orphanage in Sri Lanka, doing astronomy!

Thank you for everyone who sent in wishes and helped with the event, specially my dad and aunt for helping with cooking, and Kavindi (UNAWE-Sri Lanka), Kaminda, Gihantha, Tijitha, and Janith for helping with the activities.

teaching basic astronomy concepts to kids

tour around the Universe

not only kids, but orphanage staff enjoyed the Universe

lunch time

it's wonderful to see how kids visualize the Universe

kids version of the Universe :-)

kids with UNAWE - Sri Lanka

busy with the "Eggnauts" challenge!

teaching kids is such a rewarding experience

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand"

time to test those "Eggnauts"

it was a wonderful day

This was just a tiny effort to show the beauty of the Universe to children. We all need to play our part, continue our effort to educate the future generations, to help them to discover our Universe , to make the world a better place.

On a closing note, please consider making a donation towards “Astronomy in Timor-Leste: Celebrating the Transit of Venus 2012” (a project of UNAWE) – that’s my “Birthday Wish”.

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Birthday Wish: Make it happen!

As I complete yet another orbit, I'd like to make a birthday wish - something that my friends around the world could help to make it happen!

This year will be the last opportunity in our lifetime to see a Venus Transit. What's a better way to celebrate it than going all the way to Timor-Leste, a country that only recently became fully independent, and organise several educational activities on the occasion of this rare astronomical event.

Above will become a reality thanks to Universe Awareness (UNAWE). A team of UNAWE Student Ambassadors will travel to Timor-Leste for Venus Transit to inspire the children with astronomy, and make them believe that they can be the scientists of the future!

This is where you can help!

UNAWE is looking for financial support to purchase Safe Solar Goggles, Earthballs, Planispheres, Galileoscopes, Solarscopes, and Telescopes which will be used in educational activities in Timor-Leste. Donations can be made little as from few solar goggles to couple of Galileoscopes.

Make it happen!

Please consider making a donation and forwarding my "Birthday Wish" to your friends as well. To make a donation and more info: Astronomy in Timor-Leste: Celebrating the Transit of Venus 2012

Cheers!

Thilina

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Report: "A Match Under Starlight"

Beginning of July 2010 concluded one of the most exciting sporting event - FIFA2010. While many football fans around the world celebrated the victories and the losing, Astronomers Without Border's National Coordinator for Iraq - Azhy Hasan came up with the idea to celebrate the World Cup with a touch of astronomy and peace - "A Match Under Starlight".

Amateur Astronomers Association of Kurdistan celebrated the event by gathering a youth group to play a football match which was followed by an observation session. Players enjoyed beautiful views of Saturn and medals for participating in the match. Azhy who organized this event took the extra effort to show the unity of other AWB member countries by displaying the national flags and playing the national anthems. You can see some unforgettable photos and a video of the event here.

Group from Iraq says "YES TO PEACE"

This wonderful event was also celebrated by UNAWE - Romania. With the collaboration of “Angela Gheorghiu” School from Adjud, Vrancea, UNAWE Romania, organized a football game with 23 children aged between 5 and 9. All the children were awarded with a "Stellar Football Player" diploma for their enthusiasm and spirit. You can see this wonderful effort in a report with photos put together by Catalina Movileanu of UNAWE - Romania here.

kids with national flags pinned to shirts playing football

Another event to celebrate the project was organized by “Rudolf Walter” foundation – Timisoara branch, the Astronomical Observatory of Timisoara, and the “Antares” astro-club of Timisoara. Kids at the “Rudolf Walther” foundation (a model institution where disadvantaged kids are educated and cared for) got to play football which was followed by 3-D projections and captivating talks. The kids got a special treat as well, Andrei Juravle – owner of astrovest.ro – donated a telescope. You can read a report of this event with photos put together by Virgiliu Pop of Romanian Space Agency here.

Virgiliu Pop kicking off the match

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this wonderful project highlighting world peace and the joy of togetherness. We hope you will join us in future events.



Credit: The beautiful poster of the project was designed by Azhy Hasan.

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Completing 24 orbits around the Sun

Last Sunday 18th of April, I celebrated completing my 24th orbit around the Sun. It’s pretty amazing to think that I have traveled so much across the Space.

Rather than celebrating it in a very contemporary way, I thought of doing something I always wanted to do, but never got around it.

In Sri Lanka we have lot orphanages, most of them are filled with kids. Some of these kids never seen their parents or some were abandoned or some lost, which ever way they ended up at an orphanage, and they hardly get anything we have in our day-to-day lives.

For my birthday I decided to spend some time with the kids at this orphanage (girls’ home) near my place. With my family, few relatives and close astronomy friends we spent a whole day with the kids enjoying the beauty of the Universe. We did give them lunch, but I guess the better food is the food for the brain - knowledge.

Below are some unforgettable moments from the day.

The day started with a lecture "Universe and Everything in it". It was interesting to see the reactions of the kids when they started realizing how small we are and how big is the Universe.

Using Earth Ball to demonstrate day-night, why it's round, why someone from south or sides never falls off was fun. Many thanks to Carolina Ödman from UNAWE for sending the Earth Ball.

Explaining Solar System

Small exhibition set-up

while I was giving the talk, my friends were preparing the next activity

next activity was Solar System scale model

we asked kids to guess where would be the planets be if we put the whole solar system inside the orphanage land

kids were marking the positions of the planets

more planets to mark

all were surprised to see the real positions of the planets!

and then it was the lunch time

after lunch, kids playing around and of course now they have more questions than they had before

:-)

next activity was the "Egg Rocket". Here I'm giving a brief introduction to Rockets and the activity

kids were divided into 5 groups for the activity

they had to build a rocket model with the egg inside, egg is the Astronaut!

hard at work! very focused!

thinking how to save the astronaut or rather "Eggonaut"

this is my dad giving some tips, guess he knows enough astronomy by now :-)

after building the rocket, all of them were dropped from a height of one floor.

Guess it's R.I.P. for that "Eggonaut"

anxiously waiting till we check the next one

time for the GAM birthday cake. my dad made this (yes, our family has been doing bridal, weddings, cakes, etc... for twenty years - which explains one of my hobbies - fashion designing)

they sang "happy birthday" in both Sinhalese and English, how nice :-)

then we made a banner with hand prints, it was way too fun and kids loved it.

:-)

middle logo is the "Universe Awareness" logo

lots of hands!

as the final activity, we did a "Water Rocket" demonstration

launch was delayed due to some technical difficulties

and up it goes

the kids with the banner we all made which hangs in my room now

it was a day to remember

I want to thank my family who helped with the preparation and friends – Laika, Pinky, Abi, Desh who helped on the day with the activities.

I hope my little contribution would at least make few kids interested in Science. Astronomy is a multifaceted as a brilliant-cut diamond, an infinite font of ideas and imagination. So much to learn and so much to learn of. Through this beautiful subject we can make a better place and help to understand our Universe as a whole and at the same time improving life here on Earth.

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