Essential School Supplies Programme
The Foundation of Goodness is gearing up once more to deliver school packs to rural impoverished kids ahead of the next school year.
Donate Now
Special visitors to the MCC Centre of Excellence and Sports Academy this month included Manon Bernier, Regional Portfolio Manager for the United Nations Volunteers (pictured above). A total of 73 visitors (individuals and groups) visited and toured the project headquarters this month to learn more about the work carried out by the Foundation of Goodness.
A special episode on the Plates of Goodness cooking programme filmed with FoG Founder Kushil Gunasekera and Danu Innasithamby was featured on HiTV.
Foundation of Goodness’ Triathlete Lakruwan Wijesiri has become the first ever Sri Lankan triathlete to participate in the Asian Games. Lakruwan joined the Sri Lankan delegation who travelled to Indonesia for the 18th Asian Games which took place from the 18th of August to 2nd of September. Lakruwan also took 1st place at the National Triathlon Championship in Sri Lanka and has won 6 out of the 8 local triathlons.
A biogas unit was donated to the MCC Centre of Excellence for the use of our staff and students by a kind-hearted donor as an environmentally friendly cost-reduction initiative to support the Foundation of Goodness.
An ICT Volunteer Workshop for Educators - featuring Google for Education 2018 was conducted at the MCC Centre of Excellence by Dr. Nimalaprakash Skandhakumar, Lecturer at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura for 20 IT Teachers from the region.
The 13th group of patients have successfully undergone cataract
surgeries conducted by Help Age in partnership with the Foundation of Goodness. These surgeries are part of Phase 3 in an ongoing programme which has helped a total of 131 beneficiaries to date, made possible by kind donors from the Sri Lanka Association of Geneva (SLAG), Switzerland facilitated by Mr. Chinta Rajap, formerly of UNDP.
We were delighted to welcome a team from Hilti Svenska AB (Sweden) to the Foundation of Goodness for a very special volunteer visit. The group had funded the construction of public toilets at the Akurala Temple and helped with painting the building before handing it over to the villagers. They had also brought along some toys to gift to our little ones at the Akurala Child Resilience Centre, which really put a smile on the kids' faces.
Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centres:
The Foundation of Goodness Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centres are designed to empower rural disadvantaged villagers, especially through English and IT which are essential to reduce the levels of poverty. Other programmes also include life skills & values, educational subjects, vocational training and sports to help them make better progress in overcoming the disparity between the urban and rural communities.
- Due to popular demand, the CCTV Installation and Mobile Phone Repair courses have been reprieved at the Oddusuddan VHE Centre (North) and the second batch of students have now begun classes.
- World Literacy Day was celebrated at the Gandara (South), Eravur (East) and Thirukkovil (East) VHE Centres with special reading and literacy programmes. Meanwhile, students at the Udumulla VHE Centre participated in an art exhibition.
- Other special programmes at the VHE Centres included students from the Eravur (East) and Thirukkovil (East) Centres organising a kids’ market while beneficiaries at the Mathagal (North) and Murukandy (North) VHE Centres took part in leadership programmes.
- Kids at the Oddusuddan (North) VHE Centre worked together to create beautiful flower gardens around their Centre while the students at the Udumulla (South) VHE Centre participated in an awareness programme on the environment and members of the Children’s Good Values Initiatives in Murukandy (North), Moneragala (East) and Rathgama (South) participated in community clean-up programmes.
- Books, clothes and a water filter donated to the Foundation of Goodness by our worldwide donors were handed over to the Murukandy VHE Centre (North).
Sports
A big congratulations to FoG cricketer from Devapathiraja College, 17-year-old Kaveesha Dilhari who was selected for the National Ladies Cricket Team facing India for 5 T20 and 3 ODI matches. During the third ODI against India, she picked Harmanpreet Kaur's wicket and scored a vital 12 not-out in Sri Lanka's successful chase of 254 - their highest in ODIs - off the penultimate ball of the game.
Congratulations to FoG Table Tennis Players Hilmalsha Savindi and Sanduni Prabuddhika who placed as the U17 Runner-Up and 2nd Runner-Up respectively at the National Schools Games - 2018.
We were delighted to have the opportunity to present high-quality TT Rackets to some of our outstanding young TT players with the help of our kind donor Shaktha Amaratunga.
These girls need all of our support and encouragement to continue their successful journey.
Pictured above (left to right) are:
Diwya Dharani:
* Sri Lanka Schools U12 A Division Runner-up (All Island Inter-School Team Championship 2018)
* All Island Open Ranking U12 Girls' Singles Runner-up 2018 (WWG Table Tennis Championship)
Sanduni Prabuddhika:
* Sri Lanka Schools U14 A Division Champion
* South Asian Games Silver Medalist
* Maheepala Herath Challenge Trophy 2018 - All Island Open Ranking U18 Girls Singles Runner-up
Himalsha Savodi:
* Sri Lanka Schools U14 A Division Runner-up (All-Island Inter-School Team Championship 2018)
Imalsha Sewmini:
* All Island Open Ranking U10 Girls Singles Runner up (AGSEP 2017)
The Foundation of Goodness Ladies Cricket Team has qualified to continue playing as a Division I team in 2019 while the Club Seenigama Cricket Team have qualified to play in the Provincial Tournament, having won their District Tournament. If they win the Provincial Tournament, the team will be promoted to Division II in 2019.
The monthly cricket coaching camp by Hemantha Devapriya sponsored by Tokyo Cement was conducted for 40 cricketers and 8 coaches at the Sports Academy in Seenigama while the 10th North/ East Coaching Camp took place in Batticaloa with 50 students and 3 coaches attending.
Other special coaching camps conducted this month included Former Ananda College Cricket Captain Deepal Dharmasekera organising a cricket coaching programme in Seenigama using Spintech and Zwingo Balance equipment which are the latest trend in the game (The equipment was donated to FoG at the end of the programme) and a Right Arm Leg Spinners coaching session conducted by Ravi Weerasooriya from Australia.
Cricket equipment donated to the Foundation of Goodness by various well-wishers were donated to Puthukulam Maha Vidyalayam School in Vavuniya, Abayatissa Maha Vidyalaya in Wathugedara and to up and coming young cricketer Kavindu Nadeeshan from Dharmasoka College- Ambalangoda (pictured above).
Special Needs Development
Foundation of Goodness will be assisting other organisations supporting Special Needs Children's programmes in Moneragala, Kilinochchi, Jaffna and Ambalanthota. With leadership from Dr. Naj Nagendran, we will be liaising with Serendip Children's Home in building a programme in the North with the Ministry of Education and similarly in the South, we will be working with Methsewa Foundation in Moneragala as well as the CIMA Students Society and Schools Relief Initiative in the UK at a school in Ambalanthota, developing a fully equipped modern classroom.
- Dr. Naj Nagendran from USA travelled to Northern Sri Lanka during his recent visit to the island to learn more about the progress of our special needs activities. During this visit, he met with the Zonal Director of Kilinochchi and also made a pitstop in Jaffna.
- The 'Rainbow' Special Needs Unit was declared open at the Paranthan Hindu Maha Vidyalayam in Jaffna.
- Students from the Women's Enterprise and Empowerment Centre Cookery Class visited Shangri- La Hotel in Hambanthota to gain first-hand experience about the behind-the-scenes operations of an internationally acclaimed hotel chain.
- The Community Psycho-social Unit conducted educational sessions on good hygiene habits for the kids at the Baranasooriya Boys’ Home and Anula Girls’ Home and a programme on mental health awareness for the kids at Sumana Vidyalaya in Kuligoda.
- Kids at the Akurala and Kahawa Child Resilience Centres participated in a pentathlon quiz competition to test their general knowledge against each other while the Seenigama Children’s Good Values Initiative took part in a ‘Good Thoughts’ programme and the children attending programmes at the Kahawa Child Resilience Centre took part in a Carrom Competition.
- A Life Skills & Values workshop was conducted for 50 students from the Computer Training Centre with special guest speaker H. A. S. Mendis – Counsellor and Former Manager NDDCB motivating the students in addition to sessions conducted by FoG Founder/ Chief Trustee Kushil Gunasekera and the Community Psycho-social Unit.
- The Medical Centre Team conducted their monthly wellness check-ups at the Madampagama, Hikkaduwa and Wellawatte Elders’ Homes to make sure that the residents remain in good health.
- Beneficiary community outreach activities conducted this month include the U13 cricketers at the Sports Academy cleaning up the community roads surrounding the complex, weekly beach cleaning programmes conducted by the Diving & Training Centre students took place as usual while a special cleaning campaign by the FoG programme and administrative staff took place at the Seenigama Railway Station. In addition, students from the MCC Kids IT Class donated dry rations to the Madampagama Elders’ Home.
14 Village Welfare projects (which are in addition to the monthly ongoing sector programmes) amounting to Rs. 222,337.50 (USD 1,300/-) divided among areas such as healthcare, education and general welfare were facilitated this month to uplift the living standards of rural villagers to ease their burden in addition to the ongoing campus style of operation in place with the help of our donors.
