“The tsunami took the lives of my entire family, sparing myself, my sister and our grandmother. Now, we are all that we have, but we have to survive and move on. In order to move on, my sister and I must get good jobs that offer us a brighter future. We also lost our home in the tsunami and had nowhere to live but with friends and relatives. Now we have a home again and we can't thank you enough. This is the start of a new chapter in our lives.”

~ Dinusha Nishanthi, (said, amongst a room of tears, during a thank you speech to Mr David Cruse during the official opening of their brand new home in Werallana)

How does one define a truly compassionate individual? One who helps where he/she recognises that it's needed, without having to be asked? This, to us at the Foundation of Goodness, is the true meaning of compassion. An individual that helps during all seasons.

Yet another example of a man with a heart of gold is Sri Lankan born Australian, Mr David Cruse - an extremely helpful, generous and selfless individual. Owner of the Knox Restaurant in Australia, Mr Cruse is also very well known to the cricket fraternity, having supported so many cricketers over the years.

Since the tragic Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, Mr Cruse has assisted our work in the underprivileged communities to no end, through promotional and fundraising activities for housing, the distribution of cricket equipment, scholarships and addressing other ad-hoc needs as he has seen fit. One such example of this is the touching story of three poor elderly ladies living in a house in the village of Udumulla. The house was mortgaged and since they could no longer afford to make payments on their home, they were going to be kicked out into the street. David heard of this and without hesitation offered to redeem their mortgage bond. The effect that this has had on their lives is incomprehensible and they can now live in their home together, stress free, as they should at this stage of their lives.

David has also personally funded the construction of two brand new homes for tsunami-affected villagers. One home in Werallana belongs to two young sisters and their grandmother. The rest of the family were lost in the tsunami, including their parents and brother. Since that time, the three women have struggled to survive with neither an income nor even a home. Yet now, thanks to David's heartwarming generosity, these three women once again have a home and the two girls have sponsored educations - all of which they can use to rebuild their lives.

Mr Cruse has also sought funding for over 10 homes from different cricket affiliations. In Victoria, Australia, David has organised a number of charity cricket matches to raise funds for the Foundation of Goodness and its work. Over the last few years, David has visited the Seenigama region and the Foundation of Goodness on a number of occasions, each time bringing with him a variety of different stakeholders and groups to show them the fantastic progress in the region to date. He is consistently introducing potential donors and supporters to the Foundation as well as the Muralidaran, Vaas and Gunasekera Foundation (MVGF).

Most recently, Mr Cruse spontaneously offered to sponsor the upgrading of the cricket pavillion and scoreboard installation (as part of the brand new Sports Centre, sponsored by the Surrey County Cricket Club). David has promised to promote this landmark project in Australia with the aim of finding keen young sportspersons to travel to Seenigama, play sports, interact with the local culture and carry out community aid work at the same time. We hope that this may assist in creating a new trend in tourism and community aid work, where Seenigama will have the sun, sand, sea and a relaxed community with a slow pace so the Aussies can feel at home and display their comfortable attire.

But the generosity does not stop with David. The entire Cruse family is also actively involved in the promotion of the Foundation of Goodness' work. His daughters' schools in Australia, St Margaret's School and Haileybury College, have also generously raised funds to co-sponsor homes for the tsunami-affected villagers.

Clearly an individual, and indeed a family, who display such compassion as this deserve to be recognised for their philanthropic acts. Thus, it is with immense gratitude that we thank Mr David Cruse and his family for the numerous resources, supporters and networks that they have brought to the Foundation of Goodness and, more importantly, for the joy that they have brought to the villagers.