VOLUNTEERING AT THE FOUNDATION OF GOODNESS

As I stepped off the plane at Colombo airport I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect of my five week stay at the Foundation of Goodness.  I had been to Sri Lanka before, involved with some very practical post-tsunami house building work near Hikkaduwa in 2006.  But I hadn’t been aware of Seenigama until a family contact put me in touch with Kushil Gunasekera, the founder of what I can only describe as an amazing organisation.  Kushil had welcomed my request to volunteer and assured me that not only would my skills be put to good use but that I would also have a lot of fun.  As I sadly get ready to leave just five weeks later I can confirm that he was correct on both points - I have been really busy and I have had great fun! 

If you are thinking about volunteering then Seenigama is a brilliant place to come to.  Kushil is an inspiration.  It is truly remarkable what he has achieved and the website hardly does justice to what I have seen and experienced.  It has been a delight to work with Kushil and so many of his team.

I think my biggest surprise was finding that Kushil very definitely wanted to use my management rather than my practical skills.  He had two very specific tasks in mind – to focus on developing a fund raising plan and to produce a brochure to showcase the Village Heartbeat to potential donors, which I did with Jo Dury, another volunteer here.

When I look back and see what has been done in just a few weeks it is amazing!  I have been able to work with so many people and networking contacts over the internet that I can leave behind many thoughts in a fund raising plan and some priority areas that I am working on in my last few days.  But there are so many ideas to follow up that I am going to continue as a “virtual volunteer” for the Foundation when I get home, thanks to e-mail and the internet!

It was great fun collecting the stories and the photos for The Village Heartbeat brochure.  It is just about to be printed and thanks to some networking with a wonderful graphic designer friend in the UK it looks absolutely amazing!  You can see a version on the web too.   Let’s hope it inspires potential donors to support this fantastic initiative and enable Kushil to replicate the concept and build more Village Heartbeat Centres in other rural villages.

I was able to do some practical work too, mainly helping Mr Ranganath working with the children’s English classes at the MCC Centre on Saturday mornings.  There are four classes over five hours and I have never seen 160 children queue so excitedly to get into lessons in their own weekend time.  The classes are bursting at the seams and it’s been great working with these children who are so keen to learn. My memory will be of their beaming smiles and their non-stop giggles when I ask them a question and expect an answer in English!

I have loved living and working in Seenigama. The staff at the Foundation have really made me feel very welcome. The other six volunteers have been great fun to work with and we’ve enjoyed many evenings together too. Everyone in the village has a tsunami story and it makes you think seriously about your own lifestyle when you see people bounce back from a disaster that left so many with literally nothing more than the clothes they stood up in.  Some have precious little more even now yet they are so generous in making you feel welcome in the village. Children know me by name, people invite me into their homes; I feel much more like a local than a tourist.  And I just love, and will very much miss, my walk down to the beautiful beachside every day to buy my lunchtime fruit from one of the fruit stalls.

Seenigama has certainly left its mark on me; it’s an experience I have loved and learnt from and I would thoroughly recommend it.

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