While work in priority areas for post tsunami recovery has been successfully completed, the hectic pace has hardly slowed as we head towards deadlines for major development projects. May I say that over the last 24 months this recovery work has created standards even better than before the tsunami – due in no small part to the waves of world-wide compassion.

The last four months in particular have been very busy as we prepared for the soft opening of the ‘MCC Centre of Excellence’ on the 14th of June and the Sports Academy on the 01st of July. Keeping to the deadlines in this part of the world is somewhat harder than the experience of battling the waves, and the abundant rain has also slowed progress. The catch phrase for our successes is ‘follow up and more follow up.’

However, seeing the development of these two projects was one of the best moments in my life and that of the Foundation of Goodness. The collective help from a dedicated team of locals and internationals helped to transform the impossible to reality, thus creating the MCC Centre of Excellence and the Sports Academy – both one of a kind in a rural community affected by the tsunami.

Sadly, if not for the tragic tsunami none of this would have come to pass. We respectfully remember those who had to sacrifice their lives in that devastating encounter, but since we cannot reverse the process and have to look ahead, this setback has been turned into a blessing for the betterment of those in difficult circumstances living in rural villages.
 

I am hopeful that by the end of this year which marks the 3rd anniversary of the tsunami, we have achieved most of the other significant projects under development such as the Victoria Gardens modern tsunami duplex double storey housing complex for 84 families from the 100m zone with the best of amenities, which arguably could be the best post-tsunami settlement project undertaken thanks to planning by the Victorian State Government of Australia. This initiative is scheduled for completion by September.

Two other major projects currently under development are the ‘Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centre’ and another cricket venue for the ‘Sri Sumangala College’ in Hikkaduwa, kindly sponsored by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) UK who are funding the upgrading of a gravel site on which they play cricket to a superior ground as good as the Seenigama Oval (sponsored by the Surrey County Cricket Club) if not better.

I would like to particularly highlight the concept of the ‘Village Heartbeat’ venture by way of a link to outline the benefits in establishing such a facility for the future betterment of our rural communities.

Read Kushil’s vision for the Udumulla ‘Village Heartbeat Project’
View the Village Heartbeat Project

The rest of the projects are mostly to do with the ongoing support extended towards upgrading schools in the region but more importantly the demand that never ends from the less privileged in the region approaching us with numerous requests help due to the reputation the Foundation has gained from assisting those in distress. This is a huge battle as the tsunami related funds we had over the past two years have now come to an end.

Every month hundreds of people register with us, requesting electricity, water, sanitation facilities, children’s needs, self-employment, housing, surgery and the list goes on and on. The irony of all this is that now people who were not affected by the tsunami keep calling us having seen the many benefits and the positive impact our assistance has had upon their lives. Frankly, some of them ask me “why didn’t the tsunami come to our doorstep?” seeing their neighbour’s standards of living elevated. I guess such is life and one’s own destiny.

Another significant happening has been the visit of two overseas volunteer student groups, one from the UK and the other from the Channel Islands in Jersey, occupying our Accommodation Centre at the Sports Academy. Their visit brought a new dimension of community aid tourism benefiting both the privileged volunteers and the less privileged sisters and brothers.

This program is very special considering the activities that take place during the visits, where one group realizes how content they should be with what they have and the other benefits from the visitors’ goodwill, generosity and kindness. Facilities such as the Accommodation Centre will enable more opportunities to arise - a great concept for overseas students to get involved in helping rural community children in villages and in some cases establishing life-long friendships, while the volunteers enrich their lives by seeing the kind of change life has to offer, making them inculcate much nicer qualities for greater happiness.

View pictures of the volunteer groups’ visit

We are also launching our Under 13 village school cricket team (Seenigama Sri Vimalabuddhi Maha Vidyalaya) to compete at national school level, having the privilege of such a beautiful home ground sponsored by the Surrey County Cricket Club. This is enabling us to harness the natural talent of young children who can follow in the footsteps of Sri Lanka’s opening bowler and opening batsman Lasith Malinga and Upul Tharanga, who originate from a few kilometers on either side of our village. Sri Lanka’s cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene visited the facility on the 14th of June to attend the MCC Centre of Excellence soft opening, and mentioned to me that we need fifteen more grounds of this type spread around the island to take our cricket to another level altogether.

View pictures of the under 13’s Cricket Squad

Mr. Bryan Adams, the famous musician, gifted a 25m, 6 lane swimming pool, a rare blessing for a village and to see this facility unfold was a dream, especially when children swam in the ocean with so much endurance, skill and talent, but without proper technique as they had no access to a pool. This being the case, it is very heartening to note around 100 children and youth are now undergoing squad training with proper coaching. We hope that we can produce a national star or two in this sport too, since all of them have the natural ability to swim, living so close to the ocean.

View pictures of the swimming pool

These are all blessings that have arisen from closed doors having seen the village in total ruin by the devastating waves.

The other key element is the long-term sustenance of the village we have developed by way of a holistic approach which any one of you can see, especially by way of our home page stories which highlights the journey we have traveled attempting to develop a rural community model to showcase. I must admit that our village is very fortunate to be blessed with all of these facilities catering to many many villages in the region, as we hope to produce stars of the future with such exposure and modern facilities in place - things that privileged and affluent children enjoy as par-for-course.

The Foundation of Goodness is deeply rooted in the village, overlooking all aspects similar to a Government managing a country but on a miniature scale. It is a tough task as we extend attention to detail, attitude, caring from the heart, wanting to do the best for those in desperate circumstances but talented and skillful beyond compare. Therefore, putting up facilities of this nature thanks to the kindness and generosity of great human beings is one thing, but managing all of this in the long-term is the challenge and without campaigning future funding and soliciting donations from charitable institutions, our work will not be as impacting as we wish. However I have often experienced the purity of intentions in enriching humanity has a tendency to kind of multiply kindness in mysterious ways.

The next update in four months should portray the completion of our major projects and how well the management structure has served in ensuring the empowerment of better opportunities as per the Foundation of Goodness’ drive to uplift the lives of those less fortunate whilst the stories will continue to be posted on our website homepage.

‘The good we do for others is the good we do for ourselves’.

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