The Foundation of Goodness is a holistic rural development model that seeks to bridge the urban-rural divide in Sri Lanka via 10 empowerment divisions across 850+ villages island-wide, and reached over 135,000+ beneficiaries in 2023 alone by way of 20 Empowerment Centres, free of cost.
Uplifting Communities with Dr. Naj Nagendran
Tokyo Cement North/ East Cricket Coaching Camp in Kattankudy
March 4, 2020
Celebrating Women
March 19, 2020
Our trustee Dr. Naj Nagendran (fondly referred to as Dr. Nage by all at FoG) who set up the American chapter of the Foundation of Goodness, has always been an exceptional human being dedicated to giving back to his motherland and helping to uplift underserved communities in Sri Lanka.
Over the course of his support to the Foundation of Goodness Dr. Nage together with friends and family including the Sember Trust and Felix de Silva Trust has sponsored a plethora of projects both big and small including;
-Architecture student Tharaka Subash through his tertiary studies
-Bikes and welfare items to students and families in the post-war north
-Supporting FoG sustainable income generation initiatives such as Gourmet Goodness Spices and Dive Tourism
-Sponsoring the CCTV Installation and Mobile Phone Repair programmes at the Oddusuddan VHE Centre
-Support towards the Mathagal and Bandarawela VHE Pre-schools
-Sustaining the Mathagal VHE Centre
-Setting up the Udumulla VHE Centre Building
-Supporting the annual Essential School Supplies Programme
-Supporting the Murali Harmony Cup Tournament
-Countless welfare projects such as; hearing aids for beneficiaries with auditory impairments, helping impoverished individuals to complete construction of their homes, surgeries and other medical needs.
In addition to this multitude of initiatives, Dr. Nage played a vital role in expanding the scope of FoG activities to include special needs. In 2017, his passion for improving special needs facilities in Sri Lanka saw us partnering with the CIMA students society and School Relief Initiative to develop a special needs unit for the Dehigahalanda School in Hambantota, made possible by his generous sponsorship.
Since then Dr. Nage has worked with the Foundation of Goodness to support Cerebral Palsy Lanka, Serendip Children’s Home (UK) and Methsewa Foundation Special Needs Home in Handapanagala to improve the lives of the special needs children. He implores everyone to help these children born with congenital deficiencies, unable to express themselves and grow to achieve their true potential. For too long these children have been underserved by the government, medical community and general society. Dr. Nage has also supported Dr. Samanmali to build the recently opened Ayati Centre – National Centre for Children with Disabilities at the University of Kelaniya, to train educators and clinicians to care for these children.
Most recently, Dr. Nage stepped up his support towards the Foundation of Goodness in light of our struggles following the Easter-Sunday attacks of 2019 and Coronavirus outbreak in 2020 which lead to a drastic drop in tourists and visitors, adversely impacting our sustainable income generation avenues. During this time of need, as we struggle to keep all our programmes running despite financial hardship, his backing has given us a lot of strength to continue on, which we are most grateful for.
