Commemorating a Decade since the Asian Tsunami, and Other FoG Activities

The Foundation of Goodness commemorated 10 years since the Asian Tsunami on the 26th of December from the premises of the Seenigama Temple where all the villagers fled to on that fateful day a decade ago, in order to escape the waves of destruction that turned coastlines from Indonesia to Africa in to rubble.

This year, the 26th of December was a day of remembrance, those who were lost to us were remembered in a sober manner while also looking back to those who survived the destruction and rose up in its aftermath. It was also a day to pay tribute to the numerous volunteers and donors who flocked to help rebuild better from the destruction that had taken place.

The day began with a Buddhist Sermon, followed by presenting study material to young Buddhist Monks, and was followed by 2 minutes of silence at 9.33 a.m, the moment that the waves drowned the village of Seenigama 10 years ago.

In the evening 600 Essential Schools' Supply Packs were distributed among children from tsunami affected school and the day ended with the members of the Kahawa Children’s Goodness Club, who were expanding their library to 1,000 books with help from parents and donors. To make shelves for their new books 8 coconut trees had been cut down, and to rectify this, 25 new trees were planted that evening.

The year draws to a close amidst' a rush of activity from bike donations to Essential School Supply deliveries, and we must also mention some outstanding activities that took place over the last few months.

CEFE (Competence-based Economics through Formation of Enterprise), who conduct entrepreneurship training for small and medium scale enterprises targeted at promoting new business start-up; expansion, diversification or improvement of existing businesses; and training of trainers and officers involved in business promotion and promotion of business development services among MSMEs conducted a workshop for FoG. Gamini Herath, Numinda Thanthirige and Ravindra Jayawardene from CEFE conducted a ten day business skills training which was broken into two segments from 27th – 30th October and 10th – 14th November for FoG’s Seenigama staff, sector heads and outstanding beneficiaries which was greatly commended by all attendees as having been a wonderful opportunity.

Making an example of giving back to the community and repaying the kindness that comes their way, the FoG Diving & Training Centre students organized a beach clean-up on account of International Coastal Clean-Up Day for which they were joined by the Children’s Goodness Club members as well as students from the FoG IT Courses. Their commitment to keeping their village looking beautiful and clean as well as their willingness to give up their free time to do something that will benefit the entire community was a very inspirational act.

A great success tory to round out this year comes from Lakshan Priyanga Pallegedara who was a student of FoG’s Electrical Installation & Maintenance Course and won the award for third place at the Sir Lanka Inventors Commission National Award Winner for his remote control A/C Switch which is a great achievement for his village, his teacher and for FoG as well. We wish him all the best and hope to hear more about his success in the years ahead.

30th December 2014