Recap of FoG Activities in 2014 2014 marks 15 years of Foundation of Goodness’ humanitarian endeavors and it was a very exciting year, buzzing with activity from projects both new and old.
The start of the year also heralded another chapter in FoG’s constant drive for self-improvement, when Indira Aryaratne and Gaya Hapuarachchi began a Monitoring & Evaluation for FoG as sponsored by the Planet Wheeler Foundation. In February, FoG completed construction on the new Electrical Installation & Maintenance Training Centre as sponsored by the Elizabeth & Nicholas Nainani Foundation which was declared open in April, providing the electrical students with a state of the art facility to train in. In addition, LBW Trust presented 50 educational scholarships to university students for the period of one year.
March was an exciting month as the very first Festival of Cricket took place in Melbourne, Australia. Organised by OYOB, the event was held to raise funds for the 2014 Murali Harmony Cup. Also in March, the FoG IT lecturers got involved with recruiting and training IT lecturers for 3 kids computer centers launched by Aitken Spence’s ‘Empowering Sri Lanka First’ Initiative. In April, FoG together with Dr. Selvil and eye technician Sujani conducted an eye clinic for 110 patients from the Seenigama Region and the first FoG Dance Troupe was formed following the inaugural recital by the FoG Traditional Dancing Class. The Colombo Operated Model United Nations (COMUN) organized a charity stationery drive and donated all the stationery they collected to the FoG to be distributed amongst rural beneficiaries, and the LBW trust presented 50 more scholarships to tertiary students.
A historic cricket match took place in July, when the visiting Yarra Valley Cricket Association Team from Melbourne, Australia played the Jaffna Combined U17 Schools Team in the first ever international school boy match to be played in Jaffna after 46 years. This momentous cricket match was organized by the Foundation of Goodness in partnership with G’Day Lanka, David Cruse and Keith Thompson. The Foundation of Goodness also opened a new Beauty Salon to provide practical experience for the Beauty Culture students as well as to generate a mode of sustainability income for the course while the FoG Community Psycho-social Team joined with Samuththana, InReach and Forte to provide psycho-social assistance, play therapy and physiotherapy to the Aluthgama community following an incident of violence. The team trained selected community leaders with basic counseling skills for future psychological needs.
In August, all FoG staff attended a Strategic Planning Workshop organized by the Planet Wheeler Foundation, sponsored by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and conducted by Indira Aryaratne and Gaya Hapuarachchi. We also received a very special visit this month from Sonali Ranaweera, the American teenager who founded Recycling4Smiles, and funds weekly oral care programmes via the FoG dental clinic with the proceeds of recycling projects. The FoG Dance Troupe ‘Goodness Rhythm’ which was launched as a sustainable income generation venture had their very first performance in Galle in August as well. IT training also commenced at the Kilinochchi Harmony centre in addition to the Dress Making and Beauty Culture courses already sponsored there and 20, 100 liter water tanks along with 25 containers to store water were delivered to two drought struck villages in Polonnaruwa to enable them to store the water that was being delivered by the government in the face of severe and persistent lack of rain in the region.
In September, volunteer Shakya Kudahetty organized a toast master style speech contest for the FoG English students and CGC members, which was such a great success that it led to forming an English club in October. Also in September, Geveo donated ration packs to 50 drought stricken families in Moneragala and the Foundation of Goodness introduces a new online database system that was developed in-house. October saw yet another dream come true for FoG when we were able to open a new Heartbeat Centre in Moneragala in partnership with the Lak Aruna Foundation, and thereby extend out activities to the East and Uva Province. Volunteers Anne Marie and Neil also conducted an orthopedic clinic in Seenigama during this month. In November, the British High Commission in Colombo organized a fundraising reception with the Sri Lankan and English Cricket Teams and a business networking lunch fundraiser on behalf of the Foundation of Goodness. FoG sustainable income generation venture ‘Dive Seenigama, Dive Lanka Water Sports Centre’ reopened its doors for the new season, with special guests such as Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara, Muthiah Muralidaran and Sir Ian Botham dropping by for a visit.
December was an incredibly busy month, with the beginning of island wide Essential School Supply Pack deliveries for the 2015 school year, the donation of over 150 bikes by the Brisbane Donor Group with funds raised from the ‘Sri Lankan Food Festival’ and the 10th commemoration of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, which was held at the Seenigama Temple where many of the villagers spread to a decade ago to escape the waves. Workshops Enactus RHUL conducted a workshop on social entrepreneurship for the Women’s Enterprise & Empowerment sector in January. A variety of workshops took place in February, including a software app development workshop by Woodfin Pvt Ltd. (Australia), a leadership training workshop by Nuwan Samarapathi and a psycho-social workshop for the CPU Team by Samuththana. Priyangani Mushin conducted English training for the FoG English Trainers over the course of a number of months in order to fine tune the English course. In April, the team from ‘Full Life Coaching’ including Rozaine and Pujitha conducted a special leadership programme for the 2013 best performers from the FoG Empowerment Sectors. The Seenigama BPO and ArtBanc BPO staff had an opportunity to improve their quality of work following a seminar organized by Yasas Abeywickrama from Lanka BPO Academy in June. In September, teams from Samuththana visited the Community Psycho-social Team to conduct further training and workshops to improve their performance and provide a greater service to society. A fashion design workshop was conducted by Niluka and Suzette for the FoG beneficiaries while CEFE Sri Lanka along with Indira and Gaya conducted a business skills workshop for outstanding FoG beneficiaries and trainers and a beauty care workshop was conducted for the beauty culture students by Oriflame, all during the month of October. Sports In January, Anushka Sanjeevani from the FoG Sports Academy was selected for the National Ladies Cricket Squad for the Tour of India. Nilangika De Silva who captained the Seenigama Ladies cricket team for the 2013 Murali Cup was selected for the National Development Squad and Supuni Amaya from the netball squad was also selected for the Sri Lanka Junior U14 Development Squad.
In February, Greg Chapell and the Australian National U19 Team visited the FoG Sports Academy and in March, a water pump was presented to a rehabilitated beneficiary in the North from funds they donated. In April, Nordic Lanka donated brand new equipment for the FoG Sports Academy Gym which is now being used by all the sports academy beneficiaries to improve their performance. Access to such facilities is what helped our outstanding sportsmen and women to succeed, as in the case of Mandira Charuni and Ureshika Maduwanthi who were selected for the National U19 Netball Squad Tours of Australia and Malaysia respectively. Mandira went on to be selected as the ‘Best Defensive Player’ of the tournament.
In May, FoG beneficiary and Sports Academy athlete Lakruwan Wijesiri participated in the Bintan International Triathlon in Indonesia, competing for the first time on the Olympic Practice Track and placed 2nd in his age category and 12th overall. He went on to attend triathlons in Malaysia and Singapore during the month of August. In June, the Murali Cup Unity Team made up of the most talented players to participate in the 2013 Murali Harmony Cup from teams island wide went on a weeklong Tour of UK, playing matches with Eton College, the Combined Trinity Group Schools (at Emanuel College Grounds) and the Northamptonshire Country Cricket Combined XI and had the opportunity of a lifetime to watch Sri Lanka play England at the Lords Cricket Grounds. During the same month, three time Olympic gold medalist water polo player Kiss Gergely from Hungary visited the Sports Academy and spent time with the FoG swimmers.
August saw the arrival of Tamsin Greenway, the former England National Netball player now turned netball coach who organized a netball coaching camp for the Sports Academy, and the Sri Lanka National Water Polo Team also visited the Sports Academy to conduct training for the locals at the Bryan Adams Pool Complex. October was a big month, with the 3rd annual Murali Harmony Cup being staged across 5 venues in the North. The tournament grew this year when the participating boys’ teams were increased from 12 to 16. We were delighted to celebrate with them when Ananda College were declared the winners of the Boys’ Tournament and Seenigama Ladies won the Ladies Tournament. Finnish Volleyball Player Juho Korvenoja visited the Sports Academy and spent time with the FoG Volleyball Team in November and cricket shoes and equipment were donated to the Polonnaruwa Combined Team who participated in the Murali Cup.
It has been an incredibly busy year for the Foundation of Goodness and we feel blessed to have been able to execute so many projects and touch even more lives, and look forward to an equally busy 2015 when we will continue to do more good.
07th January 2015 
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