FoG Partnership with Sahana Sri Lanka

The Foundation of Goodness has the pleasure of partnering with Sahana Sri Lanka to help develop and uplift the rural community of Hiniduma, while also looking in to expanding the partnership to include work in the North and East as well to improve livelihood and educational opportunities for rural underserved children.

Sahana Sri Lanka is a humanitarian association founded in 2005 in Switzerland by Indira Kithsiri who is India & South Asia’s associate for the World Economic Forum and was awarded the Social Responsibility Award for 2010 from Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne where she received her B. Sc.

Sahana Sri Lanka aims to improve the living conditions and increase educational opportunities of underprivileged children and women and their first community development project in Sri Lanka was in favour of families from Hiniduma who had been displaced by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Over a decade of humanitarian work, Sahana Sri Lanka have implemented multiple impact- oriented projects through a cross-sector approach to improve livelihoods, increase educational opportunities and elevate standards for rural underprivileged children.

The common background of rural and post- tsunami development shared between Sahana Sri Lanka and the Foundation of Goodness was further solidified by the like-minded approach of both its founders to make a lasting and positive impact in rural Sri Lankan communities through a holistic approach to development and empowerment.

Our first collaborative project has been establishing and handing over an IT Learning Centre complete with computers, furniture and a syllabus to the Mallika Navodya School in Hiniduma. It was a joyous day for Sahana, FoG and the children from Mallika Navodya School and the children had planned various performances including singing and dancing, to entertain their guests during the opening of the IT Learning Centre. The joy with which these children received their new computer room brings to light the stark contrast in access to technology between the rural and urban sector, and the disparity in the level of education and exposure received by children from cities and villages.

We hope that the children from Mallika Navodya School will make use of their new computer room to brush up their computer skills which will hopefully prove invaluable to them when they enter the competitive job market after graduating from school. Maybe we will even inspire some future IT specialists or software engineers.

The Foundation of Goodness is also working with Sahana Sri Lanka to expand the pre-existing scholarship programmes carried out by both organisations. With more plans for future projects including developing school grounds in Hiniduma and venturing to the North, we look forward to a close partnership between Sahana Sri Lanka and the Foundation of Goodness which will help us reach more and more people in need of a helping hand to uplift their lives and build a successful future.

30th April 2015