A New Village Heartbeat Centre Opens in Gandara, Matara

The Foundation of Goodness’ 4th Village Heartbeat Project was declared open in Gandara, Matara on the 6th of March 2016 by chief guest and FoG trustee, the legendary cricketer, Mahela Jayawardena. The VHP Centre was established in partnership between the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) and NDF in an effort to provide essential courses and services to the people of Matara.

NDF first approached the Foundation of Goodness because of their need to give back to the Matara region and play a role in uplifting the community while also promoting unity and mutual respect between all people residing there. NDF was already in possession of a vacant state of the art building in Gandara and wanted to dedicate the space towards providing educational and vocational training and resources to the people of the region. In this aspect, the FoG Village Heartbeat Model was a perfect fit for their aim, with a proven history of adding real value to rural communities and giving the people an opportunity to achieve their dreams.

The Gandara - Matara Village Heartbeat Project (VHP) consists of a library open to the whole community and a computer room open to the use of all registered children and youth attending courses at the Centre. Classes offered by the Matara VHP include English Classes, Sinhala Language classes for Tamil students and Tamil Language Classes for Sinhala students, Maths classes, Grade 5 Scholarship classes and ICT (Information & Communication Technology) classes. For adults, we offer a Dress-Making course via the FoG Women’s Enterprise & Empowerment programme.

Children attending classes at the VHP centre will also be a part of a very special Children’s Goodness Club, a concept introduced by the FoG to all young children who attend our courses to develop talents and leadership skills as well as to encourage children to be kind, considerate and conscientious citizens who actively participate in making their home, school, community and country a better place. The children maintain a Goodness Journal recording all the good and selfless deeds they carry out every week whereby they are encouraged to conduct community aid programmes to lend a helping hand to others in their village or town.

The Matara VHP also serves to bring together the Sinhala and Muslim communities of Matara to strengthen unity and harmony as a stand against racism.

This is the 4th Village Heartbeat Project to be established by the Foundation of Goodness, with the first and second centres opening in Udumulla (2007) and Rathgama (2010) in the South, followed by a third centre in Monaragala (2014) in the Uva Province. The Foundation of Goodness hopes to continue expanding these centres all across Sri Lanka to help others from rural villagers gain access to educational and vocational resources for self-empowerment and development purposes while also promoting goodness and a more altruistic lifestyle.

The VHP centres were originally formed to deliver, in a nutshell the most essential courses crucial for the development of women, children and youth in rural Sri Lanka. The Foundation of Goodness was established in 1999 and has worked extensively following the 2004 tsunami that devastated the lives of thousands of Sri Lankans to develop a one of a kind holistic rural community development model which today delivers a wide range of programmes to over 30,000 beneficiaries from 100+ villagers in the South, North and East of Sri Lanka annually, free of charge, via our 30 activity sectors which include Arts & Multimedia, Children, Enterprise & Empowerment, Environment, Housing, Dental, Medical & Psycho-social support, Scholarships, Sports Development & Management, Sustainable Income Generation, Village Heartbeat Projects, Village Welfare & Development and Volunteer Management.

When the years of conflict came to an end, the Foundation of Goodness extended its development activities to the post-war North and East of Sri Lanka and have been working in the North since January 2011, reaching over 26,000 beneficiaries to date, with uninterrupted monthly visits to introduce, maintain and expand a variety of programmes including village infrastructure development, sports development, library and schools development, water and sanitation projects, livelihood and vocational programmes, micro finance projects and have distributed over 3,800 bicycles to needy beneficiaries in partnership with Sri Lankan Cricketer Kumar Sangakkara and his ‘Sanga’s Bikes for Life’ programme.

10th March 2016