2018 Recap

January
The year began on a high note when FoG Founder/ Chief Trustee Kushil Gunasekera was presented with the prestigious ‘Commonwealth Point of Light Award’ by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex in recognition of his exceptional services; providing rural communities with access to education and training. Each Commonwealth Country is appointed a single ‘Point of Light’ by Her Majesty the Queen of England.

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FoG’s 7th Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Plant was declared open and handed over to the villagers in Bakamoona, Polonnaruwa District. This is the 2nd plant to be sponsored by former Sri Lankan Cricket Captain and FoG Trustee Mahela Jayawardena. This plant will benefit over 300 families from the surrounding villages. Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Plants play a crucial role in providing clean drinking water to these villages, where Chronic Kidney Disease is rampant due to contaminated water sources.

Also this month, 50 cricket bags gifted by Mr. Shyam Bhatia from UAE to FoG Trustee Mahela Jayawardena were handed over to 50 rural school cricket teams on the 31st of January through the facilitation of the Foundation of Goodness. Mahela Jayawardena was joined by fellow FoG Trustee Muthiah Muralidaran and Roshan Mahanama, as well as FoG Founder/ Chief Trustee Kushil Gunasekera and Trustee Ashan Malalsekera for the handing over ceremony hosted by David Cruse.

February
IRONKIDS took place on the 24th of February, in Partnership with the Foundation of Goodness. It was a run-only event in a festival atmosphere, for kids aged 3 to 14 years at the Galle Face Green in Colombo sponsored by Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo. This was the 2nd such event in Sri Lanka, following the IRONKIDS Aquathlon which took place at the FoG Sports Academy in Seenigama last year, which saw the participation of 135 rural kids. Among the 500 international kids participating this year for the run, were 10 rural students from the Foundation of Goodness, which was a great opportunity for our budding athletes from the village to gain exposure at an event of international standing.

IRONMAN 70.3 Colombo took place on the 25th of September. The Foundation of Goodness put forward 4 Unity Teams: made up of FoG athletes from the North, South, East and West of Sri Lanka. We also entered two individual athletes, one of whom was FoG triathlete and Asia Games participant Lakruwan Wijesiri. We are delighted to announce that Lakruwan placed 4th in his age category while one of our Unity Teams came runners up in the team event.

March
The Foundation of Goodness was delighted to learn that the Goodness Rhythm Dance Troupe won 2nd place in the All Island Ladies Low-Country Drumming event and 3rd place in the All Island Ladies Team Dance event at the National Youth Awards. 

Meanwhile the annual Shelton Gunasekera Memorial Swimming Meet was organised by the Foundation of Goodness at the Bryan Adams Foundation Pool Complex. It was a great platform for our young swimmers to test their skills against each other. This year too, we were delighted to see many talented swimmers take the plunge, including the participation of 16 schools from the region. We look forward to the accolades these budding swimmers will bring to Sri Lanka in the future.

April
Subway Sri Lanka had a special promotion once more for World Sandwich Day, with proceeds going towards feeding 200 beneficiaries from the Western and Southeastern regions of the island in partnership with the Foundation of Goodness.

We are incredibly proud of FoG chess player Sasith Nipun Piyumantha who won the Under 16 Open Gold Medal at the Asian Youth Chess Championship 2018 in Chiang Mai, Thailand this month. This is a historic achievement for Sri Lanka as this was the 1st time in history that a Sri Lankan player bagged the top spot in any age group at an Asian Youth Championship. 

May
The ‘Coaches Across Continents’ Team visited the Foundation of Goodness for a second time and conducted a four day programme on team building at the Sports Academy for our coaches, students and disabled soldiers.

37 schools and cricket academies from Southern Sri Lanka received new and used cricket equipment donated by Harry Solomons and Kingsgrove Sports Centre, Australia while Netballs donated by them were handed over to school Netball Teams that needed help obtaining equipment. These donations make a giant impact towards developing rural sports in Sri Lanka and encouraging the next generation of aspiring sportsmen and women to shine.

June
The Foundation of Goodness is expanding its Special Needs activities and will be assisting other organisations supporting Special Needs Children's programmes in Moneragala, Kilinochchi, Jaffna and Ambalanthota. With the leadership of Dr. Naj Nagendran, we will be liaising with Serendip Children's Home in building a programme in the North with the affiliation of the Ministry of Education. This programme will be replicated in the South as well. We will be working with the Methsewa Foundation in Moneragala as well as the CIMA Students Society and Schools Relief Initiative to take forward the Special Needs Development activities.

July
The Foundation of Goodness’ 10th Village Heartbeat Empowerment (VHE) Centre opened its doors on Sunday 1st July 2018. Situated in Bindunuwewa-Bandarawela District, this marks the Foundation's first VHE Centre in the central region of the island, following the establishment of three Centres in the South, three in the East and three more in the North, in steady progression.

The Centre was declared open by renowned Sri Lankan cricketer Mr. Sidath Wettimuny. We also wish to salute the Wijesuriya Family from UK who gifted ‘Farleigh’, their beautiful ancestral property, as the location to establish this Centre. We would also like to honour Mr. & Mrs. Mohan and Geetha Chandramohan from USA, who have been the development sponsors for this project for a period of 5 years. The kindness and generosity of these donors has helped us deliver these valuable services which is invaluable in helping under-served communities prosper and move away from poverty and hardship.

The OYOB (Own Your Own Block) Tuk Tuk Ride took place between 27th July and 4th August. 11 riders in 10 tuk-tuks drove from Jaffna to Seenigama accompanied by their friends and family, in a group of 23 intrepid adventurers from Australia. Along the route which ran from Jaffna through Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Arugam Bay, Moneragala and Tangalle to Galle, the team made pit-stops at FoG’s Kilinochchi Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centre and Moneragala Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centre before the ride concluded at our flagship model, the MCC Centre of Excellence and Sports Academy in Seenigama. This incredible undertaking has raised funds for three years of sustainability costs for the Moneragala VHE Centre which is sponsored by the OYOB Property Group.

Our heartfelt congratulations goes out to Sakuni Amaya from the FoG Sports Academy who was selected as a member of the Sri Lanka U19 National Schools Netball Squad for the tour of Melbourne (Australia) which took place in July 2018. Sakuni is the 9th girl from the Academy to secure a spot in the National Netball Squad.

U.S. Olympian Kim Vandenberg is a renowned swimmer with accolades from the Olympics, Pan American games, U.S. National Championships, and World Championships. She visited Sri Lanka for the very first time in order to host swim clinics accompanied by Dhammika Withanachchi who is a New York-based coach and USA swimming official. We at FoG were privileged to have Kim conduct a clinic exclusively for 40 of our beneficiaries at the Bryan Adams Foundation Swimming Pool Complex in Seenigama which was an immensely valuable experience for our swimmers.

A big congratulations goes out to our Senior Chess Player Saith Nipun Piyumantha who won 3 gold medals (U17 Open- Rapid, U17 Open- Rapid Country and U17 Open- Classical Country) and 1 silver medal (U17 Open- Classical) at the 14th Asian Schools Chess Championship- 2018.

FoG Karate Team senior member S. L. Mendis won the Bronze Medal in the U14/15 Male Kumite Category at the Sri Lanka Karate Federations 2018 National Karate Championship.

August
In August we were pleased to have the opportunity to announce a new partnership between the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) in Sri Lanka and the Association of Professional Sri Lankans (APSL) in the UK. FoG and APSL entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, wherein the two organizations will work collaboratively on charitable projects and fundraising ventures to benefit under-served communities in Sri Lanka while providing UK based donors an opportunity to donate funds.

Prospective donors can now use the link https://virginmoneygiving.com/fund/fog for their donations and the UK donors will be able to reclaim by way of tax, the donations made by them to APSL, which is a recognized and registered Charity in the UK.

We are delighted to declare open our 8th Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Plant in Habarawatta, Galnewa (Anuradhapura District) together with Chief Guest Dr. Tom Davis- 1st Secretary Development Cooperation- Australian High Commission. The project was funded by the Australian Government's Direct Aid Program and will provide clean water for approximately 1,200 beneficiaries from 8 villages in the surrounding region, where their water sources have become so severely contaminated that the people live under the constant threat of contracting Chronic Kidney Disease.

September
FoG Triathlete and Swimming Coach Lakruwan Wijesiri became the first ever Sri Lankan Triathlete to participate in the Asian Games which took place in Indonesia where he placed 24th in the Elite Men's category with a timing of 02:11:28.

Lakruwan joined the Sri Lankan delegation who travelled to Indonesia for the 18th Asian Games which took place from the 18th of August to 2nd of September. Lakruwan also took 1st place at the National Triathlon Championship in Sri Lanka and has won 6 out of the 8 local triathlons.

A big congratulations to 17-year-old Kaveesha Dilhari; FoG cricketer from Devapathiraja College, who was selected for the National Ladies Cricket Team. She faced India for 5 T20 and 3 ODI matches, during this tour. During the third ODI against India, she picked Harmanpreet Kaur's wicket off the penultimate ball of the game and scored a vital 12 not-out in Sri Lanka's successful chase of 254 – the team’s highest score in ODIs.

October
‘Sky Sports with the Cricketing Greats’, Nasser Hussain and Robert Key visited Seenigama to film a segment with our trustee Muthiah Muralidaran, to be aired on Sky Sports during the England vs Sri Lanka Cricket Series.

The PMTT Moyes Brothers' Walk on behalf of the Methsewa Special Needs Home (Moneragala) as facilitated by the Foundation of Goodness took place from the 13th to 18th October with FoG trustee and legendary cricketer Muthiah Muralidaran flagging off the event. Brothers Kenny and Jamie Moyes were joined by family and friends to complete 100 km on foot from Colombo to Weligama to raise funds for the 90+ special needs and differently abled residents of Methsewa Home.

75 solar power units were gifted to families on the island of Iranaitheevu in Northern Sri Lanka who did not have access to electricity. 50 units were donated by Chandra Fernando (Australia) with ‘Anduren Eliyata’ (Darkness to Light) while 25 were donated by Dushyanthy Sutherland-Pillai (UK).

We are delighted to announce that the Seenigama Ladies Cricket Team have retained their Division 1 ranking for 2019 while the Cricket Seenigama Club Team has qualified to play in Division 2.

November
National Sri Lanka Deaf Cricket Team became the Champions of the Deaf-ICC T20 World Cup 2018 played in Gurugram, India. We are beyond proud to acknowledge that Captain Gimadu L. Malkam and three other players, Goyum Shanaka Walgama, Udaya Lakmal and Dinuka Sachin are all member of the FoG Sports Academy.

Congratulations to 17-year-old Kaveesha Dilhari from Devapathiraja College was selected to play for the National Ladies Cricket Team in the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies in November.

Our young TT players were treated to an immense honour, when the National Olympic Committee facilitated a training session with former German National Table Tennis Coach Martin Adomeit at our Sports Academy.

The Foundation of Goodness organised a large scale beach cleaning campaign recruiting the local community, police and municipalty leaders as well as 150 of our own staff members to educate, motivate and facilitate the community and other beachgoers to play an active role in keeping our beaches clean.

The event was not just about collecting detritus from the coast, it also involved placing waste collection receptacles along with clear instruction for people to reduce waste and properly dispose of it. Additional signage was placed in English, Sinhala and Tamil encouraging people to keep the beach clean and highlighting the importance of preventing pollution.

Also this month, we were delighted to welcome a group of over 50, made up of MCC Members and their families including MCC President Mr. Anthony Wreford and his lovely wife Marian. The group toured the MCC Centre of Excellence and Sri Sumangala MCC Lords Cricket Ground in Hikkaduwa which were established with the kind sponsorship of the MCC as well as the Seenigama Sports Academy.
 
Mr. Wreford presented the annual MCC scholarships to 15 up and coming young cricketers of 2018/19 followed by a friendly cricket match between the MCC/ Scholarship Recipients Combined Team and the MCC/ FoG and Scholarship Recipients Combined Team.

Former MCC President Mr. Mike Gatting along with Mr. Jamie Clifford, Assistant Secretary, Membership & Operations - MCC also toured the Foundation of Goodness’ programmes in Seenigama along with 10 MCC Members.

December
30 students from our Moneragala Village Heartbeat Centre and St. Anne’s Vidyalam in Mannar spent two days in Colombo with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, learning about music and song. They started off with a very special session on meditation and creative expression. They also spent time with the orchestra and the choir and trained in carol singing and performance. This was a great opportunity for our kids to polish up their vocal chords just in time for the Christmas season.

This exchange between the North and South was an important step in reconciliation and goodwill between the regions. It was inspiring to see everyone having a great time, celebrating their shared love of music.

The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka signed an MOU with the Foundation of Goodness, joining us in our endeavors to promote and support sportsmen and women from rural Sri Lanka, giving them every opportunity to shine.

7th January 2019