Sustainability is ‘key’ to life and living without which, death or an end is inevitable. It is, in a general sense, the capacity to maintain a certain process or state, indefinitely and is now a term which has been applied to systems as well.

Looking back over the years at how the Foundation of Goodness has grown brings a smile to the faces of those who have been associated with our work. Yet, for those involved in the day to day running of this charity, that smile slowly fades.

The Foundation of Goodness operates 30 sectors covering the areas of health, education, sports, women’s empowerment, skills & livelihoods training and environment. Keeping this afloat financially is fast becoming a daunting and steep uphill task, especially now that tsunami funding is near running dry for this village model that was ‘built in the wake of a wave’.

FoG’s holistic village model incorporates society,
economy and environment

The Foundation serves the people of Seenigama and its region catering to 20,000 beneficiaries from 25 villages, a majority of who were badly hit by the tsunami. If any or most of the 30 sectors are to wind down, it is these poor and disadvantaged rural people that regard the Foundation of Goodness as a beacon of light, that will be deprived of facilities that are enjoyed by their fellow citizens in the commercial capital and other big cities and urbanized areas. The mere establishment of all these facilities with the waves of compassion, are seeing huge waves of progress for the better as we see results of these children and youth who have excelled because of the generous donors who cared for them to make a positive difference.

In his latest update on this web site, the founder/trustee of the Foundation of Goodness Kushil Gunasekera sums up the operation “the entire project is comparable to a mini government in action with the welfare of disadvantaged people in mind for their future betterment.” He goes on to explain how a lack of funds is now creasing the Foundations brow “we are compelled to spend a lot of our time looking for opportunities and campaigning for resources hopefully with the aim of investing the capital and to run the project by way of interest income generated which will ease the pressure to eternally look for funding in the long term.”

Rural youth avail of the well-equipped
computer classroom while children fill
to capacity an English language class

Recently, there has been some light at the end of the tunnel. Two charity arms of two big institutions stepped in with grants to assist the FoG’s work. The first was The Mirchandani Foundation Sri Lanka of the well-known garment industrialists Favourites Garments followed by Planet Wheeler Foundation, Australia, at a much higher level. These two charities are supporting the sustenance of sectors, yet many others will remain unsponsored in time to come, which are all offered free of cost to the disadvantaged communities.

Children and adults avail of the free medical
facilities including a well stocked dispensary

Other sectors, which are heavy-demand sectors like the Health sector is being managed with controlled patient numbers corresponding to existing budgets. As an example the entire medical centre costs which include pediatric, general medi-care, dental clinic, pharmacy and medi-lab catering to an average of 1,250 patients for a month from 25 villages, would cost a total of Rs. 4,283,671.44 annually (Rs. 356,972.62 per month).

Other annual sector costs are Women’s Enterprise Rs.  2,177,186.16, Environ Management Rs. 98,712.00, Rebuilding Lives Rs. 960,183.84, Business Skills development Rs. 2,813,157.24, English Teaching Rs. 251,040.00, omputer Training Rs. 914,662.32, Pre-School Rs. 533,750.88, Volunteer Accomodation Rs. 1,044,695.52, Handicraft abd clothing boutique Rs. 274,296.00, Fog Office Maintenance Rs. 2,126,206.32, Children’s Goodness Club Rs 1,32,440.00, Scholarships Rs. 2,344,200.00, Seenigama Oval Cricket Ground Rs. 887,757.00, Bryan Adams Swimming Pool Rs. 1,010,992.20, Volunteer Accomodation Rs. 583,727.40, Club House & Pavillion Rs. 418,339.20, Laureus Sports Project & Office Rs. 1,206,337.80, Sri Sumangala College Cricket Ground Rs. 813,600.00, Village Heartbeat (VH) Computer Training Rs. 372,818.64, VH English Teaching Rs. 214,260.00, VH Volunteer Cottage Rs. 105,457.68, VH Womens Enterprise Rs 360,000.00, VH Office Rs. 539,008.92, VH Children’s Goodness Club Rs. 139,440.00, Victoria Gardens Settlement Rs. 274,200.00, AVIVA Village / Perth City Council Village Rs. 302,514.00 and KPMG/LOLC Village Rs. 23,793.00.

Explaining his ideal to sustain the Foundation, Gunasekera said that “whilst compassionate donors were able to rebuild the lives of tsunami-affected villagers and facilities that were nonexistent in the rural sector it would be a shame if we cannot build on the platform cemented in extending equal opportunities to those who are skillful talented and smart but poverty does not allow them to access better learning opportunities for a bright and prosperous future. Nevertheless we are determined to showcase a model development which is rare in the context of a rural backdrop for new donors to caringly make the project grow into the future, especially when a major setback has been turned into a blessing for the good of humanity.”

“The difference between
the impossible and the possible lies in determination”
– Tommy Lasorda

2008.09.29