Pipe-borne water and domestic electricity supply are two amenities that people take for granted in most of Sri Lanka and of course in most of the rest of the world. However, there are still households that do not enjoy these facilities here in the island.

Over the last two months the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) has been happy to coordinate the provision of these two basic amenities to a few households, chosen from amongst the poorest of the poor in Seenigama and its regions, to help make their day to day life easier.

New water or electricity connections
for 9 households

Benevolent Donor & Trustee   
Chaminda Vaas, star Sri Lankan cricketer and a trustee of the Foundation of Goodness (FoG), on hearing the difficulties these households were encountering due to the lack of basic amenities, kindly offered and undertook to bear the expense of having domestic water and electricity connections fixed.

FoG founder/trustee Kushil Gunasekera
with trustee Chaminda Vaas

The 9 families that benefited from this benevolent gesture had been on the ‘Sponsor Worthy Projects’ waiting list on this website for many many months.

The main obstacle to these 9 families availing of these two basic amenities is poverty – they are so poor that they could not afford the standard costs of installation of water and electricity supplies. This is where Chaminda Vaas stepped in magnanimously with over Rs. 150,000/- to help bridge the gap.

The 9 Beneficiary families
Of the 9 families the five that received water connections are from the areas of Kalupe, Seenigama and Gintota while the four that got electricity connections are from Totagamuwa, Udumulla, Gonapinuwala and Seenigama.

Some of the connections for water and electricity cost way above the standard rate as electricity posts and pipes for water had to be fixed to reach the beneficiary household from points along the existing networks.

Today the happy beneficiaries - K.A. Salila, N.H. Sumitha, P.T. Niroshan Dasanayaka, K.Indrawathi, K.B.G. Chandrika and T.H. Sameera are all smiles. Their lives have been eased.

Bathing, washing clothes and watering gardens
are now a possibility for these happy villagers

The households which didn’t have a water supply connection, used to obtain water from neighbours’ wells. Now they can cook, bathe, wash clothes and tend their home gardens with ease.  

These children will be able to study
under bright light

For the beneficiaries of electricity connections – a whole new world has opened up. They can now use electrical appliances and more importantly the students can study late into the night under proper lighting instead of by kerosene-powered bottle lamps.

For these 9 families, life has improved. Yet there are still others that are languishing without domestic water and electricity supplies and also with other pressing needs, hoping that a kind beneficiary will come to their assistance. Their details can be accessed here.

Meanwhile, following the kind gesture of his fellow trustee, the founder/trustee of the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) Kushil Gunasekera had words of appreciation and praise for Chaminda Vaas for undertaking this very humane gesture. Elaborating Gunasekera said “especially to provide light and dispel darkness, which is a most invaluable gifting one could ever undertake - not forgetting pipe-borne water to their homes as opposed to well water. More importantly the occasion coincided with Vaas’ achievement of capturing the 400th ODI wicket in his illustrious cricketing career, which is far important and significantly noteworthy than the celebration itself of joining this unique band of outstanding cricketers in the world. What a great thought of sharing his success with those who were in desperate need - improving their quality of life - making a positive difference for the better by this exceptional feat. There are quite a few others who contributed under similar circumstances or on account of special occasions such as birthdays to illuminate the lives of others in darkness. Well done Vaasy for being very considerate and caring!”

“Happiness is a by-product
of an effort to make
someone else happy”
- Gretta Brooker Palmer

2009.01.26