Graduations of the Women’s Enterprise, Kids’ Computer, Diving & Photography take the Limelight at the Foundation of Goodness.

Women in rural villages of Sri Lanka are gems just waiting to be polished so they can shine. This week at the Foundation of Goodness they sure did, as they walked away shining with pride along with their latest graduate certificates.

Out of the many sectors at the Foundation of Goodness, Women’s Enterprise facilitates the most amount of women. This was apparent as 260 women coming in from 32 different villages graduated from the 9th Women’s Enterprise Graduation Ceremony which was held at the pre-school grounds for the first time. The pre- graduation preparations were meticulously attended to by its students and their instructress, Rashika Krishanthi of the beauty culture course.

The special day, 29th of December dawned upon Seenigama with all the students and instructors of the Women’s Enterprise making their way to the pre-school to make preparations for the ceremony that was to begin at 3.30 pm. There was a flurry of excitement as everyone hurried to get ready for the upcoming contests and displays. The models were pampered and groomed by the beauty course competitors; the food was laid out by the general cookery as well as dessert and patisserie course students whilst others from the patchwork, sewing, lacework laid out their arts and crafts for the display.

Their time was up at 3.30 pm as the chief guests for the day Mr. Chaminda Weerawarna, the manager of the Commercial bank, Hikkaduwa and Mrs. Bandara, the manager of Bank of Ceylon, Hikkaduwa branch graced the occasion along with the guests of honor for the day, our very own Mr. Kushil Gunasekera (Founder/Trustee FoG) and Mr. Sampath Viraj Prasangana (General Manager – FoG). With their presence, as per tradition in Sri Lanka the oil lamp was lit by all the guests present. Though the lighting of the oil lamp is a tradition, the lamp used at the function was definitely not a traditional brass one, but rather a creation of the students that utilized a more natural concept.


After welcoming the guests via a short speech by Mr. Sampath Viraj, the guests were taken on a tour by Mr. Kushil Gunasekera to visit all the stalls set up by students of various vocations. The stalls had impressive displays of baked goods such as cakes and pastries, handicrafts such as cushion covers and Sarees with beadwork, curtains made by students and handmade laces (Beeralu).

The main item on the agenda for the day was the bridal show, where the students of the beauty culture course had dressed beautiful young women as brides to parade in front of the guests in the manner of a pageant.  The poise and elegance with which the village models carried themselves, paired with the talent of the students of the beauty culture course truly made the bridal show a spectacular event.

There were 26 brides in total which consisted of western, Up-country, Low-country, Tamil, Muslim and Going-away styles of dress and make up, as well as 1 flower girl and Paige boy. The pageant which showcased so much talent by the villages around and within Seenigama concluded with the chief guests for the day selecting the models with the best makeovers as the winners of the competition.


Next proceeding was the certificate distribution, which was the last event of the day. 35 women graduated from the beauty culture course, 37 from the baking course, 32 from general cookery course, 32 from the patchwork course, 10 from the Lace making course, 54 from the sewing(dress making) course and 60 from the curtain making course. In addition to these, the best performers from each course were given special gifts in celebration of their talents.

Then came the speeches by the chief guests Mr. Chaminda Weerawarna and Mrs. Bandara who both claimed to be thoroughly impressed and awed by the entire event. To wrap up the occasion, the vote of thanks was delivered by Veena Sitari, a student at the Women’s Enterprise sector who was grateful for the experiences and the skills that added quality to her life by the Foundation of Goodness.

On this auspicious day, the graduation ceremony of students who were enrolled in the courses of Kids Computer, Diving and Photography also took place at the Aviva Community Hall. 56 students from the Kids Computer course representing 26 villages, 25 students from the Diving course representing 12 villages and 08 students from the Photography course representing 03 villages were among the graduates produced by the Foundation of Goodness that day.

This ceremony commenced by welcoming the chief guests for the day Dr.Aruna Rabel and Col. Manoj Lamahewa and the guest of honor, Mr. Kushil Gunasekera(Founder/Trustee FoG) by the students. After which, as traditions dictate in such a circumstance, the oil lamp was lit signifying the beginning of this celebratory occasion.



The welcome speech conducted by Mr.Sampath Viraj was followed by speeches from the chief guests Dr. Rabel and Col. Lamahewa. Following which presentations were made by various students of the computer and photography courses. Later, Mr. Kushil Gunasekera also addressed the gathering and expressed his heartfelt congratulations to all the graduating students.

The climax of the occasion was met when the distribution of the certificates were carried out among the graduating students. This marked the cornerstone of a total of 275 graduates from the computer training, 190 graduates from the diving center and 158 graduates from the photography class passing out from the Foundation of Goodness programs.

This event was also successfully brought to its conclusion by the delivery of the vote of thanks by two students enrolled in the courses, Umesha and Tashini.

These events were proof of the good work done by the Foundation of Goodness in the rural villages of the south, which uplifted the hearts of participants, bystanders, well wishers and the staff at the foundation to further assist the people of the south who were struck by the devastating tsunami to reach for the stars and beyond.

“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our lives or in the life of another”.
-Helen Keller

23.01.2012