WITH CHARITY IN HIS HEART

Harry Solomons is a true example of a selfless, noble and charitable character. A Sri Lankan born Australian resident, Harry was once a top cricketer in his day, playing for the reputable St. Aloysius College in Galle and representing Ceylon as a schoolboy. After immigrating to Australia at the age of 26, Harry bought himself a small sports store in Sydney, after which he specialised in cricket and soccer equipment and grew to be the largest cricket equipment warehouse in Australia. During this time, Harry contracted and sponsored many Australian and Internationally recognized test players including Allan Border, Doug Walters and Imran Khan, Larry Gomes, Dirk Wellham, Len Pascoe and Gordon Greenidge. He subsequently sponsored numerous young and talented cricketers such as Mark and Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, Greg Matthews, Michael Slater and Brad McNamara. Harry identified the talent of these cricketers at an early age and offered them the full support to reach great heights in the international cricket arena. His contribution to these players included providing them with employment opportunities at his store, cricket equipment and most importantly, the motivation and encouragement to succeed.

But despite his residency and business in Australia, Harry Solomons has certainly not forgotten his roots. Harry regularly travels to Sri Lanka for a variety of reasons, including cricket, friends and family and a great deal of charity work that he carries out throughout the country. It was through cricket and personal associations with our Founder, Kushil Gunasekera, that the Foundation of Goodness first had the pleasure of working with Harry Solomons and his network of generous supporters. Kushil was a committee member of the Golden Oldies Cricket Festival held in Sri Lanka a few years ago at the same time that Harry Solomons was the Chairman of the group. Through his association with Kushil, Harry learnt of the plight of the rural villagers of the Seenigama community and decided to support our cause.

Months after the tragic tsunami hit Sri Lanka's shores, the Foundation's priority was to assist those villagers previously involved in the dangerous and environmentally damaging coral mining activities off the coast of Seenigama and to find them alternative vocations. Harry understood this crucial need for new means of livelihoods and was immediately willing to support the villagers. Together with the Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund NSW, Australia, Harry and his contacts came to the villagers' rescue when they needed it the most. The Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund NSW donated approximately AUD $10,000 towards our livelihoods programme, whilst Harry and an associate, Doug Crosby, together donated an additional AUD $10,000 towards providing the villagers with alternative and suitable means of employment. The contributed funds from the Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund NSW was enough to support the livelihoods of 17 villagers, whilst Harry and Doug's combined funds assisted 15 villagers through new jobs, improving their opportunities as well as that of their families.

To view the photographs of the 17 livelihoods provided by the Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund NSW, please click here.

To view the photographs of the 15 livelihoods provided by Harry Solomons and Doug Crosby, please click here.

Shortly thereafter, Harry visited Seenigama for the first time and, as our visitors often do, took a great liking to the village. He pledged that he would continue to support the Foundation and recently donated two huge packages of cricket equipment, after the most recent Golden Oldies tournament in Sri Lanka in April 2006. The two large cricket kits comprised all of the essential items required for a cricket team (which would have been worth a great deal of money) for the Seenigama Sports Club teams. This was in mind to compliment the cricket ground development that is currently underway in Seenigama. To receive such material is a blessing as this is such top-of-the-range cricket equipment from the best of its kind cricket warehouse in Australia. Since that time, the Foundation of Goodness has been fortunate to continue and strengthen this valuable relationship. Now, each time Harry travels to Sri Lanka, he visits the region to view the progress and determine further means of support.

Most recently, Harry so kindly took the Foundation's proposal to construct two accommodation centres adjoining the Seenigama Sports Centre to Cricket NSW and successfully negotiated with the CEO of Cricket NSW, David Gilbert, to receive funding on our behalf. The two accommodation centres will comprise two separate buildings, which will contain living quarters for teams as well as management and support staff for visiting young sportspersons. In addition to Harry's networking with Cricket NSW and obtaining funding on our behalf, he has recently pledged to provide the Foundation of Goodness with some artificial turf for the currently underway Surry Cricket Club cricket venue, likely to be called the Seenigama Oval. This is state-of-the-art, high quality turf, which is due to be installed on the cricket pitch in time for the completion of the grounds in early October 2006.

In line with this, Harry has recently undertaken to promote teams from clubs and schools in Australia and elsewhere to stay in the village of Seenigama, play cricket with counterparts and provide community work on a grass-roots level. This has become an emerging trend throughout the world, which, particularly since the tsunami, has allowed us to improve the opportunities of the underprivileged villagers more than ever before.

It is with the utmost appreciation, respect and gratitude that we thank Harry Solomons, his Project Manager, Stephanie Coory, the Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund of NSW, Doug Crosby, Cricket NSW (particularly David Gilbert) and the numerous other contacts that Harry has connected us with via his generosity and compassion. We consider Harry Solomons to be a very special friend of Seenigama and have no doubts that our partnership will take us to a different dimension, particularly with the development of the SCC cricket venue and his influence in Australia and international cricket. For a person of his stature to come to our village and offer his assistance, it is a true inspiration.