Foundation of Goodness-Rural Empowerment

As a young boy growing up in a rural village, I was aware of the advantages I had in life because my family could send me to school in the capital city of Colombo. At the same time, I was always struck by the glaring disparities between city and village, vowing to come back and eliminate these problems.

A small project begun only with purity of intentions as an aspirational attempt to lower the inequality that exists in marginalized society starting in my own village which now reaches over 31,000 beneficiaries annually from 400+ villages across the nation via 11 empowerment centres, providing free of cost education, uplifting rural communities. It’s now a one-of-a-kind holistic rural development model recognized by RMIT University as one of the best post-tsunami initiatives they studied and I have received the 1st ever Sri Lankan Commonwealth Points of Light Award by HRH Queen Elizabeth.

The Foundation of Goodness seeks to empower rural, marginalized villages from the most far flung areas of the country with poor access to resources and infrastructure, including the most low income districts of Sri Lanka- Batticaloa, Monaragala and Mullaitivu by presenting opportunities, facilities, training and exposure which they currently lack, in a holistic manner by way of education, vocational training, sports, life skills and good values programmes all conducted free of charge.

We recognize that people have different interests and abilities which can help them succeed therefore we have utilized a holistic approach which not only caters to different areas of interest but also promotes cross learning to encourage new proficiencies among beneficiaries for self-empowerment leading to better financial and life opportunities for our beneficiaries to escape the cycle of poverty they are trapped in.

Poverty in Sri Lanka has been an entrenched issue which has proven difficult to combat, with income inequality remaining unchanged for 4 decades (Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka) and the poorest 20 percent only accessing 5 per cent of the total household income of the country. The Asian Development Bank recognizes that ‘rise in inequality was driven by uneven access to infrastructure and education, and by occupational differences…Sri Lanka did not achieve the kind of structural transformation that could have provided greater employment opportunities.’

A regional disparity in wealth and opportunity becomes evident and as per ADB this problem is compounded by the lack of labor mobility as labor markets are highly segmented with spatial, skills-related, and institutional barriers to the movement of labor within and between regions.

In 2016 the Sri Lankan Department of Census and Statistics identified that 82.2% of the poor population in Sri Lanka was from the rural sector and 9.8% from the estate sector.

FoG directly addresses these issues of uneven access to infrastructure and resources as well as the geographic distribution of poverty by establishing 10 empowerment centres across Sri Lanka in rural impoverished areas and providing the necessary resources for development. 

The Foundation provides resources and opportunities for people from a holistic standpoint by way of education and training as well as welfare support for poverty alleviation. We recognize that different people have different needs and wish to provide the necessary support system for them to excel in life.

The FoG model conducts a standard set of educational and vocational training programmes delivered via each of its Centres including English Language, Computer, Link Language (to open up a dialog between the two main language groups in the island, teaching Sinhalese to Tamil speaking communities and vice versa, who were separated by years of civil war), Women’s Empowerment and Business Skills as well as a Children’s Good Values Initiative to teach our students to live an ethical and altruistic life. Additional classes are added to each Centre as per the needs of the community including sports and educational classes. These programmes help the beneficiaries to gain better career and financial prospects and build a better standard of life for themselves, their families and communities.

The Foundation of Goodness mainly focuses on uplifting rural under-served communities hindered by financial hardships who have difficulty accessing the necessary education and training options for self-development. Irrespective of age, gender, language, religion or ethnicity, the Foundation seeks to provide villagers, with a special focus on children, youth and women, with free of charge programmes as well as short to midterm support such as scholarships, welfare and medical needs etc. to help them gain the foundational skills that will springboard them towards more financially viable opportunities.

The communities are often blue-collar workers where the father is the main bread winner often engaged in farming, factory work or casual laborer and women often see themselves as homemakers who have not realized their full potential as income earners. As a result, boys are given priority over girls when it comes to resource allocation and the kids are often discouraged from pursuing sporting interests because the parents cannot afford the necessary equipment.

FoG has 11 empowerment Centres situated across the island including in the North and East to promote post-war reconstruction and development as well as among the poorest regions (Moneragala, Mullaitivu and Batticaloa) and communities (estate worker community in Bandarawela). 

The Foundation of Goodness’ central premise is to elevate opportunities for all people especially those who are traditionally left behind. Our core belief is that all people have intrinsic but different skills and interests which they should be given the opportunity to develop without being held back by economic or socio-cultural barriers such as poverty, sexism, racism or an inability to access opportunities because of their rural background and a lack of availability in opportunities. My goal is equal opportunities for all, society can only move as fast as its slowest members, so helping them helps everyone to progress.

Growing up, I was blessed to be a child from a middle income family who were able to offer me opportunities to get ahead in life by way of education in the capital city of Sri Lanka. Therefore, I could not accept that there were kids so much brighter, more talented, clever, and more studious than myself who did not have the opportunity and facilities to make better progress.

Realizing this, I vowed one day I’m going to make the necessary change by taking small steps, and decided to address the issues in the rural village school where I witnessed kids without shoes to class, writing notes for all 8 subjects in one book and barely having one square meal a day.

Going beyond school, I found their houses lacking electricity, pipe borne water and other shortcomings which I again tried to find solutions for and discovered that nothing multiplies so much as kindness. Other benevolent friends and donors started to be inspired by the work that was being conducted and flocked to join in the cause.

In the end, I walked away from a lucrative career in the sugar industry to dedicate all my time voluntarily to this endeavor.

I have seen children who came from backgrounds filled with adversity, with parents mired in poverty or even alcoholism rising above the lot handed to them by fate to make a better life for themselves and their families. I have seen women who, with strength and determination not only learn a trade, but also become entrepreneurs and employers who then help uplift more women around them, building and uplifting the whole community. Seeing a child who was orphaned by the tsunami go on to represent Sri Lanka at the U19 cricket world cup, or help a young boy who struggled to become a triathlete running down village roads to get international training and go on to placed in the top 10 at international competitions, a young lady looking for opportunities after school to learn the basics of bakery and go on to become an assistant party chef at the world renowned Shangri-La chain of hotels… the list goes on, and seeing them reach such heights heartens me to work longer and harder to extend these opportunities to more and more people.

I have always had a very systematic, disciplined and detail-oriented approach to getting things done and that kind of planning helped me to enhance my prospects at any task I undertook.

When I first started these projects, my only supporters were close friends and family so it was imperative that I delivered on the trust they placed in me. I carry that sentiment to this day, even when my donors are strangers or big corporations, to me, they are my closest allies helping to realize the noble pursuit of uplifting others. Therefore giving my donors feedback in an accountable, transparent manner, surpassing their expectations, builds goodwill that their funding has been put to good use, seeing that the donation has been well thought of, planned and executed.

FoG has 20 years of experience with local communities and developing curricula that cater to their needs, delivered in the most impactful way and hires staff from the local community so that everyone has a deep understanding of the community they work with to deliver best fit programmes and trains the staff with the support of nationally and internationally qualified volunteers from our support network.

I have personally visited every community that we have expanded in to and carried out detailed research in to the needs of each community and the impact that our programmes have, especially given areas which are recovering from the devastation and privation of war, extreme poverty and isolation as well as in the aftermath of natural disasters.

The greatest obstacle I ever faced in my life came with the tsunami waves that wiped out entire villages in a flash, on 26th December 2004. This unprecedented disaster which I experienced firsthand, being caught up in the waves, left me with a choice to make - to completely rebuild the entire village anew or walk away.

My ancestral home in the middle of the village was badly affected but standing and while I would later gift it to the Foundation of Goodness to create a ‘Centre of Excellence’, in the immediate aftermath it was converted in to the nerve centre of humanitarian operations, serving badly affected beneficiaries across many villages.

There were waves of support and compassion coming our way from around the world to overcome the waves of destruction and I saw a unique chance to create new hope out of the devastation. My ethos was to say yes to every opportunity that came and find means by which to make it work.

These activities were the catalyst which turn inspired the next phase of growth for the Foundation of Goodness.

After the waves of the Indian Ocean Tsunami has slowly receded and the whole world was reeling with the news of the death and destruction, leadership meant knowing that change is inevitable and accepting first and foremost that such an occurrence cannot be reversed. It calls on you to reach for your inner reserves and inner calm to reflect, stay positive, never give up, look ahead and do the best you can, taking it one day at a time but at the same time, bringing together a long term plan for the future.

We had the vision to set up in an organised manner, identifying different areas that we needed to address in a prioritized way such as housing, healthcare, livelihoods, women’s empowerment, children’s welfare, sports, all of which implemented from my badly broken home, slowly rebuilding the village with the necessary infrastructure and facilities.

Today, I have not only been able to recreate my village better than it was before, but to also extend my learnings around the country to help more and more people empower themselves with the help of a multitude of people including celebrities, renowned companies, philanthropists and donors all coming together for a singular cause.

The Foundation of Goodness is a registered Non-Governmental Organisation in Sri Lanka.

This project is unique in that it had developed methods by which to address the needs of our beneficiaries across various stages of life and across a broad plethora of needs, serving everyone from kids, youth, women to the elderly and even those with special needs, by way of our services which start at a pre-school level and go all the way through educational and higher educational support to vocational training, sports, psycho-social support, medical facilities and many other areas that serve as a foothold for people to regain control of their lives and turn things around for personal empowerment.

In terms of a new dimension of performance, the one thing I knew is that opportunities which come your way will never return right to your doorstep and as such I said yes to every opportunity and found a way to make it work which resulted, for example, in establishing a dental clinic  soon after the tsunami which is still in operation after 13+ years having served 25,000+ beneficiaries from 48 neighboring villages and the only dental clinic available free of cost to the cash strapped village beneficiaries.

We don’t charge our beneficiaries for any of the programmes we offer but they are required to pass on the kindness they received by conducting community aid projects to help other members of their community. We equipping them with the correct morals and virtues in addition to their education so that their path to success will benefit others as well as themselves.

Providing free of charge resources which are easy to access > learning new skills/ developing existing skills > increased ability to successfully compete in the job market > employment/ entrepreneurship > increased income/reduction in poverty > empowerment/ increased decision making capability > improved standard of living in rural communities

The Foundation of Goodness (FoG) currently provides a range of services, classes and programmes aimed at providing foundational skills as well as up-skilling our beneficiaries via our flagship venue, the MCC Centre of Excellence and Sports Academy in Seenigama as well as 10 Village Heartbeat Empowerment (VEH) Centres situated across the island in addition to the provision of basic welfare needs that give them stability at the most basic level to provide the necessary support for self-development (eg: scholarships, providing clean water, sanitation and electrical facilities, urgent medical needs, psycho-social support).

In 2019, 31,500+ beneficiaries availed themselves to the various services provided by the Foundation of Goodness. Most of our educational and vocational programmes have a duration of 6 or 12 months. Our education classes are conducted to help our students supplement their in-school learning, do better at their studies, continue to progress along the grade levels and stay in school long enough to graduate successfully at which point their academic qualifications will support progression to higher studies which will provide them the skill-set for gainful employments. Our vocational training students develop the skill set to successfully find employment and even become successful entrepreneurs who are themselves job creators. 

The Foundation of Goodness serves 31,500 people in 2019 (this total is made up of students graduating from our classes which can be 6 months or 12 months in duration at our 10 VHE Centres approx 4,600, all programmes at the MCC Centre of Excellence approximating 11,300 beneficiaries, 500 students attending our sports programmes  and the numbers from our ongoing special projects such as beneficiaries of the 9 Reverse Osmosis Water Purification plants set up island-wide to combat chronic kidney disease from water contamination, welfare and scholarship programmes, special needs support, our annual essential school item pack distributions and other special projects which comes to approx. 15,000).

We had hoped to reach a similar number in 2020, however because of the Covid 19 pandemic which brought curfew and shutdown orders across Sri Lanka, with the government closing all schools educational institutions and afterschool classes and programmes for kids, many of the students enrolled for the first batch of classes in 2020 have been unable to complete the programmes. Therefore we may see close to 50% reduction in our numbers this year.

With restrictions lifting, plans are underway to slowly return to normal. By 2021 we hope to have established 5 new Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centres increasing the beneficiary count to a minimum of 33,000 (calculating the lowest number per additional VHE Centre per year at 300 beneficiaries) and with a 5 year plan of establishing 25 VHE Centres across Sri Lanka we aim to serve close to 38,000 beneficiaries island-wide. 

Within the next year, the Foundation of Goodness seeks to increase its operational reach to new areas of the island which have previously not benefited from our free-of charge programmes in an effort to touch the lives of even more remotely located Sri Lankans who live in areas where schools do not  have enough teachers, have never seen a computer and don’t know about the world of opportunities that they are disenfranchised from to give them access to resources for self-development to raise the standard of living in these remote villages.

This will be achieved by expanding our network of Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centres, which are miniature version of our flagship model/ project headquarters, the MCC Centre of Excellence from the current 10 to 25 Centres which give villagers access to skills development opportunities via courses such as IT, education, empowerment and life values. More importantly, through this network of Centres I also plan to build a society that inculcates the spirit of goodness and kindness to become meaningful productive citizens for the greater benefit of our nation.

However, my primary goal is to set up a self-sustainability solution to ensure the longevity of FoG, which currently has an annual budget of a million dollars, in building a model which is less donor dependent. This plan has already has shown immense progress by way of the enterprise avenues we have set in place which now need to be developed and expanded to cover all of our running costs.

The critical barrier in reaching my goals have mainly centered around securing the necessary funding to maintain and expand our programmes. Being an organization that has now been in operation for 20+ years, I have experienced first-hand the phenomenon of donor fatigue, and rightly so as we cannot remain donor dependent in the long term. Many of our long-term donors were also limited by policy and regulations when Sri Lanka was upgraded to an upper-middle income country some years back, although the recent down grade back to a lower-middle income by the World Bank may see these circumstances changing once more.

To move towards a self-sustained model, the Foundation of Goodness has been exploring income generation avenues which can help fund our programmes and are also often closely connected to the programmes we deliver. We reached 35% of sustainable funding in 2018 with plans to increase it to 70% by the end 2020 but we faced a major setback in 2019. The Easter Sunday Terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka saw three luxury hotels and three churches bombed by terrorists which caused a huge drop in Sri Lankan tourism. This was exacerbated by the COVID -19 global shutdown which further decimated our income generation avenues.

The Foundation of Goodness also faces challenges with regard to expanding our programmes, matching them with sponsorships, global visibility, ensuring high quality and standards across all Centres, incorporating technology and the necessary manpower for training and upgrading staff to keep up with changing trends.

We are working hard to develop and expand our existing income generation avenues, including a small Business Process Outsourcing centre staffed by our IT Centre graduates, a Dive Tourism initiative linked with our Dive Training Centre, a traditional dance troupe who perform at events, Sri Lankan cooking classes for tourists, Sports Tours and ‘Voluntourism’ which combines travel and tourism with volunteering and community development/ fundraising.

We are also researching and developing new initiatives through novel business enterprise avenues, especially in the context of the current health and wellness trend for both mind and body. My main goal at the moment is developing the ‘Good Life Institute’ Initiative, which is a mentorship and life development opportunity for people to rejuvenate both body and soul through meditation, personal/mind development and healthy lifestyles which impart values that stand the test of time in the journey of life, to travel from happiness to happiness. I am also in the process of developing a mobile app targeting early learning and school level audiences to teach good values as a lifestyle from a very early age.

The Foundation of Goodness is also in the process of fine tuning its approach to social media and promotions to increase our global visibility with the hope of attracting more donors and supporters from around the world to join with our vision.

An American Healthcare provider who our BPO provides services for and an American DIY-Craft supplier who sponsors FoG activities. A Switzerland Based investment bank/ financial services organisation completes a three-year sponsorship programme of our IT, Language Training and Business Skills programme at the project Headquarters in Seenigama, Southern Sri Lanka this year.

The largest manufacturer of cement in Sri Lanka has supported and sponsored rural cricket development initiatives in Sri Lanka by way of the Foundation of Goodness for 5+ years while the Marylebone Cricket Club (Lords- home  of cricket) - UK, has sponsored up and coming rural cricketers by way of the Foundation of Goodness for 10+ years after a sponsoring the establishment of the MCC Centre of Excellence, our flagship venue in Seenigama post tsunami followed by a sponsorship of the Centre for many years. The Surrey County Cricket Club who helped develop a cricket ground as a practice venue affiliated with our Sports Academy in Seenigama have recently renewed their sponsorship towards maintaining these grounds which are a valuable practice venue for rural sportsmen and women (and has produced international quality players who have represented our country including at the special needs cricket world cup).

We also receive ad credits from Facebook to support the promotion of our work and sustainable income ventures including the up and coming concept of ‘voluntourism’.

Over the years I strived towards achieving a balance between donor funding and revenue sourced via our sustainable income-generating (SIG) activities. This is to ensure that any significant drop in one or more sources do not result in halting any of the services we provide to the children, youth and adults from the rural villages we serve. With this in mind, my approach is a hybrid business model which is a combination of providing free of cost educational and vocational training programmes to the rural disadvantaged communities and running profitable activities where that profit is reinvested back for the sustainability of its programmes. FoG commenced as a Big Bettor, as soon after the Tsunami, I donated my property in Seenigama and alongside the large donations received from international donors, I set up the infrastructure to develop a one-of-a-kind holistic rural development model in Sri Lanka. Following its inception, as a Heartfelt Connector, the cause of empowering rural villagers through the provision of free education, resonated with many people, especially Sri Lankans residing abroad who wish to connect and support my humanitarian endeavors by giving back to their motherland through FoG. Many of the SIG initiatives such as The Good Life Institute (GLI), uses the Member Motivator model as the participants who take part in GLI programmes benefit from the valuable life-enriching experiences and lessons it provides to them. In return all the GLI participants provide direct support by volunteering or providing funds to sustain FoG’s community-aid programmes.

The Foundation of Goodness is currently shifting form a completely donor funded model to a self-sufficient one where we seek to raise the necessary funds to run all of the programmes delivered by our various Centres by way of income generation ventures directly connected to the programmes we deliver to our beneficiaries, providing additional employment opportunities for our students and boosting the local economy at the same time.

While we increase our ability to generate sustainable income up to 100% of our budget, the Foundation relies on the support of individual donors and corporate sponsors, some of whom have come on board for set periods of time for set amounts. EG: Sponsorship of one Village heartbeat Empowerment Centre for 5 years.

The Foundation of Goodness also has a network of trustees and supporters who conduct fundraisers on our behalf to support our activities.

We are working hard to develop and expand our existing income generation avenues which include a BPO, voluntourism and sports tourism, Dive Tourism, Sri Lankan culinary classes, a Tour of a Village in the Wake of a tsunami wave which gives people an opportunity to tour our Centre and hear our story of tragedy to triumph while also looking at developing new avenues along the lines of a membership programme, Good Life Institute retreats and the good values game/app.

We have also established the Goodness Endowment Trust to commemorate 20 years of service where the funds collected will act as a trust towards sustaining ongoing activities.

Swiss based Financial Institution (Grant for IT, Business Skills and Language Training programmes at the MCC Centre of Excellence ) - USD 50,000/-  

BPO (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture) – USD 78,500/-

Dive Seenigama (Dive Tourism based FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture)- USD 18,600/-

Spice and Shop Goodness (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture) - USD 13,800/-

Women’s Empowerment Centre Merchandise Sales (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture)- USD 2,200/-

Plates of Goodness Cooking Classes (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture)- USD 250/-

Other FoG Sustainable Income Generation Ventures- USD 1,500/-

Volunteer Accommodation (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture) - USD 17,500/-

Sports Tours and Cricket Ground Hire (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Venture where overseas sports teams, especially school and club level cricket teams visit FoG to play friendly matches against our Sports  Academy players and they often conduct fundraisers before arriving and donate the funds during the visit)- USD 66,829/-

Coral Planting and Adopt a Coral Programme (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Ventures linked with the Dive Centre)- USD 5,200/-

Community Aid Tourism (FoG Sustainable Income Generation Ventures - volunteers and voluntourism)- USD 23,000/-

Exchange rate: USD 1= LKR 181.25

The Foundation of Goodness is currently facing a very precarious period as our income generating avenues have dried up do to foreign tourism coming to a standstill due to global shutdowns resulting from COVID-19, added to which many of our regular donors are also struggling to maintain their sponsorships due to income restrictions caused by the pandemic. The Foundation of Goodness is close to exhausting possible funding and donation sources including funds held in trust to be used in emergency situations such as this, as I have campaigned hard since Sri Lanka shut down in mid-March 2020, and tapping in to all these sources to raise an equivalent of approx. USD 248,000/- in April, May and June of 2020 to keep our programmes running.

I must find ways to raise another USD 323,500/- by end 2020 to keep the project running. I am optimistic that by January 2021 our sustainable income avenues may pick up if the global situation improves, allowing for travel and tourism to resume.

The Foundation of Goodness currently has a monthly budget of approx. USD 65,000/-.

Exchange rate: 1 USD= 185.5 LKR

Annual Budget for 2020:

Total: USD 926,611/-

Areas included:

MCC Centre of Excellence (Flagship Venue)

Sports Academy

10 Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centres (situated in the southern, southeastern, eastern, central, north central and northern districts of Sri Lanka)

Sustainable Income Generation Projects

General Administration Costs

Special Community Aid and Welfare Projects for urgent needs

The criteria of the Elevate Prize is so compatible with our approach to serving humanity, as a holistic development model which resonates with our philosophy. Our scope of work is so broad, and our approach to development is so holistic that we believe no one singular approach will suffice when it comes to elevating humanity. We lead complicated lives in a complicated world and therefore, our needs too are often complicated and multifaceted. Giving books to a child who is hungry and return to a home with no electric lights to study by is less effective than a holistic approach whereby we help the whole community to gain access to electricity, better income generation opportunities and supporting the infrastructure of the local school with things like computer rooms. A child who receives school books in this empowered environment will always make better progress.

The immediate need the Foundation has is the necessary funding to tide us over the tough times brought about by the covid-19 pandemic which has put great stress on our funding sources. After we are over the current slump, we would benefit from support and guidance in developing our sustainable income avenues so that we will be able to generate the necessary funds to safeguard the longevity of our programmes and create the surplus of funds necessary of constant human capital development so that we can elevate the standard of programmes delivered through our organization.

The Foundation of Goodness is at a critical point where it needs to develop its funding and revenue model to successfully make the shift from a predominantly donor dependent model to a self-sufficient one, however we don’t have the necessary funds/ capital investment/ manpower to explore these opportunities to their fullest extent. Having access to expertise and support to develop our revenue model will help us successfully safeguard the longevity of our programmes, fully expand to more areas in need and benefit  from our existing ventures.

FoG is also keenly aware of social media and visibility in the modern age and are urgently seeking to develop our social media strategy, website visibility to increase traffic and gain recognition in the international sphere so that we would be able to attract a larger donor base. Therefore, we feel we have much to gain from marketing and media exposure.

The Foundation of Goodness’ key objective is to grow our sustainable income generation avenues so as to sustain our humanitarian programmes. In order to do so we would appreciate support in business development, app development, designing and launching products to the market and tourism promotion. Ideally we hope we can develop our ‘Good Values App/ Game’ and launch it via Google/ Apple/ Android or Facebook to reach a young audience.

Additionally, the ability to connect with more BPO opportunities and increase the number of seats/ position we currently provide would be a great boost to our income generation and will also empower many more rural beneficiaries with lucrative job opportunities.

The Foundation of Goodness would also appreciate promotional opportunities with Facebook/ Instagram and Google to promote our organization and sustainable income generation ventures by way of ad cents and positioning and any support towards increasing visibility of our website, social media channels and social media/ communications and marketing aspect of our organization.

The Foundation of Goodness is also greatly in need to support for developing training and up-skilling of staff because as we expand our services into other rural communities, we must ensure the quality and high standards of our work is on par with our progression. We also seek to digitize many of our programmes as our endeavor towards bridging the digital divide in education would find a lot of value in a partnership with an organization like Microsoft or Google.