Past Initiatives
2025 school supplies project:
An elementary schools was chosen in an area affected by drought affecting livelihood of sugar cane farmers in Hingurana area.Principal of this school reported that school attendance improved compared to the end of the year before.
Sponsoring a student:
When Dineth started working in 2024, he started a scholarship for a 10 yr old student, Pavani. This was started in collaboration with the local organization called "pirunu kusak, Pirunu Hisak", which is a school lunch and education support organization. Pavani passed 5th grade exam and entered a better school in the city. But her family was not able to afford transportation and other costs involved to attend this school. The commitment of the scholarship is monthly for 8 years. Pavani sends report cards, her teacher sends regular updates to her big brother, "Ayya" on regular basis. Scholarship money is used for school supplies, travel and extra curricular activities.
2024 school supplies project
Buddhist monk teaching school called "Pirivena" was funded with school supplies at the beginning of school year. Also funded the school supplies needed for the beginning of school year
2023 school supplies project:
Beginning of the school year school supplies, school bags, school shoes for a school in economically disadvantaged area which were cut off from the main city by a bridge that was unsafe for vehicles. This school was in danger of closing down if student attendance fell. So our aim was to keep the school open. White boards were installed in the classrooms. Cost: $500.
Monthly sponsoring school lunch 2022- 2024:
Diamond Jubilee school in Panadura, was going through a crisis of poor student attendance caused by severe economic crisis the country was facing. Student attendance fell to under 200. We started funding school lunch once a month for a period of 2 years. Student attendance increased to 400 within the first 2 months!
Sri Lanka Aid Fund 2022:
In 2022, Sri Lanka faced a state of emergency with devastating impacts across the nation. The UN classified this as a dire humanitarian crisis, with severe food shortage and fuel scarcity threatening lives of millions. In order to help, we partnered with Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala Vidyalaya, a school in a low income area, providing all school supplies for the students, so that they can be kept coming to school. This school was under the treat of closing down, we partnered with local carpenters and donors to renovate classrooms, repair a leaky roof and provide breakfast for a period of 3 months to students.
Scholarship to a student in need:
When Dinithi started working for the ABC unified school district and a local tutoring service in 2017, she believed keeping a kid just like her in school is worth more than a number of acts of kindness. The student was 4 years younger than her, a monthly scholarship was established to provide her with Rs. 2000 so that her father disabled following a stroke and her mother unable to work due to a hand injury, would be able to keep her in school. Even though she was not a star student at the time of starting the scholarship, she managed to rise above the challenges, became head prefect of her school at 10th grade, now in 12th grade, hoping to pursue university education in 2027.
Establishing a library and developmental toys for Pediatric Neurology ward at Kandy teaching Hospital:
We received a request to establish a library and provide developmental toys and games for the pediatric neurology ward at Kandy teaching Hospital. We obtained quotations for the items and books needed, connected with preschools and Montessori schools in the area, also raised funds to but the books and games in Sinhala. Total cost of the project was $450 for the new items and shipping.
Project Toy Drive January 2016:
While we were not able to see the kids who were undergoing cancer treatment due to infection risk, we managed to collect new toys and ship them to Sri Lanka to be given to the children in the Oncology hospital in Maharagama. Toy drives were conducted at school and local temples. Our friends donated so many toys that we managed to ship 3 large boxes to Sri Lanka and donated the larger toys to the women and children's shelter in Huntington Beach, CA.
Panadura Hospital pediatric ward project:
Our fund raising project was to help the pediatric ward essentials at Panadura Base Hospital. In a ward that housed about 40 children, we established a dining area for bystanders, mostly moms. Infant ward lacked baby cubbies which we funded and were built by a local carpenter. We also managed to but coloring books, crayons and established a small library of picture books, Sinhala and basic English books for the ward.
Flood relief, June 2017
Sri Lanka was devastated by heavy rains that destroyed entire villages. We contacted the government agencies to identify a village completely devastated by floods. People lost everything they owned. We fundraised by making cookies and small desserts, selling them outside the grocery store, Ralphs. Our first Gofundme was opened. With $1128 we bought school supplies for the elementary school including school bags. The community center was on a small hill, which was not affected. We bought play equipment and established a new library with books collected from the school district we attend Cerritos. We both had to give speeches in Sinhala when the whole village welcomed us with a ceremony organized by kids just like us, which was the best part. We used all our birthday gift money to buy shoes for the 15 kids who didn't have shoes to wear to school.
Eyeglass donation: Project Eye to Eye
We collected used eyeglasses starting at our schools: Gretchen Whitney high school and Gonsalves Elementary school in June 2014. We spread the word with a Facebook page. Adults, parents started donating used glasses. A few people donated new eye glasses purchased at Walmart. We communicated with a Lion club in Sri Lanka. They connected with an optometrist and found 312 school children in need of eyeglasses. The adult eyeglasses were donated to Helpage Sri Lanka. It is an organization who fund free cataract surgeries; these eyeglasses were donated to patients following cataract surgeries.