It is good to be back at a
Rotary Club Meeting. The last time I
addressed the club was in 1987 as a member of that club.
In 2011 soon after
suffering a stroke, I launched a Corporate
Social Responsibility programme for Asia Capital PLC., where I was then the Chairman and Managing
Director. It was titled “ Put a bit of
Jaffna into your Life”. I wish to talk
to you today on that programme. Young Tharindu Amunugama who is sitting over
there who looks like a large prize fighter was primarily responsible for the
launch of that programme. With his
assistance I published a Coffee Table book of photographs of Jaffna in transition soon after the
war. This book is available for sale if
you are interested in purchasing a copy .
The programme was built
on the foundation that National
Reconciliation is too important too important be left to the Government. It is a personal
responsibility of each and everyone of us.
There are 10,000 children
who have been affected seriously by the war.
Their education was disrupted and many have lost either one or both
parents. Selection criteria of children were that they were between 6 and 12 years old, children who have lost both parents or
lost a single parent, those disabled,
and in detention camps. We are using
this programme to extend a hand in friendship
to these children to help them in
their healing. The programme
provides them Rs. 12,000 per annum to help them in their education. These funds are used to provide study books, stationery, tuition, access to counseling and other little nick-knacks
that children love on an
individual scale and also to assist their families for certain
expenditures. In addition when those children show
are falling behind in their studies, Glorious Jaffna arranges to tutor
groups of such children in those studies . Together with Lanka India Oil
Company (LIOC) we organized an English
coaching programme for some children who
needed extra attention. However currently due to lack of resources we are
supporting only 500 such children. I would like to increase this figure
significantly over the next coming years.
We encourage the donors to have a direct link with the student. The student’s performance in school can be
checked by them using our website. www.gloriousjaffna.com
. Each donor is provided with
log-in facilities to the website where
they can get information about the children they support. Through this methodology, we want to provide
a direct link between the donor and the child (child’s wellbeing/fund
utilization etc) Asia Capital PLC
supports the programme in the administration costs . Donors have the knowledge
that all funds go directly to the
children, and it is not spent on administration of the programme. An
evaluation was carried out to measure the progress of the 500 students who were
benefitting under the Glorious Jaffna Educational sponsorship program. A total percentage of 67% increased
performance was attained by the children since the educational sponsorship was
given to them. This performance was
based upon the child’s overall
performance in his/her academic subjects in school . This percentage was arrived at after
comparing the overall marks of the child before sponsorship and after
sponsorship. For example, 8 of our children have performed very successfully in
the Grade 5 Scholarship examination and have been identified to proceed to some
of the best schools not only in Jaffna
but in the context of the entire education system in Sri Lanka. Several of them have been
selected to schools like Hartley College,
St. John’s and J/Kondavil CCTMS(Church of Ceylon Tamil Mixed
School) . We are now entering the second
phase of the programme where we can focus our resources to evaluate the progress of these children
who will now have to relocate to enter the better schools. We believe once these children who have been
in the programme are successfully
integrated into the community , we will take away the incentive for them to look on violence as a means of resolving their bitter history. These
kids are our future Chartered Accountants, Engineers, Doctors and Bankers of Sri Lanka. The Glorious Jaffna Programme will propel these children into the forefront
of Sri Lankan Society by providing them
assistance for their education. To quote
Mahatma Ghandi “ Hatred cannot be overcome by hatred it can only be overcome only by love” and to
quote Chapter 5 Vs. – 9 of the Gospel according toSt.Mathew “Blessed
are the Peacemakers – they will be called the children of God” and further to quote Martin Luther King “
Blackness cannot be overcome by blackness. It must be overcome only by light”.
The link we form between
the children and adults of the Sinhala
community in particular and their easy passage through a very hard
world is expected to form the bedrock of National reconciliation. For those of you who are more interested in
supporting the programme please talk to
Tarindu before you leave and establish contact with him.
As the victors of a long
and bitter war, it is imperative that the Sinhalese extend a hand of friendship to
the Tamils. Therefore the Sinhalese must make the first move. I am particularly calling on you the members
of the Sinhalese community of the Rotary Club to help me in this effort. Please help me to achieve this noble goal.
I am available to answer
any questions you may have.
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