“I must change for my country to change” – Founder, Chairperson Mother ஸ்ரீ ලංකා

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“When I joined the Public Sector in 2008, the country was in a shadow of violence and crisis; while within the country we were facing the gruesome realities of the war, a global financial crisis, a food crisis and an oil crisis added to the gloom and doom scenario. There definitely was a lack of positive thinking and most people who could afford to, was looking for ways to leave the country. It looked as if there was no hope for our future. I couldn’t help but wonder, if we are so negative about the prospects of our country, we will never have to courage to even attempt to get over the crisis. I felt that there is a need to do something to make Sri Lankans believe in Sri Lanka, to believe in themselves and to believe that if we somehow work towards it together, there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
This drove me to start a movement that can build patriotism and love for our motherland. I studied what other countries had done in similar situation and conceptualized the idea of this movement for our country and presented it to H.E. the President Mahinda Rajapaksha, who fully endorsed the idea and gave his fullest support from the inception. Of course, during this crisis period had I asked for staff, infrastructure and finances for such a proposal, it would have probably never taken off. Hence, I started by finding an office, a team of volunteers and funding from friends in the private sector. The rest is history.
At the beginning it was an uphill task, since most people reacted to my idea with negativism and brushed it off as an impossible thing. However, with only one year into the program, our motherland’s fortune changed and we ware able to achieve our goals much easily. Today, we are in our 3rd year of operations and have been able to take our message to over 3 million children and to many adults of our family of 20 million people. We are proud to ay that we were able to achieve this with a small team of 4-5 full time staff and with total funding from sponsors and without any significant infrastructure. I believe that it was possible to achieve this success because the effort to build this movement came from deep within our hearts.
We will continue the movement as long as there are patriotic Sri Lankan who will support this cause, The driving force behind our effort and commitment is the joy and satisfaction you get when you see the love for the motherland sparkle in the eyes of our children and to know that we have done our best and shown the path for them to tae this country forward to reach its’ full potential”.