Harsha de Silva’s initiative benefits many in Sri Lanka
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The worthy recipients of the donation drive at the ceremony held in Seenigama
The initiative of Harsha de Silva, the former local first class cricketer and Sri Lanka women’s team and St. Joseph’s College team cricket coach, a donation drive to collect cricket gear for the underprivileged young cricketers in Sri Lanka from his adopted country Australia, successfully completed last week.
The donation drive, which Harsha initiated during early September, received a massive response from Brisbane, where the successful coached is based presently. Since leaving Sri Lanka to settle down in Australia few years ago, while continuing his endeavors in cricket as a coach, Harsha successfully completed a few projects that would benefit the young Sri Lankans back home.
“There are lot of under privileged girls and boys who don’t have proper gear playing cricket back in Sri Lanka. Most parents can’t afford to buy expensive new material. My simple idea was to collect new or usable cricket gear, footwear and clothing to send over for their use,” Harsha stated.
“Eventually we managed to sort through the donations collected and take an approximate count. An idea to try and help a few less privileged kids in Sri Lanka turned out to a big cricket gear, clothing and footwear collection which will benefit hundreds,” Harsha added.
The response Harsha received was amazing from the generous cricketing community of Brisbane, Australia. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where everyone was going through a tough time. The donations were packed and shipped to Colombo, where the consignment was taken over by the charitable organisation, Foundation of Goodness for distribution among rural school kids in Sri Lanka.
Back in Sri Lanka, according to Foundation of Goodness, the equipments received were distributed among 37 cricket clubs, schools and individuals from 30 different rural villages across the island.
Members of the Sri Lanka women's team and friends were present to give away the cricketing gear
“I received a message from Kushil Gunasekara, the Founder and Chief Trustee of Foundation of Goodness, that all the equipments were distributed among the needful. This is great news,” Harsha, humbly overjoyed by his initiative, said.
“It’s such a collective team effort from everyone. And nothing is more beautiful than those who go out of their way to make life beautiful for others,” he added.”
The project clearly depicts everything what Harsha and his team in Australia wanted to achieve with this noble cause. He considered it as an amazing effort by all concerned specially during this world pandemic time to make this happen against the odds.
“It took us through a long journey of eight months to collect around 12 cubic-metre of cricket gear from generous donors in Queensland, pack, ship, clear, repack and distribute among less privileged, rural village children in Sri Lanka. A big thank you to the Foundation for undertaking the huge task and responsibility of identifying the most needed and organising the distribution at their Seenigama Centre and Colombo office during the last two weeks,” he said with gratitude.
Harsha gratefully mentioned the support received from the donors and contributors, namely Graham Mapri of Wynnum Manly, Local Councilor Lisa Atwood, Neil Udukala, Vic Williams of Sandgate-Redcliffe, Kamal Wanigasooriya, Ian Lewis of Ferny Grove, Buddhika Samarawickrama of Toowoomba, Norm Martin of Heighfields and Districts Bulldogs, Shandy Harris of Brisbane State High and Robert Bailey of Valleys, John Devine of Sea Eagles TV, Andre Fernando of MAC Holding and Kushil Gunasekera of Foundation of Goodness for their support in promoting the project and collecting materials.
Family members of Harsha in Sri Lanka, officials of Foundation of Goodness and key members of the Sri Lanka women’s cricket team, voluntarily took part at the occasion where the equipments were distributed among the deserving recipients.