The Story of Our SFP Project at Kirimatiyawa, Kekirawa
Some projects just feel right from the very beginning. This one at Kirimatiyawa is one of them. It’s the eighth school we’ve taken onboard, and it holds a special place in our hearts.
Like all schools in Sri Lanka, Kirimatiyawa has a Public Health Inspector (PHI) who oversees health and safety. With our food program, we make sure the PHI is involved in checking our standards and ensuring food safety. It’s a critical step in making sure the kids get the best.
This is a small primary school with just 22 children. The minute the message came in that they needed our help, I passed the news to Rasika, and she immediately stepped up. She’s the kind of person who dives into things without a second thought when I tell her we need to get it done, and so far, we’ve never been wrong. This is the first school we’ve started with a single donor since our last project with Rasika, and the whole thing truly started with her. We’ve been a team since 2019, and that’s how it’s always been.
When a donor decides to support a school, they can send a lump sum or monthly payments. These funds go into our common account. From there, we transfer the money to the school’s account weekly, usually on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings. We’ve found that doing it this way keeps everything organized and prevents confusion.
We monitor the progress of the program week by week. The funds for the next week are only transferred after we’ve seen how the current week went. If, for any reason, the school’s performance is not satisfactory, the program is paused, and we would assign the donor to a different school. The principal or the nutrition teacher at the school keeps us updated daily by sharing photos on our dedicated WhatsApp group.
Today marks the third day of the program at this school, and things are going beautifully. In some of these villages, there’s no signal, so the dedicated volunteers have to travel for an hour or more to a nearby town just to upload the photos. Yet, they do it happily.
Every day, our donors see pictures of the plates of food, and it brings them so much joy to know they are directly helping these little ones. And as for the kids, when they know a good meal is waiting for them at school, attendance goes up. When more kids are in class, the teachers can do what they do best: teach!
Thank you, Padma Akka, for being the devoted volunteer for this school. And thank you, Rasika, and all of our friends who contribute to this project.
By Dr. Kiloshini Hendawitharana
