Educate Lanka

I traveled to Sri Lanka this summer to volunteer with the Educate Lanka Foundation. It was a remarkable experience that I am excited to share!
https://medium.com/educatelanka/embracing-global-citizenship-in-sri-lanka-f4d216df2b8f 

Please join me in supporting this wonderful cause! Thank you so much for your consideration.

About Educate Lanka
With the realization that while talent is universal, opportunity is not, Educate Lanka was founded in 2007 with the mission of unearthing the talent and potential of every student by democratizing education and learning opportunities for all. Incorporated both in the United States as a 501-c-3 non-profit and in Sri Lanka as a social service corporation, we empower children and youth from socioeconomically marginalized backgrounds by enhancing their access to quality education, lifelong learning, and employment opportunities through a holistic model that merges technological innovations with global and local partnerships. By providing personalized, long-term pathways of learning opportunities to marginalized children and youth, we envision a more inclusive, skilled, and equitable workforce and society shaped by empathic and civic-minded citizenry who would lead Sri Lanka to its prosperity and potential. For further information about our efforts, please visit www.educatelanka.org or contact us at [email redacted].

PROJECT: This month, our Seeds of Exchange  fundraising partnership is in Sri Lanka. On April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches and three hotels were targeted in a series of bombings in Sri Lanka. Nearly 300 people died, and lives were devastated by the destruction and trauma that followed.

Now, nearly six months later, families and children are still struggling to put the pieces of their lives back together, with extremely limited access to necessary resources, support services, and infrastructure. This project is helping to rebuild lives by showering love through education and community on many who have lost what is most dear to them: family, friends, homes, and an everyday sense of security and hope. 

We invite you to join us and reach out today “with love towards our kin” (translated “parapurata premayen” in Sinhalese, the primary language spoken in Sri Lanka).

WHY THIS MATTERS TO ME: My soul sistah Nilmini Hecox was born in Sri Lanka. She and I have been friends since we were beautyFULLY blessed to meet, with our then baby girls in our arms, at our neighborhood library, nearly fourteen years ago. Even then, we were drawn to the circling up as a community … and we’ve never stopped.

Over the years, we’ve often collaborated on community projects that matter to us. And, thus, I know this firsthand: Nilmini is a fiercely compassionate and committed sistah. She’s straddled the globe with grace and grit, with one foot firmly planted in her birthplace of Sri Lanka, where most of her family still lives, and one foot here in her home in the United States. I am honored to share her, her family and community, and this fundraising endeavor with you.

WHAT FUNDS WILL BE USED FOR: Funds raised in this campaign will be allocated for long term education sponsorship for children of victim families through scholarships and for psycho-social program support. Through sustained wraparound services that ensure the care of both their minds, and their hearts, this project will provide these kids with hope and send a clear message that people from around the world do care about them.

We are excited to be partnering with Educate Lanka . As a non-profit organization in the United States, your US donations are tax-deductible and as a charity registered in Sri Lanka, this is a globally grassroots organization with “boots on the ground” – =a win-win for all!

Thanks to a match from a wildly generous donor, your donation will be doubled! Our $4,000 goal this month is audacious: $2,000 from our community + $2,000 match = showering love on our kin - our sisters and brothers - in Sri Lanka.

FROM NILMINI: "I feel a deep sense of grief for everyone who was lost, hurt and impacted by the explosions and for my beautiful country. My heart broke that day, and so did many others.  Now more than ever, those who are trying to rebuild need to feel our love and support from the other side of the world. 

A true act of love is reaching out to those in need in our global community. This knits us all closer to one another, heart to heart, like family. No matter where we are in the world, we can act from a place of love towards our next generation. We have the power to make a lasting impact on the lives of my people in Sri Lanka.  Please join me in honoring the lives lost, and generously making a meaningful gift that will change lives. Let's do this! (translation in Sinhalese Api Meka Karamu!)."

JOIN US AS AN EVERYDAY PHILANTHROPIST: Today and together, let’s dispute the suggestion that philanthropy is an exclusive club only for those deemed wealthy. Today and together, let’s dispute that the only thing that matters and makes a difference is giving in “big” ways. The movement that will be unleashed when we live as generously unrestrained philanthropists will light up the world.

Let’s create a movement of philanthropists in which everyone is welcome and all gifts are celebrated. This is what I call “everyday philanthropy” – that everyone has something of value to contribute, whether a little or a lot. 

Generosity feels good. It is part of your purpose on the planet.

This sort of “everyday philanthropy” is about an unrestrained generosity rooted in the reality of your everyday life. It finds ways to share with others the treasure trove of whatever you have and whatever you love. It makes a difference with your small and large acts alike … living with a commitment and connection to your sisters and brothers near and far. Explore and discover your unique – right here and now – calling to be an everyday philanthropist today.

You are loved. We belong to each other. Let’s standTALL together and light up the world!

Give what you can. Each gift – small and large – is wildly celebrated.

Bohoma isthuthi (“Thank you very much”),

Nilmini Hecox

&

Sarah Davison-Tracy, Seeds of Exchange