Our old boys union in Melbourne was formed in December 1990, with blessing of Ven. Gangodawila Soma thero. The chief guest at the occasion was Mr. Keerthi Pasquel who was on a performing tour in Melbourne, at the time. Being an OBU of a prominent Buddhist school in Kandy, Sri Lanka, our main aim was to help the ‘alma mater’, but we realised that the people in Sri Lanka needs help as well, specially in health matters. The association was first formed by 15 Rajans getting together and Mr. Thilak Wijewardene was elected as the first president. At the beginning, the meetings were merely confined to get togethers, since most of our members were students, who were paying for their studies and doing part time jobs to pay for their studies and day to day expenses.
However, in 1996 a request from the Government Hospital, Kandy, changed our course. We were requested a Pulse oxy meter for the hospital. We decide to comply with this request and we screened “Gamperaliya”, and were able to find the necessary funds. The project was named “Suwasewa Project”. Since then funds were raised through public appeals, musical shows, food fairs, dinner dances etc to send medicine, hospital equipment, surgical instruments, beds and tables, dialysis machines and pulse-oxy meters to varous hospitals in Sri Lanka.
Our old boys union in Melbourne was formed in December 1990, with blessing of Ven. Gangodawila Soma thero. The chief guest at the occasion was Mr. Keerthi Pasquel who was on a performing tour in Melbourne, at the time. Being an OBU of a prominent Buddhist school in Kandy, Sri Lanka, our main aim was to help the ‘alma mater’, but we realised that the people in Sri Lanka needs help as well, specially in health matters. The association was first formed by 15 Rajans getting together and Mr. Thilak Wijewardene was elected as the first president. At the beginning, the meetings were merely confined to get togethers, since most of our members were students, who were paying for their studies and doing part time jobs to pay for their studies and day to day expenses.
However, in 1996 a request from the Government Hospital, Kandy, changed our course. We were requested a Pulse oxy meter for the hospital. We decide to comply with this request and we screened “Gamperaliya”, and were able to find the necessary funds. The project was named “Suwasewa Project”. Since then funds were raised through public appeals, musical shows, food fairs, dinner dances etc to send medicine, hospital equipment, surgical instruments, beds and tables, dialysis machines and pulse-oxy meters to varous hospitals in Sri Lanka.
