Rotary Club of Colombo Port City rebuilds education after cyclone

The mud has dried in the classrooms of the North Central Province, but the water mark on the walls remains, a waist-high reminder of the chaos that Cyclone Ditwah unleashed last November. 

For 1,300 students across the North Central and Uva Provinces, that choice has now been made easier, thanks to a precision-engineered humanitarian intervention that bridges the corporate boardrooms of Toronto with the grassroots resilience of Sri Lanka’s Rotary network.

The Back to School Project, a US$ 36,000 initiative funded by Canadian giant Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited and executed by the Rotary Club of Colombo Port City, (delivering school supplies with a retail value exceeding Rs. 14 million), was not merely a distribution of bags and books, it is a calculated effort to restore normalcy, dignity, and the rhythm of childhood to a generation interrupted by disaster.

Fairfax Financial Holdings, led by the legendary Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa, is no stranger to Sri Lanka. His connection to Sri Lanka is not just a line item on a CSR budget; it is personal and persistent.

On the ground in Colombo, the baton was carried by Fairfirst Insurance, Fairfax’s local subsidiary. Ravishankar Wickneswaran, CEO of Fairfirst, and Shiwanthie Wijesuriya, AGM of HR & Administration, moved beyond their corporate roles to act as the operational stewards of the fund. Their involvement ensured that every dollar sent from Canada translated into tangible value for a student in a remote village.

The project targeted the hardest-hit areas: the flood-ravaged plains of the North Central Province and the landslide-prone slopes of the Uva Province. But the Colombo Port City club didn’t go it alone. They activated the Rotary network, bringing in regional partners who knew the terrain.

In the North Central region, the Rotary Club of Anuradhapura provided critical intelligence, identifying schools in Anuradhapura and Padaviya where the need was acute. 

The aid packages were designed with the specific needs of the “post-Ditwah” student in mind. Beyond the standard exercise books and pens, the packs included materials that relieved the immediate financial burden on parents.

As Sri Lanka continues its long recovery from the Ditwah Cyclone, the Back to School Project stands as a case study in effective public-private-civic partnership.

The Ditwah Cyclone may have left a trail of destruction, but it also revealed the bedrock of Sri Lankan resilience. As the trucks from the Rotary Club of Colombo Port City return to the capital, and the team members go back to their day jobs, 1,300 children in the dry zone and the hill country are opening new books. They are writing the first chapter of their post-cyclone lives.