We were extremely pleased to hear that the Rotary Club of Kandy in Sri Lanka has completed its project to provide mobility aids to needy youngsters thanks to a £1,000 donation from our Club.
As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting projects in other countries via our International Committee, we were delighted to have supported the project – undertaken by the Centre for Handicapped in Sri Lanka and coordinated and implemented by Rotary Club of Kandy – earlier this year.
The aim of the “Mobility Aids Project” was to improve the lives of children with physical disabilities from low-income families in Sri Lanka. Thanks to our contribution of £450 towards this particular initiative (part of a broader £1,000 donation to the Kandy club), the Centre provided nine young beneficiaries with custom-fitted orthotic devices. These included a range of devices – ankle foot orthoses (AFO), knee ankle foot orthoses (KAFO), thoraco-lumbo-sacral orthoses (TLSO), foot orthoses (FO), and wrist hand orthoses (WHO) – all professionally designed to match each child’s unique clinical and physical requirements. The youngest child to be helped was aged just three years, and the eldest aged 16.
The impact of the project has been genuinely heart-warming. According to the Centre’s report, the children have already shown significant improvements in mobility, confidence, and emotional well-being. Families who had previously struggled to afford such essential devices expressed deep gratitude for the support. Each aid has opened up new possibilities for the youngsters – from attending school with greater ease to simply enjoying day-to-day activities with dignity and independence.
As Raj Dasan, President of the Rotary Club of Canterbury and previous chair of our International Committee, remarked: “It’s rather gratifying that with a relatively modest donation we’ve been able to help make such life-changing differences to these youngsters. We are proud to have played a small role in this transformational initiative and thank our friends at the Rotary Club of Kandy and the Centre for Handicapped for their dedicated efforts.”
We also look forward to receiving a further report on the second initiative in Sri Lanka funded by our donation – the installation of clean water facilities for an underserved school – which is currently underway.
You can find out more about the Rotary Club of Kandy, which is the fourth oldest club in Sri Lanka from their website here.
Picture: The nine youngsters that received mobility aids through the project. Picture credit: Centre for Handicapped, Sri Lanka/Rotary Club of Kandy. (Reproduced with permission; faces disguised for privacy purposes.)
