This year many families were faced with the challenge of having to celebrate Sinhala & Tamil New Year during a curfew, confined to their homes and unable to celebrate the festive season with their neighbours, friends and extended families. New Year celebrations have not been affected in such a manner in the recent history of Sri Lanka, and it has been both an unusual and challenging for those who had to celebrate in a scaled-down manner. The extended curfew to control the spread of Corona virus especially within Colombo city and its suburbs, has adversely impacted the livelihood of many daily wage earners who have had to survive without any income for almost a month.
Ride for Ceylon (R4C), in partnership with Coca-Cola Sri Lanka, Texus Group and with the support of the Nugegoda Police division, carried out a special relief distribution program targeting the Sinhala & Tamil New Year period to give away special Avurudu Goodie Bags to over 1500 daily wage-earning families in Colombo and its suburbs. The objective of this program was to spread some hope among these communities by offering them both the essentials and Avurudu goodies to enjoy with their families during Avurudu.
The goodie bag comprise dry rations, onions, coconut, Maliban biscuits, a pack of sweets, salt, bananas and large bottles of Fanta.
The special Avurudu goodie bags were distributed in Wellampitiya, Welikada, Mirihana, Kotahena, Dehiwela and Mount Lavinia areas. The Ride for Ceylon team praised the efforts of the Sri Lanka Police under the leadership and guidance of SSP Laksiri Geethal, who personally made sure that all the necessary logistical and security measures were taken for smooth distribution. This was done while simultaneously ensuring that all health ministry guidelines implemented with regard to preventing the spread of the epidemic, were strictly followed in the process of the distribution of the relief packs.
According to Ride for Ceylon Co-organiser David Rasiah, the charity is currently planning to continue relief distribution with the support of the police, in the North, East and South of the island in the coming weeks. David further stated that this distribution would not have been a success without the selfless service and commitment of the Ride for Ceylon team of volunteers, who tirelessly worked everyday to meet the needs of those who were affected most in the city.
Ride for Ceylon welcomes contributions from any donors interested in supporting this cause through either financial donations or providing essential items.
Donations can be given by visiting www.ride4ceylon.com
OR
By depositing the funds at:
INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES TRUST
Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
Jaffna Branch
Account number: 1060111500
(Please mention CV19NY as reference when making direct bank deposits)
