ABOUT US
In 2006, Julie made her first trip to Sri Lanka and during that trip of 17 days, she met Mr Raja Gunasekara, and he showed her a side to Sri Lanka that one wouldn’t be privy to seeing from the back seat of a tourist car. Her life was, and still is to this day, profoundly changed by that experience.
After Julie arrived home, she decided that she wanted to try to help in some way, knowing that one person could make a difference. Little did she realise then just how much of a difference to so many peoples lives she would make.
Julie set about raising awareness about the plight of so many children and families who were suffering greatly due to the ongoing 30 year civil war in Sri Lanka. Julie held garage sales at her home, rallied family and friends to help with cake stalls, sausage sizzles and any other fundraising ideas that came to her mind, all the time planning ahead to her next trip.
In 2007, In My Heart Serendib Foundation Australia was born and registered here in Australia, and with Raja’s help, Julie planned her second trip to Sri Lanka where she would be visiting a small school in the North Central Province where 45 children learned. She had collected enough school bags, coloured pencils, pencils cases, sharpeners, rubbers and anything else that she thought might help children learn and had organised to have the three filled to the brim boxes shipped and timed their arrival for when she arrived.
That little school is Wellaragama Vidyalaya where it all began and Julie still visits yearly to this day.
Julie felt that the best way to support a country was to ensure that it’s children had access to the tools to get a good education. Children are the future of us all.
That first school visit was way back in 2007, and today through Julie and Raja’s hard work, In My Heart Serendib Foundation Australia now supports 430 children living less fortunate lives than us with educational items and a few other items that we all know bring smiles to children’s faces.
