Welcome to the web site of Oru Paanai

Helping the less privileged in Sri Lanka

Welcome to the website of Oru Paanai, a charity registered in the UK and Sri Lanka.

Oru Paanai was first launched in 2008, as a response  to an appeal from the heads of schools in poverty stricken areas in the north . Our primary objective at the time was to supplement the mid day lunch provided by the World Food Program, thus making the meal more palatable and appealing to children . From small beginnings, this program expanded over 10 years, until Oru Paanai was catering to 44,000 children in 311 schools in the Wanni and other areas in the north. This feeding program came to an end in early 2018, when the World Food Program ended its involvement in northern Sri Lanka and Oru Paanai was not able to take on the whole program on its own. The Government of Sri Lanka now provides the mid day meal as it does in the rest of the island. Oru Paanai currently  is involved in helping to provide saththu ma, a nutritional supplement for undernourished children of preschool age in all the MOH divisions in the Jaffna peninsula.

Oru Paanai initiated a new project in June 2018 , to help destitute elderly men and women who had only limited support from the state and were on the verge of starvation. Initially, OP focussed its attention on villages in the Wanni and the north. Since then, similar programs have been launched in the eastern province and later on, in the estate sector in the central province.  In all, we are currently providing a 4 weeks supply of dry rations – rice, rice flour, wheat flour,dhal and sugar - each month, to 1300 elders spread across the 3 areas we are working in. We also provide an annathanam each month in two of our dites, so that the elders who come to collect their dry rations, also enjoyed a meal, in addition to having the opportunity to interact with other people in a similar plight. These annthanams are often sponsored, at a cost of £ 75,  by our regular supporters, who do so in memory of their relatives or to mark a special birthday or anniversary.

From 2016, Oru Paanai has been helping to construct wells, both traditional and tube wells, in the Wanni. Water is a scarce resource in the Wanni and the occupants of the houses constructed by the Indian government have benefitted hugely from the wells constructed by Oru Paanai. We are very glad to be able to provide this essential resource  for normal living. To date, we have constructed 220 wells.

The educational activities supported by Oru Paanai have been varied. Please read the item on this subject, on the website.

Please read here our latest Review and Update, published in August 2025.

Thank you for visiting the OP Website, which we now plan to update on a regular basis to reflect fully our current objectives  and also provide a summary of our activities. Please revisit us in the  future to obtain a more up to date report.