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 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. However, Oru Paanai continues to be involved in helping to provide sathu ma for undernourished children of preschool age in the islands in the north.

Oru Paanai initiated a new project in June 2018, to help destitute elderly men and women who had only very 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. More recently, 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, flour, dhal etc - each month, to 700 elders spread across the 3 areas we are working in. Initially, we also organised an annathanam each month, so that the elders who came to collect their dry rations, also enjoyed a meal, in addition to interacting with other people in a similar plight. The annathanams were suspended when COVID 19 hit Sri Lanka, but have now been re-started, much to the delight of the elderly.

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 being constructed by Oru Paanai. We are very glad to be able to provide this essential resource  for normal living.

In the eastern province, Oru Paanai’s involvement has been to support remedial classes, particularly in science, English and maths.

Please read here our latest Newsletter, published in April 2024.

Click here to learn how you can help and support the work of Oru Paanai.

Please read here to learn about how COVID 19 has affected the activities of Oru Paanai and how we need your help to continue.

Thank you for visiting the OP Website, which we are currently updating to reflect fully our current objectives and also provide a summary of our past activities. Please revisit us in the near future to obtain a more up to date report of our activities.