Timeline

How it all started and how it has evolved

May 2008 : Oru Paanai was launched by a group of UK resident Tamil doctors at an inaugural committee meeting held in Rugby, West Midlands in response to an appeal from the heads of rural schools in the Wanni district, who had highlighted the difficulties they were experiencing in providing a midday meal to the children in their care. Oru Paanai’s role at that stage was to supplement the rice meal provided by the World Food Programme, by meeting the costs involved in making the meals more palatable and appealing to the children. A small number of schools were given this help at the start, but the numbers grew very rapidly when word got around on the grapevine about Oru Paanai.

June 2009 : The first fund raising event for Oru Paanai was an evening of Carnatic music staged by a group of very talented UK born young musicians at the Winston Churchill Hall in Ruislip. It was a tremendous success and it was this event which gave the OP committee the confidence to take on more schools onto their programme.

August 2009 : Prof. Ram Swaminathan, a founder member of OP, along with his son Ramesh, undertook a gruelling bicycle ride across the Pennines to raise funds for OP. This was to prove the first of many activities undertaken by Prof. Swami over the next nine years, including climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro , riding from John o’ Groats to Lands End, riding from Auckland to Christchurch and back. 

His last epic bicycle ride in support of OP, was a trans American venture, starting from the Pacific Coast in July and covering 11 states and finishing in York Town in Virginia in September 2018.

Dec 2009 : OP registered as a recognised charity by UK Charity Commissioners, which enabled us to receive Gift Aid refunds from HMRC.

Jan 2010 : OP Sri Lanka formed under the leadership of Mr. Somasundaram Skandakumar. Generous contributions were made to OP SL by Sri Lankans of all ethnicities resulting in a substantial fund, which has continued to grow over the years.  

October 2010: The younger members of OP, led by Abi Subanandan, Vidya Kanthi and Indu Smith staged a spectacular ball,  ‘Chandeliers and Silk ‘, in Paddington, London. A scintillating evening of musical acts was enjoyed by a large and appreciative audience.

Nov 2010 : The number of children benefitting from the OP programme increases to 13,000 per school day.

Jan 2011 : OP SL officially registered with the Ministry of Justice, Sri Lanka by Gazette notification.

Feb 2012 : OP Canberra branch formed by Mr. Chelva Kumaranayagam. Since then, they have been contributing to OP SL regularly on a 6 monthly basis.

May 2012 : OP Education initiated to provide remedial classes in the north and east. We made contributions to Mahadeva Padippaham in the north and RHYTHM in the east. More recently, OP has been providing support to educational events in the east, including science exhibitions and remedial classes in maths and science.

Aug 2012 : OP Kaithady formed under the umbrella of OP, led by Drs. Ranjit Thambirajah, Tony Sirimanne and DeutramThambapillai. OP Kaithady provided audiology support to the Nuffield School for the Deaf and Blind in Kaithady, Jaffna, which included fitting hearing aids and training the staff of the Nuffield School. The culmination of their activities was to raise funds by staging a dinner dance in London in October 2019, and purchasing a van to transport students from the Nuffield School to hospital was purchased from the monies raised.

July 2013: One Child Foundation, another charity based in the UK and ably led by Mr.Mano Manuelpillai, takes on the provision  of midday meals to some of the island schools in the north, thus sharing the task with OP. One Child Foundation went on  to take over the provision of the meals to all the schools in the  islands eventually.

Dec 2013 : The Op Feeding programme has grown exponentially in the 5 years of its existence and at this stage was supporting the provision of lunch time meals to 43,000 children in 311 schools in the north.

Aug 2014 : OP undertakes to support the Sathu Maa programme for some of the islands around the Jaffna peninsula. This programme, run by the Medical Officer of Health for the area, provides nutritious meals to malnourished children of pre school age.

August 2015 : Oru Paanai Water for Wanni launched as a pilot project. Over £20,000 was raised in a short time, thanks to generous donations made by a large number of individuals, who saw this as a project meeting a vital need for the people who had been resettled in the Wanni. As the pilot project was a success, and had provided a lifeline for the recipients, OP decided to incorporate the Wells Programme as an integral objective in its activities.

Dec 2017 : The World Food Program (WFP), which had hitherto provided the bulk of the funding for the midday meal program, ended its involvement in Sri Lanka .The Government of Sri Lanka then took over the responsibility of providing the midday meals as it does in the rest of the country. OP continued to support the midday meal program till April 2018, when OP ended its role in helping the schools with the provision of midday meals.

June 2018 : OP, having identified another group in need of urgent support, namely the destitute elderly who received only minimal financial help from the government , decided to launch a dry rations programme, whereby 30-50 carefully chosen needy elders in each centre would be  given dry rations - rice, wheat flour, rice flour, dhal, chick peas, sugar and milk powder - to last 4 weeks at a time. Initially, the  centres were based in Udayar Kattu and Puthukudiyiruppu, and when they proved successful, more centres were added. From 100 elders who were supported initially, the number supported was increased to 500 by the end of 2019. The annathanams provided at these 4 weekly meetings also provided the elderly, most of whom led lonely lives, an opportunity to meet and interact with others in a similar plight.

October 2019 : OP Kaithadyundertook a fund raising initiative, supported by the UK Hearing Conservation Council, to raise funds to purchase a van for the use of the children in the Nuffield School for the Deaf and Blind. This fund raising initiative was organised as a tribute to the memory of Mr. Pathman Ratnesar, who had rendered yeoman service to audiology services in the UK and Sri Lanka. A substantial sum of money was raised at this event, which was augmented by generous donations from well wishers in the UK as well as abroad. The van which was purchased from this initiative was presented to the Nuffield School in August 2020.

Feb 2020 : The dry rations program was extended to include 2 remote villages in Kiran and Vavunathivu in the Batticaloa district, providing support to 100 elders.

March 2020 : The dry rations programme and the annathanams halted temporarily due to imposition of curfew by the GoSL, following the Covid epidemic. The dry rations programme was resumed when the curfew was eased after 6 weeks.

April 2020 : OP extended a helping hand to those affected economically by the Covid epidemic by providing dry rations to the some of the needy in the Haputale district , as well as in Jaffna, the latter through a group of medical students from the Jaffna Hospital.

June 2020 : The dry rations distribution was  initiated in two up country tea plantation areas, Nanu Oya and Belihul Oya, where a large number of elders were in need of urgent help, by opening 2 distribution centres to help 100 more elders.

July 2020 : All the dry ration distribution and annathanams resumed after an interval of 4 months. The annathanams and the dry rations distribution continue apace in the north as well as the east and the plantation areas.

January 2022 : The saththu maa program was expanded to cover most MOH areas in the Jaffna peninsula.

April 2023 : A serious shortage of medicines affected hospitals in the north and east of Sri Lanka, as well as the rest of the country. OP undertook a fund raising campaign to raise funds. The money was then used to make emergency purchases of medicines, through the help of George Stewart Healthcare, and dispatched to hospitals in the north and east. Prof. Sir S. Arulkumaran also raised nearly £9,000 to fund drugs for hospitals in the north and east. A similar sum was also received from the Sacramento Thamil Mandram in USA.

July 2023 : Oru Paanai launched a new initiative to provide bursaries to deserving undergraduates attending the University of Jaffna. Initially, the students helped were from the Medical Faculty. Later, students from the Arts Faculty were enrolled into the program. Simultaneously, a program of soft loans was initiated in Batticaloa University. More recently, students from engineering and agriculture faculties were also awarded bursaries.

Jan 2024 : OP made a significant contribution for flood relief to those affected by floods in Batticaloa district.

May 2024 : The number of wells constructed, mainly in the arid areas in the Wanni, has increased considerably. At the last count, over 200 wells have been constructed by Oru Paanai.

Dec 2024 : Unprecedented floods in the Jaffna peninsula led to requests for assistance. OP responded by paying for dry ration parcels to those displaced from their homes by flooding.

April 2025 : Oru Paanai administrative structure revamped, with an expanded constitution, and changes to the committee, including appointment of formal Trustees.