The Tekanda Foundation operates and manages an empowerment centre outside Ahangama, in partnership with the Foundation of Goodness. Gamata Athak, meaning ‘a hand to the village’ was named by the local community and today provides educational and vocational courses to over 350 students every week.
Gamata Athak - our rural empowerment centre
Gamata Athak opened in October 2023 to ensure children, youth and women located in rural communities between Galle and Matara have the opportunity to access a range of educational and employment skills that will significantly enhance future life prospects.
The primary aims of the empowerment centre are to bridge the rural-urban skills divide and to provide a range of skills development opportunities which are currently inaccessible for rural communities.
Some of the key courses and services planned include:
English language enhancement (for primary, secondary and adult courses)
After school sports clubs with a particular focus on girls and women (eg cricket)
IT and Computer literacy including coding
Women’s empowerment courses giving rural women an opportunity to earn money outside traditional manual labour market (these will be developed in response to the needs of the women in the area).
Distribution of essential food packages for the most vulnerable families in the community
Volunteering
We actively welcome enquiries from anyone who may be interested in volunteering at the centre. In particular assistance in delivering our spoken English lessons and supporting our team in the provision of cricket, badminton and netball coaching will be greatly valued. In addition to the programme, we provide high quality board and lodging. To find out more about volunteering opportunities at Gamata Athak please see our detailed volunteer information.
The Tekanda Girls Cricket Academy
The Tekanda Girls Cricket Academy was established in January 2023 to provide girls from rural communities across Sri Lanka’s Southern Province the opportunity to access the game of cricket.
Whilst Sri Lanka’s cricketing facilities for girls and women are increasingly well established in Colombo and across a handful of leading private schools on the island, the facilities and opportunities are extremely limited in rural areas. The economic crisis further exacerbated this urban-rural divide due to the prohibitive cost of regular travel from villages to urban training centres.
The Tekanda Girls Cricket Academy operates from Gamata Athak and now trains over 125 girls every week.