The World Health Organization has declared the Corona virus (COVID-19) as a pandemic in 2019 and it has impacted more than 200 countries all over the world since. Sri Lanka faced a great hit by this global pandemic. Therefore, to take an action to stop the spread of this virus, Rotaract in Rotary International District 3220, Sri Lanka and Maldives implemented the initiative “STOP THE SPREAD – Beyond COVID 19” in the year 2020.

In relation to this project, the Community Service Avenue of the Rotaract Club of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura executed the project පෙරමග in 2021 to safeguard school children and their communities. Stepping into its next stage this year, පෙරමග 2.0 was executed in the month of September in 2021 to improve the health and safety conditions in the society while assisting the health and education sectors to function properly. At the time we executed project පෙරමග 2.0, Sri Lanka was witnessing a raging third wave of the pandemic with an exponential rise in cases.

During the commencement of the project, there was an exponential hike in the death rate associated with COVID-19 and similarly there was a considerable shortage in medical and relevant protective equipment to treat COVID patients, therefore the first phase of the project was based on donating the required protective equipment and medical equipment for the medical staff and COVID patients at the Divisional Hospital, Halthota in order to enhance the health care capacity to treat the COVID Patients.

 To further safeguard the health and safety conditions of the community in a time at which Sri Lanka was considered as country with a high risk in spreading COVID-19 virus, our second phase was executed as installing sanitizer bottles in three-wheelers nearby the university of Sri Jayewardenepura at the Wijerama Junction, Nugegoda. It was a great step taken ahead to ensure the protection of the passengers who use public transportation.

Furthermore, we took the step ahead to assist people to reduce the spread of the new variant “Omicron” which was emerged in Sri Lanka at the time. Since the research studies regarding omicron were conducting in foreign countries as well as in Sri Lanka, with the available data of new findings, we organized a discussion with Dr. Inoka Suraweera, Consultant Community Physician at the Environmental and Occupational Health Directorate at Ministry of Health in order to make people aware about the variant and preventive measures. We published the whole discussion as a Facebook video series to reach a larger community and raise awareness.   

Third phase of the project was implemented towards increasing the safety concerns of the school children. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the educational activities of many children around the country was corrupted. Immediately after the re-opening of schools, our team of volunteers accomplished our mission to assist in re-creating a safer and proper learning environment for the students in Sri Lanka, under the “Back To School” initiative, hosted by the Rotaract in Rotary International District 3220, as part of “STOP THE SPREAD – Beyond COVID 19” initiative. We donated protective equipment, essential sanitary equipment for the students as well as teachers, and necessary cleaning equipment for the school at Sri Revatha Royal College, Nugegoda. Not stopping thereby, we also conducted an awareness program for the students on how to adhere to the basic practices in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In a situation at which the country was adversely impacted by a global pandemic, it is responsibility of each one of us to support in recovering from the existing stage therefore without limiting the project these three phases we extended it towards another phase by installing sanitizer bottles in buses at Makumbura Multimodal Centre in order to safeguard the passengers using buses for their travelling purposes.

Our efforts were to bring public attention and engagement in preventing the spread of CVID -19 in Sri Lanka. With the support of social media campaigns, and active physical and financial involvement in the cause, we think our efforts successfully contributed to re-build a COVID-19 free environment.

The existence of the country is based on the co-existence of the community, Therefore it is the responsibility of each and every one of us in supporting towards the wellbeing and existence of the community at a time of globally impacted pandemic. 

Written by Rtr. Neka John