Project Officials
President
Maj.Gen (Rtd) Rohana Bandara
Secretary
Mr. Sarath Dambawinne
Treasurer
Mr. Malinda Abeykoon
Assistant President
Mr. Sumith Fonseka
Assistant President
Mr. Ranjith Weerasinghe
Assistant Secretary
Mr. Aruna Wijerathne
Assistant Secretary
Mr. Sanjaya Senanayake
Assistant Treasurer
Mr. Nalin Jayawardena
Committee Members
- Col (Retd) Gamini Warnakulasuriya (Secretary OBA VCK Mother Union )
- Mr. Ranjith Hapuwinna Rsp, BA(Def) (Managing Director vissionguard security company (pvt) Ltd/ Marj Company(pvt) Ltd)
- Mr Sunil Wekadapola(Managing Director-Sunil Wekadapola Associates)
- Mr. Dammika Pallemulla (Managing Director Thamas coating international (pvt) Ltd)
- Mr. Aravinda Rathnayake (Senior Engineer-Digital services information Technology Agency of Sri Lanka(ICTA) )
- Mr. P.K Serasinghe (SSP Rtd )
- Mr. Nirukshana Jayarathne (Managing Director Burse Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd )
- Mr. Daminda Perera (CEO,Swisstek)
- Mr. Anushka Samarathunga (Senior Field Manager, Hemas Pharmaceuticals
- Mr. Kasun Vidanagamage (Senior Project Manager,IFS )
Project Inception Journey
- The Vidyartha College OBA was established in 1967; the Late Mr Gamini Deyawa was appointed as the first general secretary.
- Mr Sarath Dambawinne, Vice President(1988-2005)) of Mother OBA, brought up with “Vidyartha Mela” festival proposal and collected 1,500,000 rupees as profit during 1993 and 1996.
- In response to a request made by Mr U Abeykoon in 1999, Maj Gen Nimal Krishnarathne,Mr Anura Basnayake, Mr Mithsen Karunathila, Dr Asela Rathnayake and Mr Anura Kulasekara established the “Vidyartha Rugby Development Group(VRDG)” which was the first externa body formed, to support a sport activity at Vidyartha.
- OBA Committee decided to build the first-ever Vidyartha mother OBA building at Nittawela, led by General Secretary Mr U. Abeykoon and Committee when the Vidyartha Mela Fund surpassed 2.0 million in 2002.
- The building was further developed by Mr L.B Aluvihare, Mr Nihal Bandara, Mr Sumith Dayananda, Mr Jeewaka Bandara(OBA Past Presidents) and fellow committee members.
- A reasonable Portion of expenses, incurred during the visits of the college teams to Colombo for extracurricular activities used to be/ Are being borne by OBA Colombo Branch from the fund they collected from “Vidyartha night”.
- Although OBA members conducted many programs to raise funds, The funds were insufficient to fulfil the needs. Hence OBA members had to find sponsors to support the college expenses.
- Mr Sumith Fonseka repeatedly suggested establishing a fund.
- Thus, Colombo OBA president, Mr Upali Gangoda arranged a meeting at his residence to facilitate the
establishment. - The “Vidyartha Millenium Development Fund” was established in 2012 when Mr Sarath Dambawinne
presented the project concept at Bloomfield Club. - A Documentary was produced to explain the fund’s purpose and distribute the concept to the public:
which was sponsored by Mr Sumith Fonseka.
Link to the Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfwsWukNZ1k - The committee members(Mr Sumith, Mr Aruna, Mr Keerthi, Mr Ranjith and Colombo OBA) bared the cost of hosting the VMDF follow-up meetings. They did not utilize fund money for any other purpose.
- The committee aimed to establish a 150 million fund with 10,000 members by 2017 when Mother
Vidyartha celebrates her Diamond Jubilee (75 years). - Due to the covid pandemic, fundraising activities were stopped. It was resumed when the Colombo OBA newly appointed president, Mr S.K Jayasinghe, intervened and organized a meeting at Maththegoda Army Camp on the 03rd of February 2023.