CMF completes distribution of school bags in Project-Hope
View(s):The not-for-profit Country Music Foundation (CMF) last week completed the distribution of a total of 210 free school bags and, separately, 46 shoe vouchers to children in Kolonnawa, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya affected by Cyclone Ditwah and the recent floods.
Through an appeal, the CMF raised Rs.1 million from many generous donors for its Project-Hope which was launched in end November 2025 just after the cyclone ravaged many parts of Sri Lanka. Each school bag contained five exercise books, two pens, two pairs of socks and a shoe voucher worth Rs. 3,500. Among institutions that helped in this endeavour were Tetris Ltd (sponsoring half the cost of the shoes) and Atlas (supporting part of the exercise books and pens).
The donation in Kandy with Fr. Bernard and Mrs. Gray
In Kolonnawa (in Colombo), 60 bags were given to schoolchildren with the assistance of local civil society activists; in Kandy – 50 bags were donated through the assistance of Rev. Fr. Starat Bernard Melder, Parish Priest of Nilambe/Milepitiya and Mrs. Allison Gray while an additional 46 shoe vouchers were given there to children; in Nuwara Eliya 48 school bags were distributed through Mr. Shamil and Ms. Keerthana and (in the same district) 52 bags were donated through the efforts of Rev. L.S.Joshua of the Union Church to the areas of Kandapola, Desford, Maraya, Mahaeliya and Nuwara Eliya.
Sunday Times Business Club Executive members – Chaturanga Perera and Sarath Wijesinghe coordinated the distribution – transporting the bags from Colombo to Nuwara Eliya and distributing it to children.
Earlier the CMF donated Rs.500,000 to the Appe Lanka Foundation and the second donation of Rs.175,000 was made to the Foundation of Goodness (FOG) for its Essential School Supplies Programme for the 2026. Both donations were made from proceeds raised at the fund’s Country Roads concert held in October 2025 and Project-Hope.
The two projects – Country Roads and Project-Hope – raised a total of Rs.1,675,000 – the highest-ever annual contribution to deserving children since the inception of the CMF in 1998.
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