The Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF) Awards Ceremony 2022 celebrated 25 exceptional Sri Lankans from over four continents. This one-of-a-kind event was streamed online live and hosted over 450 guests attending the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 13th, 2022. For the Sri Lankan community worldwide, this event continues to be the most prestigious awards ceremony, which recognizes those in the Sri Lankan community whose work has had an essential impact on the lives of others. In putting on the SLF Awards Ceremony, Sri Lanka Foundation hopes to show the community’s gratitude for the awardees’ creativity and outstanding achievements, increase awareness of their accomplishments, and, most importantly, inspire the younger generation to achieve excellence in their chosen fields. With this purpose at heart, it has been growing since its inception in 2003, boasting the most significant number of awardees celebrated, and with a tremendous demand for attendance that
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Ashley Palipana is a 11 year old scout at St John First Aid Cadet, born in Essex, UK to Sri Lankan parents. He is a kind, caring and helpful young man who loves to make new friends and talk to people within the community. He attends Belmont Castle Academy. He helps other children in school by being a peer mediator in Math & English. He is also a team captain and a peer mediator who helps people when they have problems. His dream is to be a Neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children and would love to save lots of lives. He won British Citizen youth Award along with twenty youngsters from around the country for having their unique and inspiring story. He is a great role model amongst his peers. He is a creative member of the community, involved with scouting endeavors with theme side scouts, attending
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The Sri Lankan Youth Organization (SLYO) is excited to solicit donations for our upcoming Operation Rise Above fundraisers. Operation Rise Above (ORA) is an annual fundraiser conducted by SLYO that distributes school supplies and meals to underprivileged students around the US. SLYO’s first iteration of ORA occurred in October 2020, in the San Fernando Valley. In this first year of the program, SLYO was able to distribute 1,000+ backpacks (cumulatively worth ~$2,000), school supplies valued at $1,500, and over 30,000 pounds of food to impoverished school children and families in the area. Read more: https://www.gofundme.com/f/h6ejs-operation-rise-above
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Sri Lanka America Association of Southern California celebrated Sinhala and Tamil New Year at Woodley Park on April 23rd, 2022.  The festival started with electing officers for the 49-year-old association. A tray with kiribath, banana, betel leaves and other sweets were served after the lighting of the oil lamp. The tents offered many traditional sweet and food items. Among the games ‘pillow fight’ attracted many different age groups while coconut scraping game aroused more enthusiasm. The event had subdued music due to the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka. The following were unanimously elected to serve the year 2022. Michael Samantha Kurera was elected to serve as the President for the second term due to his dedication and commitment to the Sri Lankan community in Southern California. The following Office Bearers were unanimously elected to serve the year 2022. Vice President: Trevine Berty Fernando        Secretary: Ishan Hettiarchchi Asst
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ALL CDC SAFETY GUIDELINES ENFORCED!! Dine in (minimum capacity at a time) Drive through & Take Away is available between 5.00pm to 10.00pm, call and order early!!323-982-5996 Payments accepted in Cash, Write Checks to Maithree Vihara Venmo-Prasanna Yamasinghe Zella- On 323-982-5996 The entire world was paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sri Lanka is taking measures to combat and defeat the disease. Due to economic struggles rural and poor in Sri Lanka is struggling to put food on the table. Thath Jith Dance Academy students in collaboration with Maitthree Vihara Buddhist Meditation Center are organizing a fundraiser to help and feed the day-to-day workers and their families in selected poor and vulnerable rural villages. Our goal is to provide groceries to feed 1000 families . The distribution of groceries will be done through collaboration with TV Derana , most popular TV channel in Sri Lanka. Please join us, Thath Jith kids,
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The Scout movement, also known as Scouting or the Scouts, is a voluntary non-political educational movement for young people open to all without distinction of gender, origin, race or creed, in accordance with the purpose, principles and method conceived by the founder, Lord Baden-Powell…. Vision To be the Foremost in transforming youth in Sri Lanka to become agentsof change in communities based on shared values, guided by the Scout Promise and Law. Mission Through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society. Sri Lanka Scouts Association of Sri Lanka presents first ever virtual Global Cultural Jamboree bringing fifteen thousand scouts together from all over the world. For more information to watch the launch ceremony click on the link below: https://youtu.be/KPRl9RUaxus Click on the link below to register to watch
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On June 5th, the Sri Lankan Youth Organization and Project POH teamed up to hand out school backpacks filled with essential school supplies, toys, and duffle bags to the youth of the San Fernando Valley. The operation took place at Magaly’s Tamales and Mexican Grill and was a success yet again. There were many generous donors involved that helped make this event a success. Kinecta Credit Union provided volunteers to help pack and hand out backpacks. They also distributed goodie bags and free ice cream to the community. Yasiel Puig’s Wild Horse Foundation gave out baby formula to underprivileged families, the Boys and Girls Club provided volunteers, and Team Rugby LA donated funds toward the event! A huge thank you to all the volunteers of SLYO, we couldn’t have done it without you all! Thank you! This event, apart from providing resources, was about creating personal connections with community members.
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18-year-old Milka Gehani de Silva can be named as the second Sri Lankan to be eligible for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.  After qualifying through the continental quota, the cancellation of the 9th Senior Asian Gymnastic Championship which was supposed to be held from May 29 to June 01, Milka got increased chances to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. According to the results of the World Championship, Milka Gehani has secured first place in Asia while the Indian gymnast Pranathi Nayak holds second place.  If we explore Gehani’s talents, she has represented Sri Lanka several times trained under the coach the former National champion Ranjana Tharanga. Accordingly, the artistic gymnast was the Junior Champion from 2011 to 2014. As well she is the National champion in the years of 2017 and 2018, setting an area record. Her magnificent talents were showcased in Indonesia in 2018 and she was pushed into
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Nirosh Mataraarachchi was born and raised in Los Angeles, California to immigrant parents, Piyal and Janitha Mataraarachchi. Starting from his early childhood and beyond, Nirosh cultivated a passion for teaching, a desire to connect with others, and an understanding of social determinants of health. As a future physician, Nirosh intends to connect with each patient to first understand who they are as people and what other factors in their life are contributing to their diagnoses. He hopes that by meeting the diverse needs of his patients, he can then empower them to make informed decisions. Today, Nirosh has accomplished great feats and achievements. Nirosh graduated John Burroughs high school at the top of his class in 2016 and was granted several acceptances to universities throughout the U.S. Nirosh attended the University of California, (UC) San Diego, due to its highly ranked Biology program (#1 in Neurosciences at the time), the
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Kusal Goonawardane, 45-year-old APA titled has been appointed to steer the medical team of the famous tennis player Laura Siegemund, ranked 51 globally. Goonawardane who had to globetrot since his childhood had also been a Nalandian, completed his higher education at the University of Melbourne and earned his Masters from the University of La Trobe in Australia. He has further mentioned how he received this opportunity. It is that one of his athletes who played tennis has highly applauded him for his work to Laura’s coach, Antonio Zuccus, which eventually he received the opportunity. Before this opportunity, Kusal Goonawardane has worked with many talented sportsmen and sportswomen as Phoebe Stanley- an Australian rowing champion, top cyclists as Freddy Ovett and Lachy Norris, Katya Crema- a dual winter Olympian, Jo Weston- a netballer so many others. And this great man who is an expertise in his subject has got few opportunities
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