Miles of Smiles Sri Lanka

05/08/2017

TOGETHER, through different charity events in both Canada and Belgium and our beautiful Go Fund Me campaign, we have already raised and collected 530 euros or 787 Canadian dollars for Miles of Smiles Sri Lanka!!!

THANK YOU ALL for your support, open mind, heart and arms! Thank you for embracing our beautiful project and opening yourselves to make a difference, a change in the lives of "strangers" you, somehow, felt touched by, connected to.

The true beauty of charities and fund raising, according to us, lies in the openness it requires and inspires, the feeling of brotherhood it awakens, the fact that we come to see we are not so different after all, that we are all connected, that we are all one, nearby or faraway...

Thank you for awakening this, proving this, sending this beautiful message out into the world!

The Miles of Smiles team is working hard and continues to raise funds to help us set up our beautiful school in January 2018. A heartfelt project that will change the lives of many.

If you feel touched by our story and connected, please feel free to dedicate some of your time and means to our beautiful cause. You can make your donation via:

https://www.gofundme.com/milesofsmilessrilanka

Ayubuan - May you live longer

Miles of Smiles is a small, not-for-profit school set to open early 2018 in Galle, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. It's an independently financed project of the heart – an educational initiative to ensure no child is left behind. The story of Miles of Smiles School starts with the tale of one spe...

30/07/2017

Thank you Jon Nye for your generous donation! From everyone at Miles of Smiles :)

30/07/2017

What an awesome day! Thai massage for a school in Sri Lanka? Why not?! Seven hours straight of Thai massage, outside, in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood. Thank you so very much to everyone who donated today: Pam, Maziar, Golnaz, Rachelle, Jesper, Harriet, Lauren, Philip, Jacob, and Gabrielle... you guys are awesome! And to the very special Pat Blythe for her help today. Together we raised $165 towards the Miles of Smiles Sri Lanka education project! Let's keep it up!

Aaaaaaand... a HUGE thank you to Mark Phipps for his purchase of 8 handmade laptop sleeves for Beach Mac in Toronto. What a super contribution to a great project!

25/07/2017

A school should be a place that provides not just the best learning environment but creates the best learning EXPERIENCE for all children. Imagine if we consider the world a school, rather than limit schools to the structural institutions of wood and concrete that we recognize as traditional learning spaces. Then we all have an individual responsibility, as part of the collective conscious, to recognize the amazing capacities in everyone, and to live, act, and think inclusively.

https://www.esl101.com/blogs/how-do-children-learn-inclusion-and-early-learning-space #.WXdRQsYZPox

24/07/2017

Check it out! Unique laptop sleeves hand-made with recycled materials and good energy by "Coco Creations", for sale soon at Beach Mac in Toronto and by custom order. Partial profits go to Miles of Smiles Sri Lanka. PM Colleen Thornton for a custom order :) Thank you Pat Blythe for your help ❤️

13/07/2017

Colleen and I vividly remember the first time we met Kumudu, Hesara's sweet mother and heart and soul of Miles of Smiles.

It was another one of those hot and humid Saturday mornings in Sri Lanka when the clock only ticked 10am and you already sweated up a storm before midday.
We were walking down the local organic market and were compelled to stop at one specific stand where we saw a brightly coloured, handmade booklet lying on a table filled with books. The little flyer talked about a little school, or better, an idea of a school. An educational project that would exclude no one and include every single child. It was handwritten and so much heart shone through its every word. Colleen and I read it and then looked up, into the eyes of this beautiful, pregnant, Sri Lankan lady. That moment we met Kumudu and really got to understand her project.

The next day we woke up bright and early to have a walk down our street when temperatures were still mild and Sri Lankan colours and smiles would pave our way wherever we'd go. We started chatting and quickly ended up talking about hat heartwarming lady at the market and her heartwarming project. It touched us, she moved us deeply and we knew we had to do something, something more...

So we came up with the idea to help raise funds for Kumudu's school and help this project rise to its feet. All together we gave the anonymous baby a name: MILES OF SMILES. Together we dreamed and today, together, we work on making it happen, but we cannot do it without you!

We hope Miles of Smiles can touch your heart as much as it touched ours and we hope it will gently persuade you to materialise that giving heart of yours and help us fund the school.

If you do feel so inclined, please feel free to make your donation, any donation on our Go Fund Me page:

https://www.gofundme.com/milesofsmilessrilanka

THANK YOU!

Ayubuan - May you live longer...

10/07/2017

We should never stop questioning. Questioning ourselves, the every day things, the things we take most for granted, what has so quickly become "normal" to us...

We should never stop questioning to make our journey to the truth, to who we really are and set ourselves free.

We should never stop questioning to start discerning what is real and what is conditioned, what is free choice and what is obligation, what is change and what is status quo.

Why? Why? Why do we do the things we do?

At Miles of Smiles we really believe in questioning, in the power of "why" and mostly: in the power of change! We want to question to free ourselves and give EVERY child a place to be, really be who he or she truly is...

We are inspired by this video and this message, we hope you will be too! Enjoy :-)

THE PEOPLE VS THE SCHOOL SYSTEM How do YOU think we can create a better future of learning. Go here and share your thoughts on the topic! http://www.bit.ly/2...

09/07/2017

It's already been almost a month since a group of lovely women with big hearts gathered to enjoy a sunny morning of yoga and meditation, self-reflection and homemade, vegan Sri Lankan food. They were united by one very special feeling: the inner calling to support a cause faraway, but somehow very close to their hearts: "Miles of Smiles".

We are still so grateful for and inspired by those beautiful ladies and souls that raised our first €200 for our beloved little school! THANK YOU!

We look forward to organise more charity events in the future and spread the love and message of leaving no child behind! Thank you for helping us make this all possible!

Ayubuan - May you live longer...

09/07/2017

Yoga, Meditation, Homemade vegan Sri Lankan food for Smiles that go for Miles

28/06/2017

Our page is finally online ready to create Miles of Smiles on the faces of as many children as possible in beautiful Galle, Sri Lanka!

In April 2017 my friend, Colleen Thornton and I touched down in tropical Sri Lanka to enjoy one month on this beautiful island. With postcard beaches, lush tropical landscapes and so many beautiful faces and smiles we thought we had arrived in the closest thing to paradise to enjoy a month of relaxing and exploring. Little did we know that one smile in particular would conquest our hearts on one blisteringly hot Saturday in Galle to tie us to the island for much longer than we'd expected...

We met Kumudu, a radiant mum of three beautiful children on the Saturday market in Galle where she sells the most delicious Sri Lankan treats every week. She had more than sweet treats, her heart appeared to be much sweeter. She told us about a project she was envisioning to start, a school for ALL CHILDREN based on inclusion and play. A school to give her beautiful son, the boy she is so proud of, Hesara, a positive future too.

Hesara is a three year old boy born with a mild form of down syndrome. He's a playful, happy boy just like all others, but life is already destined to be different for him compared to his peers due to his "special needs". Because of this Hesara finds himself excluded from some things other children, other people so easily take for granted, like school for example... In Sri Lanka there are few places where Hesara can actually play and learn with other children his age. His mother, early childhood teacher, Kumudu decided she didn't want to just sit down and watch her son not be able to do what other children do and have the freedom to live a life full of potential and she thought about all those other children out there, just like Hesara, whose future is limited from early childhood already. So Kumudu and her two friends Janaki and Thanuja joined forces to set up what they called, with that signature Sri Lankan smile that melts all hearts: "Miles of Smiles".

Colleen and I could not but help such a beautiful initiative...

Over these next few months we will be counting on your warm and generous hearts to raise funds to get Miles of Smiles ready and started. There is not much governmental support in Sri Lanka for projects like these, so the school will start off as a privately funded not-for-profit initiative.

All of your support and help is more than welcome and more than appreciated! We are, in this first stage, looking for financial means and will later on be happy to receive volunteers to come teach and play with the children as well.

Follow our page to stay tuned on the school's news and the developments of the project. We are excited, we hope you are as well!

Ayubuan
- Sinhalese for: "bye", but also "May you live longer"

Account Number:
8270072001

Swift Code
CCEYLKLX

Name and address:
A.G. KUSALA KUMUDUNI
No: 185, HEENATIGALA, UNAWATUNA, GALLE

Bank Branch:
COMMERCIAL BANK
No: 59, WACKWELLA ROAD, GALLE.