Hula Hoop Trust

This isn't an April Fools Joke!!
As always, thank you to everyone who donated items, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who dropped by and bought stuff!
Thank you to everyone who donated money for our next project...
And a HUUUUUUUGE THANK YOU to my support crew for helping out!!

Just one day more Folks!! See you at the sale tomorrow!!

Before we wrap up 2018, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the incredible year we have had…

This year, we bit off a lot more than we were able to chew by taking on three projects; the preschools in Galnewa and Horowupotana and a playground for the Childrens Psychiatric unit at the Base Hospital in Awissawella.

We were able to raise an impressive Rs. 1.2 Million in 2018 alone through the income from our annual garage sale, donations and sponsorships. This led to the successful completion of all three projects.

Fueled by this success, we have BIG plans for 2019 with the launch of our website and payment gateway that will finally allow us to accept payments from all over the world, a teacher training program to train the preschool teachers and improve the quality of education offered and many more projects that will change the lives of children from all over Sri Lanka in the years to come.

Happy New Year Folks!

Here’s to another great year… and as always, thank you for helping us help them!

- The Hula Hoop Trustees.
Geeni Bottles
Janaka Botejue
Kala Welihinda
Shirell Chaitiyana Hallock

It's finally complete! The Seelarathna Pre School in Horowupotana had a soft opening on the 19th of November 2018!! Thank you once again to everyone who helped us achieve this!!

A few days ago... we put out a request for more donations to raise the balance Rs.150,000 needed to complete our 5th project, the Montesorri school in Horowupotana.

As a part of a 5 hour fundraising challenge, Shiyana and her team took it upon themselves to bridge the gap... Not only did they achieve the goal of Rs. 150,000 within 5 hours... They went over and above the target and raised an INCREDIBLE Rs. 250,600!!!!

We are completely overwhelmed by the response and super grateful!!!

Thank you Thank you Thank you!
- The Hula Hoop Trustees.

Development of a building for the Seelarathna Pre school in Horowupotana.

Fund raising target is 1 Million rupees.

The Foundation Laying Ceremony for Project 5, the Montessori building in Ralapanawa, Horowupotana was held on the 23rd of March 2018.

The kids don't have a classroom of their own... They are currently sharing the small hall at the town temple... The Hula Hoop Trust is funding the development of a small classroom for them.

As always, we would like to thank everyone who supported our garage sales, whether they donated items, purchased items, volunteered to help or provided donations and sponsorships. A huge thank you to the Army as well for giving us a helping hand with the construction.

Thank you for helping us help them!!
- The Hula Hoop Team.

Our 5th Project - The Montessori building in Horowupotana is coming along nicely...!

We couldn't have got this far without the support of all the donors and sponsors as well as the people of the village who gave their spare time to help assist with construction!! Humanity at its best! :)

Just one small speed bump though - We need a little more funding to complete the project... Rs. 150,000 to be exact. Please get in touch if you are able to contribute even a small amount towards this goal!

Thank you!
- The Hula Hoop Trustees
Janaka Botejue, Kala Welihinda, Shirell Chaitiyana Hallock & Geeni Bottles

We've got Good News and Good News!

The Good News is that our little pre-school building is coming along nicely and it's completion date is fast approaching.

And the other piece of Good News is that it looks like the projecting cost will end up being a lot less than we estimated!

That gives us some extra funds to put into our 6th Project!

WE ARE ECSTATIC! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Janaka Botejue Kala Welihinda Shirell Chaitiyana Hallock Geeni Bottles

Development of a building for the Seelarathna Pre school in Horowupotana.

Fund raising target is 1 Million rupees.

The Foundation Laying Ceremony for Project 5, the Montessori building in Ralapanawa, Horowupotana was held on the 23rd of March 2018.

The kids don't have a classroom of their own... They are currently sharing the small hall at the town temple... The Hula Hoop Trust is funding the development of a small classroom for them.

As always, we would like to thank everyone who supported our garage sales, whether they donated items, purchased items, volunteered to help or provided donations and sponsorships. A huge thank you to the Army as well for giving us a helping hand with the construction.

Thank you for helping us help them!!
- The Hula Hoop Team.

Project 3 is complete!!
Just a few more things to do with landscaping and fencing, but the kids have something to look forward to when visiting the Psychiatric Unit of the Awissawella Base Hospital!

Project 3 is complete!!
Just a few more things to do with landscaping and fencing, but the kids have something to look forward to when visiting the Psychiatric Unit of the Awissawella Base Hospital!

Development of the roof of the classroom and floor of the lunch room and improvement of the playground at the Golden Star Preshcool in Galnewa, Tambuttegama.

There was no pre school in this town in 2017. The kids had to travel a long distance to the neighboring towns to attend. Some kids were not able to attend at all because their parents couldn't take them due to work commitments.

The townspeople decided it was time to open a pre school that was closer to home. A small compost shed with a leaky roof was cleared out to be the classroom and a young woman from the town was elected to be trained to teach these kids.

It is with the amazing initiative of the town and the teacher that the compost shed was transformed into a classroom.

The canteen area by the side of the classroom had no floor and just a cadjan roof (made out of woven coconut palm leaves). These conditions made rainy days unbearable. During her speech at the opening, the teacher choked up when she talked about how all the books and the artwork in the classroom were ruined when it rained.

The playground at the back had basic equipment that were made by the townspeople out of wood, old tires, rope and coconut shells.

The Hula Hoop Trust provided funding to fix a new roof for the classroom and install a matslide, a swing set and a seesaw in the playground.

The opening ceremony was held on the 22nd of March 2018.

The kids loved the playground equipment so much that they had begged their parents to take them to school on the weekends as well!!

Just as we were about to leave, one of the town elders said "although this is just a small room to you, it is a palace to us and we can't bring to words how grateful we are for your support".

We would like to thank everyone who supported our garage sales, wether they donated items, purchased items, volunteered to help or provided donations and sponsorships.

Thank you for helping us help them!!
- The Hula Hoop Team.

Ready for the 3rd bit of good news this week???
We are getting super close to achieving our fund raising Target of One Million Rupees!!!!
Rs. 628,000 down and just Rs. 373,000 to go! We are ECSTATIC!! 🎉🎉🎉
Thank you thank you thank you once again to everyone who supported our garage sales, whether they donated items, purchased items, volunteered to help or provided donations and sponsorships!
And if you can, we'd love some help to bridge the gap and hit our 1 mil target so that Project 5 can be completed on schedule!

The good news keeps on coming!!

We are happy to report that the Foundation Laying Ceremony for Project 5, the Montessori building in Ralapanawa, Horowupotana was held on the 23rd of March 2018.

The kids don't have a classroom of their own... They are currently sharing the small hall at the town temple... The Hula Hoop Trust is funding the development of a small classroom for them.

We hope that they grow up learning more about what unites us than what divides us...

As always, we would like to thank everyone who supported our garage sales, whether they donated items, purchased items, volunteered to help or provided donations and sponsorships.

A huge thank you to the Army as well for giving us a helping hand with the construction.

Thank you for helping us help them!!
- The Hula Hoop Team.

The opening ceremony of Project 4 - A refurbishment of the classroom and playground at the Golden Star Pre School in Galnewa, Tambuttegama.

There was no pre school in this town last year. The kids had to travel a long distance to the neighbouring towns to attend. Some kids were not able to attend at all because their parents couldn't take them due to work commitments.

The townspeople decided it was time to open a pre school that was closer to home. A small compost shed with a leaky roof was cleared out to be the classroom and a young woman from the town was elected to be trained to teach these kids.

It is with the amazing initiative of the town and the teacher that the compost shed was transformed into a classroom.

The canteen area by the side of the classroom had no floor and just a cadjan roof (made out of woven coconut palm leaves). These conditions made rainy days unbearable. During her speech at the opening, the teacher choked up when she talked about how all the books and the artwork in the classroom were ruined when it rained.

The playground at the back had basic equipment that were made by the townspeople out of wood, old tires, rope and coconut shells.

The Hula Hoop Trust provided funding to fix a new roof for the classroom and install a matslide, a swing set and a seesaw in the playground.

The opening ceremony was held on the 22nd of March 2018.

The kids loved the playground equipment so much that they had begged their parents to take them to school on the weekends as well!!

Just as we were about to leave, one of the town elders said "although this is just a small room to you, it is a palace to us and we can't bring to words how grateful we are for your support".

We would like to thank everyone who supported our garage sales, wether they donated items, purchased items, volunteered to help or provided donations and sponsorships.

Thank you for helping us help them!!
- The Hula Hoop Team.

What an insane achievement!! The highest we've ever raised from a garage sale!!!!
On behalf of the Hula Hoop Trust, the Trustees Janaka Botejue, Kala Welihinda and Shirell Hallock... I'd like to thank everyone who donated, sponsored, helped and bought stuff!!!!
- Gayani. (Geeni Bottles)

Here's a look at the 3 ongoing projects we are raising funds for at the moment...

This project is to develop a playground for the kids who visit the psychiatric unit of the Awissawella Base Hospital.

Specific Objectives
• Regulate their actives in the limited space
• Motivate them to come to the clinic regularly by making the clinic experience a happy one
• Improve the skills of children with special needs
• Tend to the requirements of children with special needs and learning disabilities

Our next sale is coming soon! Stay tuned for more details on the charity projects we've got lined up!

We're looking for our next big project!!
Let us know if you know of any projects that need funding...

Just a few conditions though:
1) It has to be something to do with kids, preferably out of Colombo... and...
2) It has to be something that would benefit many generations of kids...

We're looking for our next big project!! Let us know if you know of any projects that need funding...
Just a few conditions though:
1) It has to be something to do with kids... and...
2) It has to be something that would benefit many generations of kids...

It's been a month since the sale and here's the final tally!! A huge Thank You to the Trustees, Sponsors, Contributors and everyone who helped out with the sale...! I really appreciate it! We'll keep you up to date on all our projects!

Keep this Saturday free!

Charity Garage Sale There's this garage sale at the Bernard's at Kowela.

Our second project was the development of the Triest Home for girls in Ramanathapuram, Kilinochchi. The construction of this orphanage building was disrupted and damaged during the time of the civil war. The Hula Hoop Trust along with friends helped to rebuild it and supports the home by way of rations and supplies as well. We also fund the home by providing financial aid for computer classes and piano lessons etc.

Our first project was building the St. Sapastion Pre School in Bharatipuram, Kilinochchi. This Montessori used to be small shed. Hula Hoop along with the help of some friends and the Army were able to build a new classroom for the children in the area. We provide playground equipment as well as other necessary supplies as well.