Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives clinches prestigious award

District Governor Sebastian Karunakaran

District Public Image Chairman Dinesh Kumar

District Public Image Chairman Pradeep Amirthanayagam

Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives, under the leadership of District Governor 2019-20 Sebastian Karunakaran, has achieved many an accolade and recognition for an outstanding year. 

With Rotary providing assistance and support to various causes globally and being the sole service organisation holding a permanent seat in the UN General Assembly, with over 1.2 million members in 200 plus countries, the Rotary District 3220 – Sri Lanka and Maldives attained one of the highest accolades by winning the Public Image Social Media Award for 2019-20. 

District Governor 2019-20 and leading Sri Lankan business personality Sebastian Karunakaran was awarded the prestigious honour in recognition for enhancing Rotary’s image in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

“This is a great recognition and encouragement for all our fellow Rotarians for successfully carrying out worthy service projects worth over Rs. 650 million despite trying times during the pandemic. I truly acknowledge the great leadership of our District Public Image Chairman Dinesh Kumar, Advisor Pradeep Amirthanayagam and their able team for making Rotary relevant and known from the grass-root level to the top corporate in Sri Lanka and Maldives,” Karunakaran said upon receiving the award. 

Among the notable projects in the past year were a Cervical Cancer Elimination Awareness program, Congenital Heart Disease surgery for 300 children, Cleft Palate Corrective Surgery for Children, Haemo-Dialysis Machines for hospitals, the Ayati Project in partnership with local corporates, Skin Bank for Burn patients and the COVID-19 Response Project in addition to numerous other projects by Rotary Clubs. 

For his pivotal role, District Public Image Chairman Dinesh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of a leading Group received the ‘Rotarian of the Year 2019-2020’ award. 

“It was a challenging year that has never been experienced before. It was with great enthusiasm that Rotary, as a team, drove innovative projects, along with media exposure, surpassing Rs. 95 million. I sincerely appreciate the unstinted assistance provided by various celebrities including Sunil Perera of the Gypsies, Irangani Serasinghe, Alston Koch and our own Rotarian Rukshan Perera,” Dinesh Kumar said. 

Rs. 120 million worth of projects in combating COVID-19 were conducted by Rotary with Rs. 90 million spent on state-of-the-art laboratory equipment including Nucleic Acid Extraction and PCR Systems handed over to the Medical Research Institute in a novel initiative in Sri Lanka and saw due recognition from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. “Rotary has done much to alleviate suffering and has contributed immensely to eradicate disease in Sri Lanka over the years. However, awareness for Rotary projects has been minimal and as such I’m glad we were able to effectively communicate the role played by Rotary in Sri Lanka,” says Pradeep Amirthanayagam District Advisor and prominent Ad personality in Sri Lanka. 

The Annual Regional Awards for 2019-2020 was held virtually for the first time in the history of Rotary – with India as the host and it was attended by over 1,000 key leaders of Rotary International as well as world class speakers including Rotary International President Holger Knaack and the Rotary Foundation Chairman K.R. Ravindran. 

The Rotary applauds the efforts of the multidisciplinary professional team of the District Public Image Committee comprising Pradeep Amirthanayagam (Advisor), Dinesh Kumar (Chairman), Haroon Careem, Thushari Bandara, Marshad Barny, Amjad Yoosuf, Prem Mohandas, Nadira Adamaly, Ravinathas Raguraam and Bernadine Jayasinghe.

The Rotary Foundation is the award winner of the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the US for 13 consecutive years.