Dear Esteemed Alumni,

It is with our sincerity that we hope this letter finds you well and in good health and spirits. As you probably know, our homeland has continued  to fall on hard times in recent years, with no end in sight for the suffering and hardship of our nation’s people. We at the Kalagam, however, do what we can to serve those in the Tamil community in providing education, social, cultural and spiritual enrichment and general support to those in need.

Our main project continues to be the Saiva Mangaiyar Vidyalayam, a premier Education Institution of Sri Lanka established in 1932. At a time when the government wanted all denominational schools to be handed over, the Kalagam was the only Hindu Society that did not do so and today the Vidyalayam is the only Private Assisted Hindu School in the island. During the past few years alone we have been taking in hundreds of young girls who have fled the fighting in the northeast and have seen our resources stretched to the limit.

As an alumnus of this all too important learning institution, it is with great pleasure and excitement that we share with you the plans for an addition to our beautiful school that will benefit thousands of current and future students. The Kalagam Visions Learning Centre (KVLC) will be a multistoried building constructed opposite the Vidyalayam.
The school, originally built for about 1250 children; now caters for 2400 children several hundreds of whom are displaced children from the northeast.. The KLVC will help to compliment the existing education of students by offering them a more well-rounded school experience, as well as open up much needed revamped computer lab and multimedia room, student activity rooms, halls for special teacher and student training programmes and much more.

This project is being implemented through a partnership between Kalagam and Visions, which is a non-profit organisation based in Southern California, USA. Both Visions and Kalagam are working diligently on ensuring the success of this project.

According to our plans, the project would consist of seven floors, each 2000 sq. feet in size and the cost of each floor is estimated at UD$80,000 and the total cost would be about US$560,000. However, for the time being we are concentrating on building four floors – ground floor for Montessori class, 2nd floor for Computer, Multimedi and IT training, 3rd floor for English Language training and 4th floor for aesthetic studies.

Visions in response to Kalagam’s initial donation of the land, has committed US$158,000 to this project. While Visions and Kalagam are working together in finding the funding for the KVLC, we need help.

Friends, we need to succeed in this ambitious plan and we need to persevere and work collectively in a spirit of service and humility. Please help us in this endeavour  and as alumnus give back to the institution that has given you so much. Let us live by the words of  Swami Chinmayananada  who once said, “The highest prayer in this world is service; the greatest devotion is loving the people around us; and the noblest character trait is divine compassion for all living creatures.”

Looking forward to receiving your generous contribution and support,
Yours-in-service,

(Sgd) Yogendra Duraiswamy
President, Saiva MangaiyarKalagam
yogendra@sltnet.lk 

Kindly send your donations to one of the following and receive tax benefit –

i)  Hindu Women’s Society, 
     23, Rudra Mawathe,
     Colombo 6, Sri Lanka 
     (visit our website at

ii)  Visions
    1621 Barry Ave. #PH1
     Los Angeles, CA 90025
     USA
 
*Please make your tax-exempt donation  by sending a cheque payable in USA to “Operation USA”  (Tax ID #95-3504080) specifying ‘Visions – KVLC’ on the front of the cheque.(visit our website at