Kids on bikes outside Jaffna Hindu Ladies College.
Kumar Sangakkara is trying to raise around Rs. 3 million to buy bicycles for kids in the North. You can make a simple donation or donation per run he hits in the Pakistan tour (which I think is over now). He recently became the fastest to reach 9000 test runs so perhaps the simple donation is the best bet.
Why is bikes for kids a good idea? Well, Sanga is donating the bikes to kids in rural areas around Kilinochchi, Mankulam and Mullativu. These areas are precisely the ones not covered by the 2009/10 HIES survey (because of demining), but you can see how popular bicycles are in neighboring Jaffna and Vavuniya districts.
In this graph you can see bike ownership (by household) in blue. It’s highly popular in the North East and North Central. Polonnaruwa is a great biking town FYI. Anuradhapura is also good, but I always get lost. In red you can see a less informative metric, how many young people get to school by bicycle, motorbike, trishaw or car. It’s not just bicycles, but I think it would be safe to say that people in the North East and North Central are biking to school, or riding the handlebars.
So yeah, bikes for kids in the north, good idea. Bat on Sanga.
Kumara must be very ashamed for this. 3 millions should be nothing for him because I think his annual income must be more than 1000 millions (including commercial endosements). Why Kumara ask poor people who are struggling for their basic expenditures to donate money instead spending a small amount from himslef (3 millions is peanuts for him). Sport persons in other countries donate their monies and I heared that Sachin donated 10M (indian rupees) to a tsunami project.
Jeez what crawled up your bum and died? Can you not see that this is a great way of getting the community involved and raising awareness about the plight of people in the north of the country?
Aiyo Inoka, dont give anything if it’s going to be a struggle for you. It brings a lot of happiness for some people to give, let those people do so. That’s the only way it should be done. If not, it becomes a burden for the receiver.
Well said.
This is exactly what I said in the earlier comment. Why Kumara ask money from people who are struggling to pay day-to-day expenditures. He earns hundres of millions of ruppees every year so he should have donated bikes from his money if he wants to do it.
I’m sure Sanga has and does donate. In this case he’s trying to use his celebrity to get other people involved as well. It’s an achievable amount and it’s good for average people to get involved
He is asking people who are willing to donate money if they would like to contribute to his cause. He is not forcing anyone to give money with a gun to their head. Obviously people who are “struggling to pay day-to-day expenditures” won’t give any money if they don’t want to. Can you deny that this is raising awareness among the community at large about kids in the north who get to school with bikes? Can you see how others may want to take part in this project by donating some money because they may not be on the ground in the north to help anyone there? I really think you are being difficult for the sake of being difficult and missing the wood for the trees.
Inoka, Sanga has to be one of those lucky people who have discovered the joy of giving. He thinks that others derive satisfaction from it too. Obviously, he didn’t know you hadn’t discovered it yet. Please try not to blame him for that.
way to go sanga!
I am a bike rider and I always manage to ride at least 20 mile (32KM) a day. I go to school by bike and the days I do not go to school, I just ride. I do that to keep myself stronger.
I pledged they day you or someone else posted about his project. I elected to donate based on his runs. I hope a bunch of kids will be able to go to school on those bikes. I am waiting for the total runs by him.
The first comment, I don’t get it. It is an invitation for a contribution to make some kids happy, not for financial consultation. You do’t like or can’t afford, just say no thank you. At least visit the site and read a bit about the project, The Foundation of Goodness, you might change your stance, it is not just Sanga, (I do not know who he is other than he plays cricket and has a very good ideas about SL)
More reasons for me to admire Sanga! Great Initiative.
Lot of cricketers like Sanga, Mahela, Murali do donate and more importantly rally people around them for such community work.
Inoka has a point here. Someone with as much money as Sanga shouldn’t be running around trying to raise 3mn. That’s bloody chump change for him.
So? With Sangakkara’s involvement here they’ll probably raise more than they initially set out for, and achieve something better. My point was that no one had the right to belittle or decide on anyone else’s commitment to charity, or are they going to bring in legislation to fix that too?