Mr. Mahinda Karunaratne
Mr. Mahinda Karunaratne came from humble beginnings residing in a village named Thawalama a rural village closer to Galle.
After Mr. Karunaratne’s primary education he moved to Colombo, thereafter he started his career as a printer and became a well reputed entrepreneur and printer. As a printer he became the President of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers and the Sri Lanka Printers Co-operative Society. He was one of the members who pioneered the Sri Lanka Institute of Printing. He rendered an immense service to the printing industry, and he was awarded with the Life Time Achievement Award by the Sri Lanka Association of Printers.
On his 70th birthday, he retired from the printing industry and started a Trust by allocating one million rupees. He got his children to support this cause by funding with their annual profits. He deposited the money in a bank account and used the interest earned for his charity work. 19 years has since passed by and he has managed to do numerous projects for the less fortunate people in our society. He managed to improve the 1 million of initial investment to 102 million today.
His philanthropic work focused on assisting education in rural areas in Sri Lanka. He started his first project in 2003 by giving 10 scholarships. Each scholarship continued until the student completes his or her Advance Level Examination. He continued this project over the years and to date he has successfully offered
over 600 scholarships to needy students. It is indeed remarkable to note that some of the scholars today have completed their studies and have qualified as doctors, engineers, and IT professionals and independently contributes to the economy. Further, under the ‘Karunaratne Trust’ books, stationery and shoes have been donated to over 500 students in remote areas.
He helped thousands of students, who were affected by the Tsunami and lost their books, stationery, schoolbags and shoes. He fulfilled their basic living requirements and offered scholarships to 100 students. During this time, he developed a reputation for his philanthropic work, where the Sri Lankans living abroad made generous contributions to further the worthy pursuits of the ‘Karunaratne Trust’.
He has built five school buildings in Medawachciya, Meerigama, Theliggavila, Neluwa and in Pitigala. He has built five preschool buildings 01 in Medawachchiya, 03 in Neluwa and the other in Matugama.
He has established 8 libraries including
03 public libraries. He donated Rs. 100,000.00 worth library books to 24 schools in Nivithigala Educational Zone. He has also donated books worth Rs. 25,000.00 to 22 schools in Vavuniya South, 18 schools in Anuradapura Educational Zone, and 20 in Thawalama Educational Division.
Mr. Karunaratne, has built school playgrounds and popularised chess in rural schools. The Trust has donated musical instruments to over 25 schools, where there were no such instruments and he commenced IT centres in 11 schools out of which 10 are located in the Anuradapura District.
He started a vocational training centre with 16 computers, in Maharagama. Free IT and graphic design classes are conducted for school leavers every weekend. During the weekdays after school, free IT introduction classes are conducted for the students who do not have computer facilities in their schools.
Leadership Training programs was initiated in 2014 and still continue in many schools.
In addition to his work to uplift education in the rural areas, Mr. Karunaratne has built homes for homeless and up to now he has built over 50 houses under the Trust. 150 toilets were built for the less fortunate people in the rural areas as well as in some rural schools.
In 2015, he started the free cataract surgery programme. Up to now he has funded over 6400 cataract surgeries. These patients were from all parts of the country.
He has also built a children’s ward in Hiniduma Hospital with 16 beds and given all other equipment for the hospital.
In furtherance of his efforts to support the community, he completed the restoration of two irrigation tanks in Mihintale and in Vavuniya South. He has also started a clay grinding centre at a pottery making village in Mihintale.
Apart from above mentioned projects, he has engaged in numerous benevolent activities such as providing medicine and funding transplants and heart operations.
His dedicated social service is appreciated by so many, including the Government in the 2019 where he was awarded the Suriya Lanka and Sri Lanka Tilaka which are among the highest accolades in Sri Lanka.
The Lions in appreciation of the aforesaid, have decided to award the “Most Outstanding Citizen Award of 2022” under this year’s theme ‘EXCEPTIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIETY’, to Mr. Mahinda Karunaratne in recognition of his unwavering dedication and service to uplift education in rural areas of Sri Lanka and his continued efforts in empowering the less fortunate people in Sri Lanka.