• Our main goals are to:

  • study health and development needs and their determinants
  • continually develop sound health promotional interventions
  • rigorously test the effectiveness and efficiency of different approaches in promoting health and wellbeing
  • disseminate in Sri Lanka and elsewhere the most effective and efficient interventions
  • work to enhance the level of wellbeing of people – especially those who are most vulnerable
  • work for the creation of a policy and social milieu that enhances the wellbeing of all individuals.

  
  
  

• We are a training and research organization registered with the Registrar of Companies from 1999. We have been in active operation prior to that too – with significant work being undertaken from around 1995. We are registered as a not-for-profit company, which means that resources generated are not disbursed as profits or dividends among directors or shareholders (members). Profits are ploughed back to support the needs of the organization and to implement further activities for the public good.

  We provide technical inputs to improve wellbeing of diverse communities or settings, as well as for scientific studies. We also undertake direct implementation of health promotion projects for funding agencies, to promote aspects of health and wellbeing of given communities or populations.  

The Foundation operates with a minimum number of paid staff and others who provide help voluntarily.  Relevant experts are engaged, from a panel of collaborating resource persons, as needed for any specific task that we take on. A large network of academics, researchers, trainers, social mobilizers and other skilled persons work closely with us. Professionals are engaged from this extensive pool of skilled collaborators for any field intervention, scientific study or other project that the Foundation implements for external agencies. We are able to operate in English, Sinhala and Tamil.

Our main capacities are

• carrying out direct Health Promotion interventions with given groups or settings
• training and continual guiding of others to carry out Health Promotion interventions
• conducting research and evaluation in the field of health and health promotion.

Examples of some activities include

Training sessions

Examples of trainings undertaken are inputs to health sector staff, teachers, officers in state and non-state institutions and others who in turn work with groups or populations that they target. This allows participants to build skills through the process of training and to experience the joy of providing effective inputs that the trainees can see for themselves. Some of these interventions are technically quite advanced and are aimed at achieving challenging goals – such as improving coping by children and families who have faced serious losses due to social adversity, armed conflict and natural disasters.

Training programmes and courses

We conduct formal capacity building programmes for staff of state sector agencies and non-governmental organizations. The courses undertaken have been to improve the capacity of the trainees to implement practical interventions based on health promotion principles.

Formal training courses that run for up to six months are designed for individuals who are interested in learning both theory and practice of health promotion. Certificate courses provided by us are at different levels. We also collaborate with academic and other institutions to conduct collaborative training programs.

Evaluation of projects and programmes

We have conducted formal evaluations of projects undertaken by non-governmental organizations and others.

Research studies

We have carried out funded research studies for local and foreign agencies. We have access to a strong team of researchers who collaborate with us. We recruit expert researchers at the level required by the agency commissioning the studies.

Community interventions

Numerous interventions have been conducted by us, directed mainly at improvements in nutrition, early childhood care and development, and stimulating growth and development of children. Among other changes that we have demonstrated benefits in, through community activities, are reductions in substance use and related problems and the reduction of non-communicable disease risk.

School and Workplace interventions

We have conducted several different types of interventions with schools. These include actions to improve teaching-learning methods for science and mathematics education of children in schools in Jaffna, Kandy, Ratnapura, Trincomalee Districts. Our work in schools has also shown effectiveness in creating ‘child friendly schools’ and in generating better management practices.

Individual and family interventions

We tend to involve others in the setting, even when we implement activities that are primarily directed at individuals. Work with families affected by armed conflict or post-tsunami too, included the community aspects. This allows us to make our interventions a natural part of day-to-day events rather than singling out ‘affected’ families for special attention.

The scale and scope of activities undertaken cover a wide range from small community or workplace interventions to projects covering the entire population of several districts.

The health promotion approach is primarily about a technology for bringing about efficient change. We have demonstrated effectiveness in its use through funded projects that we have implemented for government, non-government and private agencies.  

Some examples of subject areas addressed are as follows:

• Improving physical wellbeing
• Improving mental wellbeing
• Improving family wellbeing
• Better early childhood care and development
• Reducing risk factors for NCDs
• Nutrition improvement of children and mothers, populations
• Reducing the transmission or STDs, including HIV
• Improved learning of mathematics and science in primary and secondary level in schools