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Kiwanis Club of Colombo celebrates Silver Anniversary
Saving the children of a Quarter Century
| Inauguration of Kiwanis Club |
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Article announcing the formation of the Kiwanis Club of Colombo City carried in The Daily Mirror. The caption to the photo reads, "Mr. Onally Gulamhussein, Mr. John H. Reed, US ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mr. Raj Jajodia are seen here at the inauguration of the Kiwanis Club in Colombo".
Daily Mirror - October 4th 1982 |
Twenty-five years ago, in October 1982, a new word entered the Sri Lankan vocabulary: 'Kiwanis'. An American Indian phrase meaning "We make a noise",
"We trade", or "We have a good time", Kiwanis is also the name of an international organization of service clubs whose motto is "Serving the Children of the World".
The Daily Mirror, in a small article published on 4 October 1982, had announced the formation of the Kiwanis Club of Colombo City. Twenty local businessmen, headed by Mr. Onally Gulamhussein, had taken up the proposal of the American ambassador at the time, Mr. John H. Reed, that Sri Lankans launch a Kiwanis Club sponsored by his own Kiwanis Club of Springfield, Virginia.
Mr. Raj Kumar Jajodia of New Delhi, the accredited representative of Kiwanis International for the region,
was invited especially to preside over the first meeting.
Sri Lanka thus became the 76th country to join the international family of Kiwanis.
Kiwanis Club of Colombo City members that year launched a project to establish, equip, and maintain an Intensive Care Unit at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Colombo over a period of 12 years at a cost of over Rs. 21 million, a very considerable sum in those days. Other Kiwanis projects over the years have raised tens of millions of rupees to equip major hospitals in Colombo, Chilaw, Anuradhapura and Kurunegala.
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