On 31December 2004 an MJF Charitable Foundation team visited Welipatanvila ‘varaya’ a beach that until 9am on the 26th December had been home to 80 craft which sustained a community of 1,000. Fulfilling its Settlor’s commitment of a substantial resource for emergency tsunami aid and rehabilitation the team was seeking to identify remote communities that were unlikely to receive aid in the short term. The beach was exactly as the 30 foot high waves had left them, with a calm and beautiful ocean lapping at an empty expanse of sand. The community was devastated, with several deaths, injuries and its livelihood destroyed.

Their boats, which sustained this community for generations, were in pieces, smashed by the ferocity of the tsunami. Only a third of the craft may possibly have been repaired. The Foundation met with the local fisher society and its leader, R. P. Wilson, and immediately cemented a commitment to help. One of the senior members of the Society wept at the meeting, exposing the hopelessness of a dignified fisher community that continued a tradition of centuries. Their only option post tsunami was to leave their families and work as unskilled labour on construction sites as they knew only their hereditary trade – fishing.

The Foundation project in Welipatanvila, with support partner IUCN which provided invaluable local knowledge and facilities, came to fruition in stages with boats and engines being repaired or replaced, bicycles being provided for the families of fishermen to be mobile in this remote part of Sri Lanka. The project also saw fishing nets being provided and on July 16th, 2005 the first of two batches of new engines being provided to the community.

The Welipatanvila fishermen today are bursting with hope and displayed at the distribution of engines, an exuberance that was in itself all the reward the Foundation and IUCN team wished for as thanks for rehabilitating this stricken community.

The work of the Foundation is made possible by consumers, distributors and retail partners who enjoy or support Dilmah Tea. Merrill J. Fernando, Settlor of the Foundation, established the MJF Charitable Foundation as part of a commitment to bring to Sri Lankan tea plantation workers and the wider community, tangible benefit from the sale of Dilmah Tea globally. The success of Dilmah, the only truly ethical tea in the world, is felt by the Sri Lankan community through projects like the Welipatanvila Fisher Community rehabilitation which are made possible by Dilmah.

The MJF Charitable Foundation is a Sri Lanka government approved charity established by Merrill J. Fernando. The objective of the Foundation is to fulfill a pledge its Settlor made when launching his Dilmah Tea brand, that the workers at Dilmah, tea plantation workers generally and the wider community would feel tangible benefit from the establishment and growth of Dilmah. The Foundation funds and manages over 50 projects each year ranging from childcare on Dilmah Tea estates to tsunami rehabilitation, assistance to women in need, rural microcredit and the establishment of a free hospital for the poor. The Foundation operates according to a code that is overseen by a distinguished group of Trustees, and audited for effectiveness and efficiency. The funds of the Foundation are completely free of overheads as the Dilmah Tea companies fund the salaries of Foundation personnel, provide office space, equipment and facilities.

To volunteer to participate in MJF Charitable Foundation programmes or to contact us, please write to Dilhan C. Fernando, Trustee, on email DilhanF@dilmahtea.com or visit our website www.mjffoundation.org.

Thank you for your interest in the MJF Charitable Foundation.