A dream you dream alone is only a dream…
A dream you dream together is reality…
My journey with this amazing club has truly made my university life very colourful. Over the past three years in this club, I have worked with countless individuals from all walks of life, and the journey has helped me identify my potential, meet great people, make lifelong friendships and together do great things that wouldve never being possible to do alone.
Let me take you to the very start, I started my journey as a general member joining the club in the year 2022, when I was a fresh undergraduate. To be honest, I had no idea what Rotaract was, I just joined it to have some fun and meet new people. My first avenue was the International Service avenue and I was also a part of the Finance avenue, and the club relations avenue ( currently, the Regional engagement avenue.)
The first project I got involved was Rotralia which was the clubs firstever musical concert featuring Wayo. This was organized by the finance avenue jointly with the sports and reacreational activities aveneue. I took on the role of External relations cordinator and led a fundrasing team.This was where I got the chance to work with lots of individuals, and the directors of the club. I was also working on project writing Maze which was organized by the club relations avenue.
I was then appointed as a team leader of the club relations avenue and also led a team in Rota tomorrow 3.0 competition, as a team leader.Moving on in my second year in this club I was fortunate to be selected as a vice president of the club under the leadership of Rtr. Roshan Rathnayaka, who was the president for the year 2023-2024. Roshan ayya has being an inspiration and a mentor for me throughout my journey, from whom I’ve learned a lot.
As the vice president I was in charge of leading the Community service and professional development avenues of the club, which were the two biggest avenues of the club and both avenues were under performing at the time. When I statrted the year my vison was to make these two avenues into highly performing avenue, so I had huge plans. Starting off with community service avenue, I was lucky to get three amazing directors, Dinithi, Dimithri and Wickshi, who were the most amazing people I met in my Rotaract journey, Together we executed the plan. Our goal was to make the avenue a highly performing one, we wanted to do Projects that are impactful, sustaibable, unpararelled and can be carried on for years to come, as signature initiatives of the club, that’s how projects like Ignite Srilanka and Swabasamudra which are multiple award wining projects came into existamce. While doing these projects we created a new culture within the avenue, a culture which eventually set the benchmark not just for the avenue, but for the club as a whole during my presidency. This culture is all about working hard, commitment, discipline, bonding , personal development, having fun and most importanatly dreaming big together as a team, believing in a vision, pushing ourselves to the limit to make that vision a reality, and growing as individuals ourselves while doing all this.
We have groomed a team of amazing individuals in the community service avenue, who went on to become board members and exco members during my presidency, a team with a mindset of dreaming big, pushing themselves and leading a team, motivating a teama and not accepting anything mediocre, we set the bar very high, we belived in it and we achieved it. The best example is project Ignite srilanka, a project like no other, and a project that is the ultimate definition of real community service. When I came up with the project name and tagline of “ mawbima wenuwen sarasawi meheyuma”, I wanted them to carry in them the very purpose and long term vision of the project, which was to develop one village across 6 sectors each year. The sectors being Agriculture, clean water, Economy and entrepreneuship, education, Health care and Women and youth empoweremnet. The project comlpeted across two years had a Reasrach phase done by a Research OC, and separate teams leading the 6 sections, and more than 100 undergraduate actively involving in this massive project which had incurre a total budget in excess of RS.5 million upon completion during my presidency under my VP pabamini and the new community service directors Ravindu, Dinanga and Dharshi. we were able to build a water purification system that gives clean water to over 250 families daily, worth RS 2,5 million and to construct an agro well irrigating lands of 8 farmers incurrig a cost of RS. 2 million. The project won 3 gold awards and one silver Award at two consecutive Rotarct district assemblies, including the Gold for the most sustainable community service initiative. Project swabasmudra has also won 2 gold awards and two silver awrds in two conceecutive asemblies.
Moving on to the Professional development avenues, I had the privilage of working with two talented directors, Rtr. Sandeepa and Rtr. Maryam and together we set our vison on a big initiative. An initiative that woulf later go onto bring a lot of reach, PR and allowed the Univerity and movement to truly see our club’s potential. This was non other than project ABHIMAN. The 1st ever grand awrd cermony organized by a Uneversity club that awrded the digital media pioneers and celebrities of Srilanka. This massive initiative had resrach phase and the execuitin phase and was completed duiribg my presidency with a budget of 1.5 Million under the the VP of PD, Rtr. Shami and the PD directors Kusal and safaa. This project redefined the potential of the club and set the bar very high for furtue projects to follow.
After being elected to serve as the clubs 15th president, I transformed my vison, my work culture and discipline to all 12 avenues and made sure I had the right people working at right places with the right resources and the right amount of freedom. After establishing a new work culture within the club, and a viosn of making this club the best in the movement, we toiled hard together for an year. Trust me leading a club which has 650+ members is no easy task, the presdency was really challenging, it really did transfrom me into the leader im today. During this term we were able to complete 49 projects with a total budget of over Rs 15 Million, a remarkable achievement in itself. Some of the best projects were, Rota wasantha udanaya, which advanced into a mega project this year with even a song being composed for it, and Kelani hendewa which created a hype for the club within the University, Project Ignite srilanka amd Swabaamudra under the community service avenue, ABHIMAN and Career fair 25 under PD, Echoes of Ceylon under IS, Down the wicket and Spotlight under SR, Writing maze done by editorial, Rota tommorow by MR, Eduketha by IT, Finwave by Finance, Influencia by PR and the many joint projects done by the RE avenue.
Another great opportunity I received in my life thanks to Rotaract, is the opportunity to be the Chairperson of the Career Fair 25 organized by the Career Guiadance unit of Univerity of Kelaniya, together with the Rotaract club leading it with the assistance of LEO club, AIESEC, LED KLN and The Gavel club of university of Kelaniya. Here I had to not only lead my own team from our club , but also to lead and cordinate with members , directors and presidents of the other clubs as well, where I have to come up with an approach and a work arrangement that fits all the clubs well. I was able to advenace the careers fair immnsely with the help of my team where we were able to do 8 open days, and an main event fetauring 11companies at once. The vent has about 2300 + undergraduate registrations, 20 companies and over 500 + interviews. This was the biggest Career fair held in our univeristy in the Recent history. So grateful and proud to have led this amazing initiative which is a once in a lifetime opportunity that has transformed me.
This year we were able to win 29 Awards at the Rotarct District assembly, which is the largest award count won by a single club in the history. The 29 Awards included 14 Gold awards ( the highest no of Gold awards by any club in the history), 8 silver awrds and 3 Bronze Awards. In addition to this I was awraded the most outstanding President For the RI year 2024-25 and my secretary Adheesa won the most outstanding secretary award, and the club was honoured as the most Outstanding club in the RI year 2024-25.
All this was possible due to the hard work and commitment of my Exco members, the board of directors, the team leaders and all the members who worked hard for the clubs success. You guys are truly amazing and im lucky to get a talentd bunch like you’ll to work with.
While reflecting on the amazing journey I had with RACUOK, I.m filled with gratitude and pride. RACUOK is truly a special place, and I’m sure that the memories I made in these three years will forever occupy a special place in my heart. So to sum it all up, the best advice I can give to any of you who are starting your journey in this amazing club is, Know that you’re in for a traet, a life changing journey and a golden opportunity to change your life. This club trust me it transforms you, it challenges you and it brings the best out of you, it helps you dicover your hidden talents, it provides a platform for your talents to receive the spotlight, and the club helps you to discover and be the best version of yourselves. Trust me on this. It truly does.
So in life take every opportunity that comes your way, dream big, take risks , make friends, challenge and be challenged, moive out of your comfort zone, try new things, be creative, be willinbg to learn, and open your heart to novel experiences and learn the art of forgiveness and learn to love yourselves and spread that love. I wish the new leaderhip of the club Rtr. Himantha, Rte Delishia and their team the best of luck in taking this club to even further heights.
Though I may bidding farewell to Rotaract, I will continue my journey with my new initiative in Rotary, where we launched Rotary club of colombo Port city Gen Connect, which I started by taking 6 of my fellow Rotarctors of this club to join Rotary. I will be serving as its first chairman, and I hope to serve the people and the country through Rotary in the coming years.
Long may RACUOK reign
Viva La Rotaract
Rtn. Rtr. Vihanga Divyanjana,
President 2024-25
Rotaract Club Of University of Kelaniya.
