History

Sri Lanka Saukyadana Movement was founded in 1959 under the eminent leadership of Dr. Vajiranath Lakshman de Silva who was a newly passed out young medical Doctor at that time. While he was on a pilgrimage to Sripada he had seen the difficulties the pilgrims had to encounter due to the lack of medical aid services. Having seen this situation after returning to Colombo he established Saukyadana movement with the aim of providing medical aid to the pilgrims of Sripada and other religious festivals and events

Within a short period of time many doctors, nurses and other para-medical personnel joined hands with this movement. With the help of some experts in the medical field, the Saukyadhana movement trained groups of youth and school children from various parts of the country on health and first aid and they later became the resource persons for this voluntary service.

"Saukyadana" means a freely given gift of health to the public. When choosing this name, Dr. de Silva envisaged Suakyadana as not only promoting the wellbeing of Sri Lanka's who did not have access to adequate health care, but also a vehicle by which to train the youth of Sri Lanka to be healthy, self-confidant, self-reliant with the needed leaderships and humanist qualities to take the country forward.

From these humble beginnings, the Sri Lanka Saukyadana Movement has evolved into a national level organization with over 6000 volunteers working in 12 districts across the country. The backbone of the organization currently lies at the school level, with the primary focus of the organization being the provision of first aid training to students and teachers. It is the effort of these school trained volunteers which provides the medical aid camps and other health and community aid services.