Our History

The Rotaract Club of the University of Colombo, Faculty of Management and Finance was inaugurated under the leadership of Charter President Rtr. Mifrah Ismail, with the intention of providing a platform for the faculty students to develop their soft skills through organizing projects and networking with members of the community. He recognized that the students enter our faculty from all walks of life and have little opportunity to use the English language. Therefore one of the main activities in the inaugural year was the “Speak Out” project where senior students conversant in English provided a forum in which any interested faculty student could learn to speak in English freely amongst their friends. The Club successfully completed 10 projects in the first year, including playing a key role in the commemoration of World Down Syndrome Day with the support of other University based clubs and celebrated the year by winning the “Most Outstanding New Club” at the 21^st District Rotary Assembly in 2011.

The 2^nd Year of RACUOCFMF functioned under the leadership of President Lishan Wickramanayake. The key finance project of the club, the Annual Car Wash, was initiated during this year.

– Sri Lanka recognized our club and our members with many awards in the one year of action we can claim for ourselves.

The list of awards received at the 22nd District Assembly for the Rotary International District 3220, is as follows:

• 2011/12 Changemaker Award - Rotary International Recognition
• Award of Completing District Citations
• Award for Hosting HIV and AIDS Walk 2012
• Awards for Hosting World Down Syndrome Day
• The Spirit of Service Award to Rtr. Thilini Alahakoon
• Rotaractor of the Month (March) to Rtr. Thilini Alahakoon
• Award of Recognition to Rtr. Nadisha Colombage
• Rotaract Paragon Award to Rtr. Nadisha Colombage

The 2012/13 year, which functioned under the leadership of President Nilangika Fernando, continued the journey of collaboration and achievement RACUOCFMF. Among its significant projects was the initiation of iGenius, the interactive quiz competition, with the Rotaract Club of Colombo Midtown, which was nominated for the best professional development project at the District Awards. The club was able to continue projects such as the World Down Syndrome Day project in partnership with the other state university clubs and contribute within its faculty through professional development and community engagement programmes. The colourful Kaleidoscope, club newsletter, informed both the club members and the community of its many activities on a quarterly basis. The club was able to add to the multiple awards and achievements of its previous years and received citations for multiple projects and members alike.

Year 2013/14, functioned under the leadership of President Harini Dias, was a year to remember, as many great projects such as World Down Syndrome Day, Rotaract ball and a Breast Cancer awareness campaign were pulled off during the year. The award for the best club annual report was received at the Annual District Assembly for the year.

RACUOCFMF functioned under the leadership of President Romanthi Fernando for the year 2014/15. Future for us, Happy Street Pooch, Make a wish: All I want for Christmas, Donations to Nepal, Drought Relief, We have a Dream, iGenius 2015, SL2 College and Cash your Trash were some significant projects carried out during the year.

RACUOCFMF won the highest awards at the Annual Rotaract Assembly of the year, while this was the first time in the Club’s history of 5 years since its inception to achieve all awards below, under the leadership of President Praveen Fernando. It should also be commended that it was the only Club to achieve the highest number of awards from over 50 clubs in the Rotaract District 3220. The visit the Executive Committee made to the Rotary headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, United States was a historical landmark for the club. Projects such as Glass Ice – the signature project of the club, Future for us, Battle of the Greens and Sandastic were initiated during this year. The ever successful blog of RACUOCFMF was also launched during the year.

The awards received for the year are as follows:

• The Most Outstanding Club of the year– Award given by Rotary District 3220 – Only Club to receive this award for the year out of 55 Active Rotaract Clubs in Sri Lanka
• The Most Outstanding Club of the year– Award by Rotaract District 3220.
• The Most Outstanding President of the year– Rtr. Praveen Fernando
• The Most Outstanding Secretary of the year– Rtr. Nilukshi Jayawardena
• Best Reporting Club - Gold Award
• Best Blog - Gold Award
• Best Green Life Initiative - Gold Award for Battle of the Greens
• Most Innovative Project of the Year – Glass Ice
• Best Annual Report - Silver Award
• Best Club Service Project - Silver Award for SLAM 2016
• Most Participative Club - Bronze Award
• President of the Month (October) awarded to Rtr. Praveen Fernando
• Best Project Serve – Rotaract for Cataract
• Rotaractors of the Month – (August) Rtr. Ruzni Faik, (September) Rtr. Dinath Federico and (November) Rtr. Ruwini Nuwangi
• Presidential Citation
• District Citation

Awards receive at the Annual Rotaract Assembly for the year 2016-2017, under the leadership of President Hiruni Perera

• Most Outstanding Club of the year
• Most Outstanding President of the year
• Rotaract South Asia Multiple District International Organization, People’s Choice International Service Award - runners-up for project vConnect
• Best Annual Report – Platinum Award
• Best Reporting Club – Platinum Award
• Most Outstanding Blog of the year – Platinum Award
• Most Outstanding Community Service Project on Sustainable Consumption – Platinum Award for Project Green Dream
• Most Outstanding Finance Project organized for Club Initiative – Gold Award for Project King Spin
• President of the Month Award - received for the month of August
• Most Innovative Cluster Initiative - Project Change.Action.Hope

RACUOCFMF, functioned under the Leadership of President Akhila Wijetunga, achieved many key milestones during the year 2017/18. Meeting all District Citation requirements, Completion of 41 projects, Blog surpassing 200,000 views and reaching 300 posts and the club winning 1^st runner-up at the Rotaract Championship League are some of them. The launch of the Avenue Sports and initiations of projects such as Boss, Cultura, Desi Raat and Arambayak are some noteworthy steps taken during the year.

The awards received for the year are as follows:

• Most Committed Rotaract Leader – Akhila Adishwara
• Most Outstanding Secretary – Manahari Singarachchi
• Spirit of Service – Amila Prasad Illesinghe
• Most Outstanding Club Service Project – Bronze Award for Rotaraction
• Most Outstanding Reporting Club – Gold Award
• Most Outstanding Annual Report – Gold Award
• Most Outstanding Blog – Gold Award
• Most Outstanding Female Empowerment Project – Gold Award for BOSS
• Most Outstanding Social Media Presence – Bronze Award
• Most Outstanding Project with Interactors – Silver Award for Rotastic
• Most Outstanding Community Service Project focused on Peace and Conflict Resolution – Silver Award for Arambayak
• Most Outstanding Project with Rotary – Gold Award for Colombo Blind Walk

Continuing with the theme “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work”, each and every member of our Club ensured the theme to reach all the milestones, under the leadership of President Limashi Kosgodage. Meeting all the Rotary Citation Requirements, Completion of 36 Projects, Blog reaching 350 posts and Meeting all District Citation Requirements are some of the key milestones achieved during the year. Launching the FMF Goes Green, an initiative to change all our activities eco-friendly and Know-Our-Board: Introduction of the board being done by friends of the respective board members from other clubs in the district as an initiative to showcase the fellowship of Rotaract were innovative initiations launched during the year. Detour 1.0, Raaga Thaala, Stepping Stones, Info Center, GET: Green Energy for Tomorrow, Be Ideal and Cloths for Souls were projects which were launched during the year.

The following are the Awards received by the Club at the Annual District Assembly

• Most Outstanding Secretary – Amandi Umagiliya
• Most Outstanding Club Blog – Gold Award
• Most Outstanding Human Resource Development Project – Silver Award for Yoga O’Clock (A joint initiative by the Rotaract Clubs of University of Colombo Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Colombo Faculty of Science and University of Moratuwa
• Most Outstanding International Understanding Project – Bronze Award for R-Dosti
• Certificate for Distinguished Service – Sachinthani Abeysekara
• Recognition for completing the Rotaract District Citations