Dear Donors, Members, Colleagues, and Friends,
As we welcome 2026, I would like to warmly thank each of you who stood with JMFOAI (the collaborative entity of all five JMFOA chapters) during 2025. Your generosity, trust, and belief in our mission have translated directly into lives protected, families strengthened, and communities empowered across the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Together, we are not only responding to today’s needs – but we are also building healthier, more resilient communities for generations to come.
In a year marked by growing social and health challenges, your contributions enabled JMFOAI to deliver two high-impact flagship programmes. Substance Use Prevention Program (SUPP) among school-going children, and the Cancer Prevention & Early Detection at the community level. This newsletter highlights what your support made possible, how funds were used responsibly, and how together we can continue this journey in the year ahead.
On behalf of the JMFOAI Executive Committee.
Project 1: Substance Use Prevention Program (SUPP)
With substance use rising alarmingly among school-aged children, your donations supported a preventive, evidence-based response implemented in partnership with the Jaffna Medical Faculty and Provincial Departments of Education. The program’s implementation is multifaceted.
Life Skills for Children – Manohari Program:
Empowering children with decision-making skills, resilience, and emotional intelligence by introducing the “Manohari” life skills (soft skills) training modules to all secondary school children, by training at least one teacher from every secondary school, and expecting that teacher to teach life skills to all children in return.
A six-month pilot project was conducted in the Batticaloa and Vadamarachchi educational zones in March 2023 to assess the feasibility and acceptability of Manohari life-skills training modules among teachers and students in secondary schools. Following the positive response to the pilot project, the program’s expansion to all nineteen educational zones in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kalmunai, Jaffna, and Kilinochchi in 2025 demonstrates our commitment to creating lasting change and inspires confidence among stakeholders. So far, 490 teachers from nineteen educational zones and 41 ISAs (in-service advisors) have completed training at various levels within the existing school system. The remaining six educational zones across Mannar, Mullaitivu, and Vavuniya districts will follow in 2026. This approach ensures that a single trained teacher reaches hundreds of students each year, thereby multiplying the impact of each donation.
The program was accepted by the education departments and the governors in both provinces in 2025, leveraging an existing system within the education departments. Teachers are monitored and evaluated through a Teacher Life Skills Training Logbook, which is reviewed by ISAs and principals and whose contents contribute to the departmental performance appraisal. To ensure the program’s sustainability beyond donor funding, it will be transferred to the education department once it is integrated into their school system over the next four years.
Supporting Parents & Families:
To reinforce change at home, JMFOAI developed five parenting-skills modules delivered by trained teachers in schools to parents of school children. This concurrent approach strengthens family bonds, fosters healthier dynamics, and nurtures a drug-free, motivated environment for children.
Recently, JMFOAI started a community pilot project in Mahaloor village, of Paddiruppu DS division, trained 35 Divisional Secretariat staff, directly addressing adolescent and parental mental health and suicide risk.
Youth Walk-In Centres:
Donor support also sustained youth-friendly drop-in centres, including the operational centre at Batticaloa Teaching Hospital in November 2023, offering counselling and early intervention; short-stay and inpatient care; and telephone advice, seven days a week. These centres, staffed by MH staff under the consultant psychiatrist’s supervision, provide a safe, stigma-free entry point for vulnerable young people seeking help.
Research & Accountability:
To ensure accountability and effectiveness, Jaffna Medical Faculty conducted a quasi-experimental study with a cohort of students from schools in the Jaffna district during 2025. Data analysis is underway, and findings will guide future scale-up and long-term impact evaluation on children.
Vaarpu project:
In 2024/2025, the life skills training program expanded to students across various faculties at the University of Jaffna, by training 28 volunteer academics, both Tamil and Sinhala.
SUPP Expenditure:
JMFOAI primarily funds and implements the program through two employed coordinators. From 2023 to 2025, JMFOAI spent approximately SLR 9,96 million, with the amount shared among its four chapters. The Enlightenment Circle, an arm of the Saiva Munneta Sangam UK, fully funds the project’s research component. BUDS UK sponsors project activities across four educational zones in the Batticaloa district.
Project 2: Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Initiative
Cancer remains one of Sri Lanka’s leading causes of premature death despite the existence of a state-sponsored cancer detection system; approximately 60% of oral cancers and a majority of breast cancer cases continue to be diagnosed at late stages (stage III or IV). With your support, JMFOAI and IMHO USA will jointly address this gap over the next five years, in collaboration with Jaffna Teaching Hospital and the Jaffna Medical Faculty, through community-based cancer prevention and early detection of oral, breast, and cervical cancers, following a successful 2023/2024 pilot project spearheaded by JMFOA Canada. Due to limited funding and the need to assess the effectiveness of our combined models, we initially focused solely on the Kilinochchi district, starting in March 2025, before expanding to other districts. Expansion to the Jaffna Islands is planned for early 2026.
The project model combines JTH expertise in mass mobilisation and outreach screening, community-level screening and awareness campaigns by newly recruited eight Community Health Workers (CHWs) at satellite centres across Kilinochchi district, targeted screening of high-risk groups, and robust data collection and monitoring systems, implemented by a project manager/cancer connector, and led by Dr Thanendiran, an onco-surgeon at JTH.
What Your Support Achieved in Just 6 Months (Kilinochchi District):
• 8,230 people received cancer awareness education, and 6,590 were screened for cancer.
• A total of 201 high-risk cases were referred to Jaffna and Kilinochchi hospitals for further investigation.
• Six cases of cancer were identified, with two deaths, and 63 cases are under follow-up.
• Lives already saved through early identification and follow-up.
Project Cost:
SLR 6.59 million (1 year) Jointly funded by JMFOAI and IMHO USA.
Jaffna Medical Faculty Overseas Alumni International