• Resumes construction of Karapitiya hospital

Colours of Courage Trust recently recommenced construction of its Karapitiya Trail Cancer Hospital, with the project eyeing completion by the end of 2026. Colours of Courage Trust, co-founded in 2008 by entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist Nathan Sivagananathan and cricketing legend Mahela Jayawardena, is working with the Health Ministry and the Sri Lanka Army to build its second hospital for cancer treatment in the country.

Addressing the media on Wednesday (29), the Colours of Courage Trust founders spoke about the challenges they faced since the commencement of the project and the support they require to complete the project successfully.

First steps

After the establishment of Colours of Courage Trust in 2008, the founders held various fundraising initiatives to complete fully equipped medical and surgical intensive care units at the National Cancer Institute in Maharagama.

Three years later, in 2011, Trail founders Sivagananathan and Sarinda Unamboowe, along with the Colours of Courage Trust, walked from the South to the North to raise funds for an alternative cancer treatment facility in the North. Over 30,000 people took part in the 670 km walk, through which $ 2.6 million was raised. This went into building the Tellippalai Trail Cancer Hospital, which opened in 2014.

As of today, the hospital is treating over 4,000 patients a month, with the Colours of Courage Trust continuing to maintain the hospital through the provision of janitorial services and renovations. The founders pointed out that this was the responsibility of the trust, as they had a responsibility towards the donors to ensure the facilities and standard of the hospital continues.

According to Sivagananathan, the hospital has treated around 800,000 patients, allowing patients from neighbouring areas such as Anuradhapura, Puttalam, and Batticaloa to access treatment facilities. “It’s seen as a gold standard in Central and Northern Provinces,” he said, adding that having a treatment facility in such proximity allows patients to go home after treatment.

Why was it important to build cancer treatment facilities in various parts of the island? While the project takes on a personal tone with the founders of Colours of Courage Trust, both of whom have lost family members to cancer, Jayawardena pointed out that having treatment facilities close by makes lives a lot easier.

“What you have to understand is that with cancer, it’s not just the individual who goes through it, but the entire family as well,” he said, pointing out that many have to relocate due to the distance of treatment facilities.

“The economic structure completely collapses. The social structure completely collapses. If it’s one of the parents, the kids won’t be able to attend school. All that is part of the chain reaction, because the illness does take a longer time to be treated,” Jayawardena said, pointing out that many in Sri Lanka, especially in the North, did not have access to treatment facilities, especially when the project was launched.

After the construction of the Tellippalai Trail Cancer Hospital, Trail 2016 – The Walk Back made the journey from Point Pedro to Dondra over a period of 28 days to raise $ 5 million for the Karapitiya Trail Cancer Hospital. Trail 2016 saw over 75,000 people joining its journey, receiving support from over 2.5 million people.

A challenging journey

Trail 2016 was successful, with Sivagananathan saying: “It was something that the country came together for and we didn’t see a division between the South and the North and the North and the South. In fact, we collected so much money in the North for the South and we collected so much money in the South for the North. It became a peace movement as well to see how this country can work together.”

However, the journey wasn’t without its challenges. After the walk was completed, the team faced certain barriers. One was the approvals required to build a hospital. “The negotiations with the Ministry of Health and other institutions took some time,” he said, adding that the Memorandum of Understanding was finally signed in 2018.

Then came economic challenges, which required a flipping of the agreement. Initially, the government was to provide the foundation, with the trust to construct the remainder of the structure. However, with the government saying they didn’t have the funds for it, the trust had to flip the agreement, so they would be handling the initial phase of the project.

This began in 2019 and was completed towards the end of 2020.

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, when it became challenging to keep the construction up and running. The Sri Lanka Army was to take over the construction, but the requirements of the Covid-19 pandemic and then the economic crisis prevented this.

“We were going through the phase of redoing the agreements, because the agreements had lapsed, and finally, when this new government came in, they were able to give us the approvals required to commence the construction of the hospital, which is phase two,” Sivagananathan said.

Relaunching the project

According to the trust, the proposed hospital will be designed as an auxiliary unit to the existing cancer unit of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. It would be a 10-storey building complete with a radiology unit, bone marrow transplant unit, paediatric ward, surgical ICU, 160-bed oncology wards, and operating theatres.

While the foundation of the building is complete, now begins phase two of the project.

“Karapitiya was the perfect choice for a hospital in the South. It’s a Teaching Hospital and they have a small cancer unit, so having a facility there will provide everyone in the South to come there and get treated,” Jayawardena said.

He added: “We raised the money that we thought was enough at that time to build a hospital, but unfortunately now, with the cost escalation, we need to raise more money to finish it. That’s why we wanted to relaunch the project as well as start going out and raising more money for it.”

When the project commenced, the cost estimation for the foundation was Rs. 450 million, he said, but today, they need to raise an additional Rs. 2.2 billion to complete the project, with the total cost for the structure coming up to Rs. 2.6 billion. This does not include the cost of equipping the hospital, which is the third phase of the project.

However, the founders were confident that the support they have received in the past will continue and that they would be able to provide patients in the South with state-of-the-art treatment facilities. This support would go into first completing five floors of the proposed 10-storey structure, with the shell of the remaining five floors to be constructed as well. These will be completed when further funds are raised.