Thousands of walkers reached the finishing point as Trail’s 28-day journey from Point Pedro in the North to Dondra in the South of Sri Lanka came to an end.
The extraordinary success of the event has been a truly inspiring one along this journey to raise five million dollars towards building a new cancer facility at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle. Trail 2016 saw Sri Lankans from all walks of life and even visiting tourists to the Island unite together for a common cause. Over 70,000 walkers raised nearly $3 million thus far. And 40 million rupees in till collections alone on the road over the 28 days.
Throughout the 28 days, the walkers were overwhelmed by the inherent generosity and empathy of the Sri Lankan people. There were schoolchildren who gave away their piggy banks or a day’s pocket money, way-side vendors who gave their day’s earnings and even beggars who gave their collections, and people along the way providing refreshments touching the hearts of the walkers.
Along this journey were also several corporates sponsoring and donating to Trail to reach the goal of five million dollars.
“The contributions and participation by the people have been overwhelming. It makes us feel really good. This is the kind of support and awareness we envisioned for this initiative. We wanted everyone to know that we are walking for a cause which will help all Sri Lankans” said Mahela Jayawardena, Director of the Colours of Courage Trust. He further added, “We will continue to push ourselves to raise funds to help patients with different needs.”
Trail 2016 was certainly no hike. The journey was challenging as anyone who took part would say. Yet the scorching heat and humidity nor the downpour of rains and slippery muddy roads deter the thousands of people who braved all odds to show their solidarity.
Trail 2016 owes its success in no small measure to its brand ambassadors and many other eminent personalities as the road in front of them gradually shrank from the 670 km till they reached Dondra Head, the southernmost point in Sri Lanka.
“We were completely overwhelmed by the spontaneous and warm support of the public along the way,” said Kumar Sangakkara. “They were the real brand ambassadors.”
Co-founder of Trail, Sarinda Unamboowe had pledged that if the civil war were to end, he would walk the length of his homeland as a commitment to peace, and Nathan Sivagananathan was touched by a personal loss to cancer and felt this walk was the most impactful way to help those battling this disease.
“It is a matter of personal satisfaction for me to have walked from south to north during TrailSL 2011 and from north to south during TrailSL 2016,” said Sarinda Unamboowe. “It is great to see people transformed from a war mind-set to one of peace and sharing, as we have seen all along the way.”
“With the funds collected from TrailSL 2011, we were able to build a state-of-the-art cancer hospital in Tellippalai, Jaffna,” said Nathan Sivagananathan. “With TrailSL 2016 I’m confident that our dream of a state-of the-art cancer hospital in Galle will soon be a reality.”