Sri Lanka’s Olympic discard Anna-Marie Ondaatje has shrugged off the disappointment of missing out on Tokyo 2020 by embarking with renewed vigour engaging in her charitable work via the A Quint Ondaatje Foundation.
Anna-Marie Ondaatje is only 20, but her athletic legacy is already secure: as the first Rhythmic gymnast to represent Sri Lanka on the international stage, she is already both pioneer and Ambassador for her sport.
When creating the A Quint Ondaatje Foundation, Anna-Marie’s main goal was to help eliminate poverty in her mother country Sri Lanka.
More than 50 Municipal Council Workers who clean public areas and streets were donated safety gear, boots, masks, cotton and rubber gloves, hand sanitizers and dry rations in Colombo on August 14.
Jeffrey Bahar Associate Director for AQO Group and A Quint Ondaatje Foundation Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Director/Goodwill Ambassador Anna-Marie Q Ondaatje thanked the Co-Founder of ‘The Sports Manager’, Sanjaya Ganlath, Sri Lanka’s first sports agency, for coordinating the charity event that was held for the municipality workers of Grandpass.
“Anna-Marie is looking forward to holding many more self-funded events like this in the future. She hopes to inspire and meet everyone someday,” added Bahar.
“During my stay in Sri Lanka in 2019, I established the A Quint Ondaatje Foundation. As the goodwill ambassador, we have held many charity events to give back. So far we have donated to areas such as sports, education, handicapped and underprivileged children,” said Anna-Marie who aims to focus on human rights, basic needs (food, clothing, and shelter), creating change in areas of health and safety, education, gender equality, foster, abuse, women, disaster response, refugee, sports development, arts, culture and heritage, rural transformation and urban renewal.
“We want to partner with government, public and private sectors and foster greater public awareness of urgent issues. Build partnerships that bring together resources, expertise and vision working with the best organisations in the world. I am ambitious to promote good healthcare and safety to all our people and to be a Goodwill Ambassador to promote Sri Lanka across the Universe while promoting the idea that ‘we are all equal and here for a purpose’.”
Asked where she would want to see herself in five years’ time, Anna-Marie said: “In the coming years I hope to be participating in various competitions. I will continue working hard to represent Sri Lanka at the upcoming competitions: the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, Asian Championships, 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou Zhejiang, China, 2022 Summer Fisu World University Games, and to represent my mother country Sri Lanka as the first Rhythmic Gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games, at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. This will allow me to fulfill my dream of giving back to my country, by inspiring the youth and expanding the sport in Sri Lanka.”