Hello,
My name is Visaka. It’s a Sri Lankan name that Bhante Dhammika gave me when I first came to this wonderful country many years ago. I am a 75-year-old woman, born in Vietnam and now living in the USA.

As our great teacher, the Buddha, said, life is a sea of sufferings. I have lived through and witnessed many kinds of human sufferings in the countries I visited in the past.

Feeling lots of pain and compassion for so many people in distress, I decided to quit my job in America at the age of 55 in order to devote my life to helping the poor and the disadvantaged no matter where they are in the world. Somehow, Sri Lanka was the only country that I fell in love with and I have been coming here several times to do charity work.

I came to Sri Lanka for the first time when I was 69 years old and met with Bhante Dhammika. The temple in his village had no running water for 50 years and no electricity for 25 years. Afterward, I have been staying in Sri Lanka for 3 years to improve the life of his Buddhist devotees. Caring for them and relieving their sufferings helped me tremendously in practicing the Buddha’s teaching and in growing my love and compassion for all human beings.

During those three years, I realized that the people who suffer the most are the poor, sick, and old village residents. Many of them are alone and live by themselves without any relative to take care of them. They are truly the poorest of the poor. To alleviate this very sad situation, I propose that we contribute to the building of a nursing home in the village of Govindupura for 100 people: including women, men, monks and nunks.

Monks dedicate all their lives to the service of humanity. Yet, when they suffer from many illnesses in their old age, there are no facilities to help them adequately. Therefore, it is our humane duty to take good care of them together with other residents in our nursing home. Also, this is the least that we can do to show our appreciation and gratitude for their lifelong devotion to mankind and Buddhism.

I will help this project with a modest amount of money that I have previously saved in my working years. Of course, it will not be enough to realize this building. Therefore, I invite everyone to contribute whatever he or she can to save those most in need.

This nursing home shall be named The Mission House of Sikhi and will charge no fees to the residents. This is no small enterprise and it may take quite some time and lots of effort from all of us. But surely it will be completed with our determination and the Buddha’s blessings.

Birth, old age, sickness, and death are the four phases of human life, as the Buddha said. Our nursing home shall take care of the last three phases. This is a tremendous task that will require lots of work and commitment from all of us. We fervently ask you to continuously help us not only in the construction of the building but also in supporting us later in the daily tasks required to help the residents.

To offer your help, please contact Bhante Dhammika at his phone number +94 76 488 8711 or email vishakafoundationgpr@gmail.com.
For updates about this project, you can also visit this website.

Bhante Dhammika and I greatly appreciate your consideration of this endeavor and look forward to working with you in helping the forgotten and neglected human beings living in our community.