The Anoma Dash Scholarship Program

The Anoma Dash Scholarship Program is established in loving dedication to Her Excellency, the Late Honorable Anoma Dash, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and devoted more than 22 years of her life to humanitarian service, education, sustainable development, and helping those who needed a helping hand.

Her Excellency Anoma Dash was one of the dedicated contributors to the humanitarian work of Helping Hands, Inc. and Helping Hands Inc. Humanitarian All Nations Diplomatic Mission (HHIDM). She worked alongside her mother, Hon. Kaushalya Siriwardana, Honorable Minister of Peace and Head of the Governing Body of HHIDM, helping to build and advance a humanitarian mission founded upon compassion, dignity, education, sustainability, and service to humanity.

She did not measure her service by the hour.

Day or night, rain or snow, through easy times and difficult ones, she continued to serve. She traveled, worked, assisted others, and gave of herself whenever something needed to be done. She never allowed inconvenience to become a reason not to help another human being.

Throughout her life, she carried a simple philosophy: “Dream Big, Live Simplicity.”

She believed that a person could have the greatest dreams while living with humility and simplicity. To dream big did not mean seeking material possessions or recognition. It meant imagining what could be accomplished for others and having the perseverance to work toward it.

Her compassion extended to people from every walk of life, but children and their education held a particularly important place in her heart.

She understood something very simple and very powerful:

A child’s future should not be determined by how much money their parents have, the country or community into which they were born, the resources available at their school, or whether they are at the top of an honor roll.

Some children dream of becoming pilots. Some dream of becoming doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers, scientists, anthropologists, teachers, actors, singers, artists, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, or entering professions that they have only begun to imagine.

Her message to them would be the same: Dream Big, Live Simplicity.

Millions of children possess ability, determination, creativity, and dreams without having access to the opportunities that could allow those dreams to develop.

Sometimes, what stands between a child and their future is simply an opportunity.

The Anoma Dash Scholarship Program is being created to help provide that opportunity.

Beginning November 11, 2027, the Anoma Dash Scholarship Program will seek to support deserving children and young people from communities throughout the world.

Special consideration will be given to children from impoverished and underserved communities, including those attending schools that may not have sufficient resources to provide students with the educational opportunities available in more fortunate communities.

This scholarship is not limited to university students.

Children and young people may be considered at different stages of their education, depending upon the individual circumstances and the educational opportunity being sought.

Academic achievement is important, but these scholarships will not be reserved only for students with perfect grades, honor-roll recognition, or the highest academic ranking.

Because Her Excellency Anoma Dash understood that sometimes the greatest potential exists in a child who simply has never been given the opportunity to demonstrate it.

Wherever possible, children will be encouraged to continue and complete their basic and high-school education. However, we recognize that every child’s circumstances are different. Poverty, displacement, family circumstances, inadequate schools, or other hardships can interrupt an education.

A difficult beginning should not automatically determine the rest of a child’s life.

Through scholarships, educational assistance, mentorship, training, vocational opportunities, and pathways toward higher education and professional development, the Anoma Dash Scholarship Program will seek to help young people turn their potential into possibility, and possibility into a future.

Her Excellency, the Late Honorable Anoma Dash was not simply a contributor to this humanitarian journey. She helped build it.

For more than 22 years, she worked alongside her mother and those committed to this humanitarian mission. She gave her time, her strength, her perseverance, and her compassion to helping others.

She worked when there was work to be done. She helped when someone needed help. She continued when circumstances were difficult. And through it all, she lived by the values expressed so beautifully in the words: “Dream Big, Live Simplicity.”

The Anoma Dash Scholarship Program will carry that philosophy forward, not simply by remembering what she accomplished, but by continuing something she deeply cared about: giving children an opportunity to dream.

• Every child who receives an education because someone opened a door
• Every young person who discovers that someone recognizes their potential
• Every student who is able to remain in school
• Every child who is able to pursue a profession that once seemed beyond reach
• And every dream that is given a genuine opportunity to become a reality

… will carry a part of her legacy forward.

Kindness and compassion go beyond a moment. They go beyond borders, languages, cultures, and circumstances. And they go beyond a lifetime.

They continue through the people we help, the knowledge we share, the opportunities we create, and the dreams we help another human being achieve.

That is why this scholarship will not merely carry Anoma Dash’s name. It will carry forward her philosophy.