One Team, One Goal: Uniting People Through Sport

Students from Kurunegala enjoying a thrilling FIFA World Cup match between Japan and Costa Rica

Students from the two schools playing a mixed 8 a side football match in Vavuniya.

As the whole world is enthralled in football fever with the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar, two schools from Kurunegala and Vavuniya were given an opportunity to watch the FIFA World Cup Japan vs. Costa Rica match LIVE and play a few friendly games amongst each other in an initiative jointly organised by Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider Dialog Axiata and the Japan International Corporation Agency, recently.

The girls’ and boys’ football teams of Saraswathy Vidyalayam in Suntharapuram, Vavuniya and Football players of the Sputnik International Education Center in Kurunegala, came together in Vavuniya on Sunday to play the game they loved so much.

The 8-a-side friendly games were played with players from both schools mixed together – so that each team consisted of members from Saraswathy Vidyalayam boys’ team, girls’ team, and Sputnik International Education Centre for an evening of friendship and camaraderie. Within each team, there were many differences – they spoke different languages and were of different ethnicities; they were from different age groups and gender; they had different backgrounds as they came from different Provinces in Sri Lanka. They had just met each other for the first time that day. Yet, they did not let any of these differences become a barrier to play together in one team, with one goal in mind!

The friendly games were followed by the screening of the FIFA World Cup first round game between Japan and Costa Rica LIVE at the school hall.

The FIFA game was also screened live at the Sputnik International Education Center – a Japanese language school in Kurunegala.

Over 150 students, teachers and guests were able to enjoy the excitement and the sportsmanship of the game at each location.

At the Sputnik International Education Center, Volunteers of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) working in Sri Lanka in supporting environmental education, welfare & education for persons with disabilities and early childhood education in Sri Lanka, spoke about their work in Sri Lanka and also about Japan and its culture, highlighting the shared values of the two countries. Dr. Eshantha Ariyadasa, Director General of Sputnik and Mr. Yoshida Kentaro, Senior Representative of JICA Sri Lanka were among the guests who joined the event in Kurunegala.

Mr. Saman Bandulasena, Chief Secretary of the Northern Province was the Guest of Honor at the event at Saraswathy Vidyalayam. Mr. R. Umakanthan, Deputy Chief Secretary, Mr. Lenin Arivakalan, Zonal Director of Education of Vavuniya. Ms. J. Manogowry, Principal of Saraswathy Vidyalayam, Mr. Yamada Tetsuya, Chief Representative of JICA Sri Lanka and other officials from the Northern Province and JICA joined the children and teachers to celebrate the event in Suntharapuram, Vavuniya.

Suntharapuram is a village supported under the JICA-funded “Rural Infrastructure Development Project in Emerging Regions (RIDEP)”. The connection of pipe-borne water to two of the woman-headed households in the Suntharapuram potable water supply sub-project under RIDEP was also ceremonially opened by the Guests at the same time.

The events hold special significance for Japan and Sri Lanka this year as it is the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, as well as the 40th anniversary of JICA in Sri Lanka.