The Weligama Community Welfare & Education Centre (WCWEC) is IODR's first long term development project. Located on a 4-acre site near Weligama town in Southern Sri Lanka – a poor fishing community that was devastated by the South Asian Tsunami in 2004.

The WCWEC has been set up with a view to providing sustainable services to the local community and improving their livelihood in the long-term. It offers residential care, educational programmes and hospitality training for vulnerable families and children, in addition to providing medical and health education resources for locals and residents from the surrounding area.

Facilities provided by the Centre comprise on-site accommodation, 6 flexible classrooms, indoor and outdoor dining facilities and hospitality kitchens, in addition to several other resources – including an on-site sports facility that is used for a range of activities. These range from WCWEC play therapy sessions to general recreational use for WCWEC students, and the wider community.

WCWEC services broadly cover three main areas:

General Community: ‘A facility for the local community that provides a number of resources for social and community-based initiatives.’ The WCWEC houses a General Community Centre – a communal facility that is used for meetings, cultural and programme events and group workshops. It also comprises an education library, a PC/internet training facility and offers additional hospitality-related training. As students mature and seek to leave the Centre there will be opportunities to attain student scholarships to train and work for international hotel chains.

Education: ‘A range of initiatives aimed at identifying vulnerable children in the local area and providing learning and training opportunities to support them and their families.’ Children are among the most vulnerable groups in emergency response situations, and they are always placed at the forefront of all IODR projects. At the WCWEC this takes the form of recreational activities and free educational facilities. There are also English Language, I.T. and hospitality training programmes to improve the future livelihoods of needy residents in Weligama and its surrounding areas.

The selected children are amongst the very poorest in society, with absolutely no other means of support, and are all officially registered on the government’s poverty alleviation scheme, ‘Samurdhi’. Receipt of Samurdhi is a pre-requisite for any student enrolled in an IODR scheme. This ensures that IODR aid directly benefits those recognised as being the very poorest in society, thereby enhancing the quality of the aid that IODR provides overall.

Community Health Resources: "A training and education programme aimed at mothers and local organisations to build capacity and skills in a range of specific community health areas." IODR’s health programmes primarily seek to assist women and children by offering pre- and post-natal care. This is designed to address basic issues of nutrition and hygiene, which have been directly linked to the very high infant mortality rates in the area.

Other medical support includes child-specific access to medical care (including operations and surgery) by arrangement with parents/guardians, and general health education programmes to increase levels of medical awareness within the community.