The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund

Last year, in partnership with Palmera we launched The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund on the Wedding Anniversary of this extraordinary and inseparable couple, our dearest and most loving Amma and Appa. With the support and generosity of our family and friends, The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund raised over $17,000 and with these funds, 246 children in Sri Lanka were given access to an education and their educational and training needs supported for a year. Palmera worked closely with families to empower these families to continue to support their children’s education into the future. We are so deeply moved that we are able to honour the lives and legacy of our parents and their commitment to education as a tool of empowerment. 

It is almost the second anniversary of our Appa’s passing and the third anniversary of our Amma’s passing. Today, 11 July 2021, on the 53rd Wedding Anniversary of our Amma and Appa, we re-launch The Karunakaran Memorial Fund’s campaign to support Palmera’s important work in Sri Lanka to continue to support the educational needs of these children and want to expand the impact to many more hundreds of children. We are re-launching the Fund again this year with an initial amount of $5,000.

You are very welcome to also make your own contributions, no matter how big or small, as part of The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund to support Palmera’s work on the ground in Sri Lanka. You will be updated as to how the Fund was spent and the impact. 

To learn more about our Amma and Appa’s lives, their values and the impact they had – please read below. We hope that their grandchildren Ishaan, Mira, Riya, Arjuni and Jishnu (and their grandson on the way in August!), will also derive meaning in their own lives from the rich legacy of their beloved Appama/Ammama and Appapa/Thaatha. 

Thank you for your support of The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund and creating a lasting legacy of our loving parents. 

These two university sweethearts fell in love whilst studying at the Peradeniya university campus, got married a few years later at the Nallur Sivan Temple on 11 July 1968 after graduating from the University of Peradeniya, and shared 50 wonderful years of marriage together. They lived their lives full of adventure, fun, travel, love, friendship and generosity. 

They built their careers as High School teachers (Appa in Mathematics and Amma in Economics and Geography) and their passion and commitment to education and the empowerment of others led them to live and work in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, London and finally, Sydney.

Many of their students including those who received tuition privately or in classes, have gone on to build successful careers and lives and many more students over the decades have acknowledged Amma and Appa for their positive and lasting impact as teachers and mentors. 

Amma and Appa were soul mates and kindred spirits in the truest sense. They shared an abundance of joy and also weathered the most heart-breaking and painful times together – the most difficult being the loss of our brother Arjuna when he was just one week old. 

Their unwavering, steadfast love for each other, unconditional love for us and the sacrifices and choices they made for our benefit, ultimately enabled us to create the lives we wanted for ourselves and our own families. We are incredibly lucky to have been blessed with such parents and are so very fortunate to have everything we need and more. 

Throughout their lives, Amma and Appa demonstrated a deep generosity of giving to others in need – from helping close and extended family members to obtain an education, to helping thousands of their students in a meaningful way and through their charitable work and donations to help those less fortunate, particularly children. 

They instilled in us the sense that it is in fact our duty to give and help those in need. 

Amma and Appa, as individuals and as a partnership, had a profound impact on us (their son and daughter), their daughter-in-law Seema and son-in-law Julian, their precious grandchildren Ishaan, Mira, Riya, Arjuni and Jishnu, friends, family and countless students. As such we want their legacy to continue to have a lasting impact on communities who need our help the most. 

Palmera is an organisation that we as a family have been very passionate about and we are confident that the funds will be used to maximise the impact and create lasting and sustainable outcomes for those in need in our motherland Sri Lanka.

The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund is our way of honouring the lives and legacy of our Amma and Appa and also our brother Arjuna. Every year on the 11th of July, which is Amma and Appa’s Wedding Anniversary date – the Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund will continue its support for the educational related work carried out by Palmera.

We are grateful for your support of The Karunakaran Memorial Education Fund and the legacy of our loving parents.

Kishore and Shameela