FPA Sri Lanka commemorated “Founders Day” on the 15^th of January 2019. Our Executive Director, Ms Thushara Ranasinghe Agus made the following statement on the day:

It is with great pleasure and gratitude we commemorate our Founder’s day for the 66^th year. The courage to champion family planning as means for women’s health though seems logical today, was a hard won battle then. In 1953 it was thought to be against religious and cultural values. Contraception was a term not openly discussed even among females of the same family.

The cycle continues. What we advocate today will be a Given for future generations. Change is inevitable and will be needed to improve lives and rights of humans. Man-made rules and norms will need to be challenged according to their relevance. New scientific advancements need to be used for improving lives of humans. This entails a lot of work for our present day volunteers, who still form the backbone of our organization – The Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka. We are 66 years today and are relevant than ever before. We salute our Founders who got the movement going for family planning initially, which has evolved to ensure Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for all in the country."

The Early 1950’s saw a movement sweeping across the globe on a mission to improve the plight of women all over the world. The mission was to advocate family planning to enable couples to have children by choice. Multiple pregnancies in short spaces of time, high maternal and infant mortality, poor maternal health were the order of the day and the word “Choice” for a woman was almost a dream status.

 In this backdrop, women activists in 8 countries congregated to form International Planned Parenthood Federation in Mumbai, India in 1952. Similar winds of change were experienced in Sri Lanka too and that paved the way for the birth of the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka in 1953. The founders were all volunteers, who despite their regular professions, gave time and expertise to the cause generously.

FPA Sri Lanka’s strength from its inception, has been the countless number of volunteers from diverse fields and at all levels, who give of their knowledge, expertise and time, in all sincerity to honour their commitment to serve the organization and its purpose of bringing reproductive health, education, information and solutions to people from all walks of life.