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✅ Completed COVID-19 Response

A ventilator for Jaffna, a testing lab for Colombo

📍 Colombo and Jaffna, Sri Lanka

✅ Project Value: $108,942 — Reached

A Rotary Global Grant delivers a Hamilton C3 ICU ventilator to Teaching Hospital Jaffna and equips the University of Colombo's Medical Faculty laboratory with PPE and testing supplies to scale up SARS-CoV-2 testing.

By mid-2020, Sri Lanka's COVID-19 response faced pressure on two fronts at once. At Teaching Hospital Jaffna, patients with the most severe respiratory complications needed ventilatory support the ICU didn't yet have enough of. Nationally, the Medical Faculty at the University of Colombo — one of the country's key referral laboratories for coronavirus testing — needed both protective equipment and specialised supplies to keep processing samples at scale. Global Grant GG2012273 was designed to answer both at once.

Requests from the people who would use it

Dr T Sathiyamoorthy, Director General of Teaching Hospital Jaffna, identified the ICU ventilator as the hospital's most pressing need. Dr Chathuri Gunasekera, Consultant Microbiologist at the Medical Faculty, specified the testing consumables, PPE and cold-chain equipment her laboratory needed.

What the grant delivered

Backed by US$108,942 in funding, the project supplied:

  • To Teaching Hospital Jaffna — a Hamilton C3 ICU ventilator, for patients requiring the highest level of respiratory support
  • To the Medical Faculty, University of Colombo — a full suite of PCR testing and laboratory supplies (Qiagen extraction kits, PCR strips, a microcentrifuge, cold storage and a validated SARS-CoV-2 real-time PCR assay), alongside N95 and surgical masks, disposable gowns and coveralls, goggles, gloves, shoe covers and biohazard disposal bags

Two custodians, two commitments

The ventilator has been added to Teaching Hospital Jaffna's Hospital Asset Register, with the Ministry of Health responsible for its upkeep. The Medical Faculty owns and maintains its own equipment, drawing on funding from both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education.

A partnership across two continents

Rotary Club of Colombo South, as host sponsor, managed the project's full lifecycle. Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney (District 9685) served as international sponsor. District Designated Funds from Districts 9600, 9685, 9455, 3150 and 2981, combined with club cash contributions, funded the project alongside The Rotary Foundation's World Fund match.