Started in 1979 and originally known as ‘Project Love-Care,’ the center in Mattakkuliya was first set up in response to the plight of the then recently emerged Summitpura community. The Summitpura slum in Mattakkuliya, also known as ‘Seventeen Acres of Hell,’ emerged when the government of Sri Lanka forcibly relocated hundreds of families to Mattakkuliya, in a bid to clean up the city of Colombo in 1976, in time for the ‘Non-Aligned Movement Summit.’ Pastor Colton Wickramaratne’s wife, Susanne, moved by the plight of the inhabitants of this community, who were left to fend for themselves in crowded makeshift houses with no basic facilities, began a modest feeding program in 1979. Her aim was to meet the needs of this community and to show them they were not forgotten.

Known as the ‘Center of Hope’ (“COH”) today, the operation now encompasses Centers of Hope, Kidz Klubz (“KK”), and Rays of Hope (“ROH”). COH is the Compassion Arm of People’s Church. Our vision is to transform communities by changing lives.

We work towards this by nurturing children aged 3-16 years through programs which aim to support their physical, intellectual, emotional, relational and spiritual development.