The Pimp My Tuk Tuk (PMTT) Charity Ride flagged off for the second time in Sri Lanka on the 15th of September 2017.  Combining tourism with charity, PMTT involves 54 riders from around the world travelling in 27 tuk tuks for an 8 tour across Sri Lanka. 

Organised by the PMTT Team in Singapore in partnership with the Foundation of Goodness in Sri Lanka, the Charity Ride launched for the first time in 2015 with 40 riders in 20 tuks. Following its success, this year, the riders will once again travel across Sri Lanka commencing from Colombo and travelling to areas such as Sigiriya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Arugam Bay, Monaragala and Unawatuna. In their tour of the island, the riders will stop at several destinations to conduct community development work. In Sigiriya, they will open a new reverse osmosis plant for water purification, in Mihintale they will revisit a reverse osmosis plant opened by the team in 2015, in Batticaloa they will visit the Eravur Village Heartbeat Empowerment Centre, in Monaragala they will stop by the Methsewa Special Needs Home and finally they will visit the Centre of Excellence and Sports Academy in Seenigama. Moreover, this year the PMTT Team will also donate solar power panels to two remote villages up in a hill, Udugaladebokka and Galamuduna, in the Hasalaka area.

At the Flag Off press conference, Alex Longman from the PMTT Team stated that this year is going to be a ‘big experience’. 

“We have riders from around the world including the UK, US, Australia, Japan and the Hong Kong to name a few. We are glad to be working with the Foundation of Goodness again because we’ve seen firsthand where the money we’ve raised goes to and the kind of work they do. These guys are family now.” 

The Foundation of Goodness was established in 1999 and is a name linked with many charitable projects conducted across the island. The Foundation delivers humanitarian services to over 35,000 beneficiaries from over 200 villages annually and is a body devoted to uplifting community standards. At the press conference, Founder and Chief Trustee of the Foundation, Kushil Gunasekera said that this is one of the best projects they’ve done. 

“We are so grateful to be here and doing something so tangible. We have seen what this Charity Ride has done. Their work done at the last charity ride has touched the lives of more than 10,000 people.” 

All funds raised by this charity event will be donated to selected charitable and developments projects of the Foundation of Goodness in Sri Lanka and the Food from the Heart project in Singapore. 

Pictures by Kushan Pathiraja