Help to Live Their Life
Project Overview
Help.lk was designed and developed by Isura Wickramarachchi in 2008 as a non-profit humanitarian project dedicated to supporting Sri Lankan children suffering from life-threatening illnesses.
The primary objective of the website was to connect children in urgent need of medical treatment with compassionate donors and volunteers. Before any child was published on the website, the medical condition, hospital records, and financial requirements were carefully verified. Once approved, the child's profile included treatment details, required funding, supporting medical reports, parents' information, bank account details for donations, and progress updates.
Beyond fundraising, Help.lk evolved into a broader community platform that brought together volunteers, blood donors, hospitals, charitable organisations, and individuals willing to provide financial and practical assistance.
Unfortunately, due to increasing operational and maintenance challenges, the project was discontinued and the website was closed in 2013.
Design & Structure
The website featured a warm and compassionate design using orange, blue, green, and white, creating a welcoming environment while keeping the focus on the children.
The homepage included:
- A featured child profile requiring urgent assistance.
- Navigation dedicated to charity services and fundraising.
- Sections explaining the organisation's mission and activities.
- Donation and blood request modules.
- Volunteer registration and participation information.
- Charity news and success stories.
- Partner organisations and sponsor logos.
- Easy access to emergency support services.
The clean multi-column layout ensured that visitors could quickly understand each child's situation and contribute through donations or voluntary support.
Key Features
- Dynamic PHP/MySQL charity management system.
- Verified child medical case management.
- Individual child profile pages.
- Online donation information.
- Medical reports and supporting document management.
- Parent and guardian information.
- Blood donor registration.
- Blood request management.
- Blood camp announcements.
- Volunteer registration.
- Charity news and success stories.
- Administration panel.
- SEO-friendly page structure.
- Cross-browser compatibility.
Technical Highlights
- PHP/MySQL database-driven architecture.
- Custom content management system.
- Verified case publishing workflow.
- Dynamic donation and patient management.
- Volunteer and blood donor management.
- News management system.
- Search engine friendly architecture.
- Cross-browser compatibility.
Significance
Help.lk remains one of the most meaningful social initiatives undertaken by Isura Wickramarachchi. Unlike a commercial website, it was created with a single purpose—to give critically ill children a better chance at life by connecting them with people willing to help.
The platform established a trusted process where only medically verified cases were published, giving donors confidence that their contributions reached genuine families in need. By bringing together donors, volunteers, blood donors, hospitals, and charitable organisations, Help.lk became more than a fundraising website—it developed into a nationwide humanitarian network that supported children through financial assistance, blood donations, and community-driven care.
Although the website was closed in 2013, the project left a lasting impact by demonstrating how technology could be used as a powerful tool for social good. It stands as one of Isura Wickramarachchi's most significant charitable web initiatives, reflecting his long-standing commitment to using digital innovation to improve the lives of vulnerable children in Sri Lanka.
Isura Wickramarachchi
Author | Digital Innovator | Web Technology Pioneer | Social Entrepreneur | Historian
Isura Wickramarachchi is a Sri Lankan author, technology entrepreneur, web architect, historian, and social innovator with nearly three decades of experience in software engineering, web technologies, digital media, and historical research.
Beginning his professional career in 1997, he has designed and developed more than 400 websites and web-based systems for clients across Sri Lanka and internationally, including projects in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Finland, the United States, New Zealand, Brunei, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. His work spans corporate websites, tourism portals, real estate platforms, vehicle export systems, educational portals, charity platforms, government-related projects, and large-scale database-driven web applications.
As the founder and Managing Director of isandi CREATIONS, he helped shape Sri Lanka's early web industry by delivering innovative digital solutions and custom web technologies to clients around the world. Several of his projects received national recognition for their innovation and design.
Today, he continues to lead and manage three of Sri Lanka's largest long-running digital knowledge platforms:
- www.films.lk – Sri Lanka's largest Sinhala Cinema Database, preserving the country's film industry through comprehensive information on films, artists, awards, photographs, reviews, and cinema history.
- www.mahawansaya.com – A digital identity for Sri Lankan history, bringing together historical research, royal genealogies, ancient kingdoms, archaeological knowledge, and modern technology to preserve the nation's heritage.
- www.sinhalasindu.lk – A digital identity for Sinhala songs, documenting Sri Lanka's musical heritage through song lyrics, artists, composers, music directors, albums, and related historical information.
As a researcher, he is the author of Mahawansa Pradeepikawa, one of the most comprehensive modern publications on Sri Lankan royal history. The 650-page, full-colour volume contains over 200 reconstructed historical illustrations, extensive royal family trees, and integrates modern technology through personalised QR code authentication. The publication has been accepted into the collections of internationally renowned institutions, including the British Library, Harvard Library, and the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
Alongside his professional career, Isura has dedicated himself to community service. Since 2015, he has initiated and completed more than 200 social service projects across Sri Lanka. These initiatives have included:
- Establishing computer laboratories and donating computers to rural schools.
- School building construction and renovation projects.
- Safe drinking water and water supply projects for schools.
- Construction and improvement of sanitation facilities.
- Educational support programmes for underprivileged children.
- Facilities for children with disabilities and special educational needs.
- Blood donation campaigns.
- COVID-19 relief programmes.
- Community welfare and disaster assistance projects.
- Public awareness and youth development initiatives.
He also developed Help.lk, a non-profit digital platform created to connect children suffering from life-threatening illnesses with donors, volunteers, blood donors, and charitable organisations. The platform verified each medical case before publishing fundraising information, ensuring transparency and trust for donors.
His professional interests extend into artificial intelligence, data science, digital preservation, software engineering, archaeology, education, and public history. He believes that technology should not only solve practical problems but also preserve culture, empower communities, and make knowledge freely accessible to future generations.
Throughout his career, Isura Wickramarachchi has consistently combined technology, history, education, and social responsibility, creating digital platforms and community initiatives that preserve Sri Lanka's heritage, strengthen access to knowledge, and improve the lives of thousands of people.
සංවාදයට එක්වන්න.