The students of Holy Cross College Gampaha are privileged not only because they receive a holistic education, but also because they are under the nurturing care of the Apostolic Carmel Sisters who take personal interest in the holistic growth of their students. The staff, students, parents and the past pupils have imbibed this nurturing spirit from the Sisters. When the COVID 19 affected the whole world and so our country, Holy Cross College decided to face the situation in the best possible way without giving into despair.
Thus, Rev. Sr. Dharshika, the Principal of Holy Cross College, held a meeting for the teaching Sisters of the school, together with the Superior of Lisieux Convent, Rev. Sr. Jannet Rajasekera to discuss as to how we could contribute to help the affected students as a school. What was remarkable about this meeting was that among all the participants therein, both the principal and the superior together with three other sisters on the staff happened to be past pupils of HCC. Therefore, the sisters shared their inspired past experiences of being students and teachers in the same school and thereby how another step could be taken towards the growth of the students at present. Thereby it was decided that the students can be helped under the following categories.

Spiritual needs

Recognizing the need for the spiritual sustenance of our students, the sisters immediately prayers for the students, parents, members of the clerical staff, minor staff and their families, past pupils and their families, donors, well-wishes, the families of the Rev. Sisters and who have worked and are still working at HCC. Sisters spent daily three hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm praying for these and for the whole world thereby interceding before God in view of fostering hope to face the situation invoking good health to overcome the pandemic.

Academic needs

Due to the sudden closing of the schools the outreach between the teachers and the students was cutoff altogether. Therefore, in order to reach out to our students we revised our Learning Management System which we started last year in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday Attack. With the help of a parent of our school. The teaching Sisters of the staff took upon themselves the responsibility of uploading the lessons which were carefully prepared by the subject teachers in various modalities such as videos, PPT, and papers.
At the request of the ministry of Education, we shared the link to our Leaning Management System with many schools in need, especially those schools who find it unable to create websites immediately to share the lessons.

Material needs

We also took the initiative to distribute dry rations worth Rs.6937/= per pack, among 102 students who needed our help due to the prevailing situation. With the generous contributions of six parents we able to help those who were in need material assistance. Even though the curfew had not lifted, Sr. Dharshika the principal, and Sr. Subasiri the vice principal accompanied the distribution convoy carrying the subsidies that went in different directions in aid of the students.
We remember with gratitude the SSP of the Gampaha Division who facilitated this mission. We are also grateful for the donor who provided the two lorries for the transportation of food items that were provided at a very reasonable cost considering the situation. We are grateful to Sr. Thyagi who oversaw the collection of data about the needy students. May God bless all those who went the extra mile facing risks to help our students and the minor staff in this endeavor.