In Sri Lanka’s Kalutara District, where schools rarely receive support from large institutional funders, Hansa De Soysa and his volunteer-led organisation Nerds Against the Odds (NATOS) had a straightforward conviction: children who understand the natural world will grow up to protect it. With a TPP seed grant, NATOS turned that conviction into five school pollinator gardens, transforming unused outdoor spaces into living ecosystems and outdoor classrooms.

The grant covered native flowering plants, organic fertiliser, gardening tools, field notebooks for students, and awareness boards that communicated the ecological significance of pollinators to the wider school community. Each school received 50 flowering plants in the first distribution, followed by a second round of 30 plants per school, along with monthly organic fertiliser supplies. Ten field notebooks per school gave students a structured way to track blooms, insect visitors, and seasonal changes.

Then, in November 2025, Cyclone Ditwah swept through the district. Flooding devastated many of the garden plots, and school closures delayed recovery efforts. For a grassroots project running on volunteer energy, the setback could have been the end. It was not. The NATOS team returned to the affected schools, cleared the damaged areas, and replanted. The TPP grant’s flexibility, and the trust extended to grantees to use funding responsibly, made that second effort possible.

Today, all five gardens are in full bloom, serving as active pollinator habitats and outdoor learning spaces. The field notebooks are filling with observations. The awareness boards continue their quiet educational work. What a seed grant built once, community commitment built again.