Atypique Foundation: a story of commitment born in Sri Lanka

Even before it had a name, the Atypique Foundation already existed, in a way, in how we worked and lived in Sri Lanka.

Since Atypique Lanka was founded in 2012, the agency has grown with a simple conviction: travel can create value far beyond the trip itself. Over the years, it has enabled a team to grow in the office, allowed many drivers and guides to work regularly, and also helped small family-run structures and independent service providers make a living from activities we had chosen to spotlight.

In 2019, we decided to go further and give a framework to what had until then been a spontaneous commitment. The Atypique Foundation was born.

Before the Atypique Foundation, there was already the field

Living in Sri Lanka also means knowing just how fragile certain balances can be. Floods, landslides and other natural disasters regularly affect the island and, over the years, we had gotten into the habit of offering help from time to time when we could.

Sometimes, the story hit even closer to home. In the remote region of Morawaka, Danapala and his family welcomed our travelers for homestay nights. When a tree fell onto their house, we reached out to our travelers to help them cope with the damage. That wave of support was one of the turning points.

Atypique was growing. We now had the ability to turn these one-off gestures into a more structured commitment, capable of supporting projects over time. The creation of the Atypique Foundation in 2019, by Marjorie and Chamika, formalized that desire.

How does the Atypique Foundation work and how is it funded?

The principle is deliberately simple: for every traveler, Atypique Voyages donates €10 to the Atypique Foundation.

Trip after trip, these contributions feed a dedicated fund. It then makes it possible to finance projects identified on the ground, without relying solely on one-off fundraisers or emergency situations.

This model creates a direct link between the growth of the tourism activity and the Foundation’s ability to act. The more travelers Atypique supports, the more the fund can grow and back new initiatives.

Depending on the circumstances, additional contributions can also strengthen this budget, as was the case during certain natural disasters. But the core funding remains this systematic contribution built into the agency’s very operations.

The idea is not to multiply actions, but to have the necessary means to support projects aligned with the two pillars that now structure the Foundation: women’s empowerment and education.

Puvini: supporting a woman all the way to the World Championships

The first chapter of this story is also a story of pushing beyond one’s limits.

In 2019, the Sri Lankan triathlete Puvini qualified for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships held in Nice. An exceptional achievement that was set to make her the first Sri Lankan woman to represent her country at that level.

It still remained to be able to fund the trip. Atypique contributed to the costs needed to enable her to travel to France and continue this sporting adventure. A few months later, Puvini took the start in Nice.

This first project already said a lot about what would become one of the Foundation’s guiding threads: giving women the means to go further when the opportunity exists but resources are lacking.

In the tea plantations, an ambitious project cut short by Covid

Another project was particularly close to our hearts.

In Sri Lanka’s tea plantations, women have historically held picker positions, while supervisory roles remain largely male. With the support of a specialized Canadian researcher, we had designed a professional empowerment program for some of these women.

A first step was to take them to Colombo to discover the Colombo Tea Auction, better understand the stages following the picking, and gain a broader view of an industry in which they are nevertheless an essential link.

Ultimately, the aim was to identify and support profiles able to move into greater responsibilities within the plantations. Everything was funded. The trip was due to take place in March 2020. Then the world stopped. Sri Lanka closed its borders and the Covid crisis profoundly shook the country. In the end, the project was never able to take the form we had envisioned.

In hindsight, it was probably very ambitious—perhaps even a bit utopian. But it helped clarify what still matters to us today: trying to create opportunities and new perspectives, rather than limiting ourselves to one-off aid.

Education as the second pillar

As the projects progressed, a second focus naturally emerged: education.

In a particularly remote village in Uva Province, the Atypique Foundation funded the construction of a library. With the Wakamoun association, the project was accompanied by an intercultural stay bringing together young people from France, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka.

The idea went beyond building a simple structure: to create a space for passing on knowledge and for meeting, to circulate not only knowledge but also experiences and perspectives. This focus on education can now be found in one of the most important projects led by the Foundation.

After Ditwah, rebuilding—but also preparing what comes next

When Cyclone Ditwah hit Sri Lanka hard, the first priority was to help quickly. The Atypique Foundation and the teams mobilized to deliver essential supplies to the affected communities.

Then it was time to look beyond the emergency.

In a public school located near Rangala, in the heart of the tea plantation region, a landslide had notably destroyed the sanitary facilities. The Foundation committed to a broader project: rebuilding the facilities, providing access to drinking water, and gradually creating a computer space for students.

Women’s empowerment and education: two guiding principles

The Atypique Foundation has never set out to multiply projects for the sake of multiplying projects.

Its story is made up of encounters, opportunities seized, successes, but also projects that circumstances have sometimes prevented from coming to fruition. Over time, two priorities have become clear: women’s empowerment and education.

Our approach remains deliberately local: identifying needs we understand, working with people we know, and supporting projects we can follow up on.

Atypique Voyages has grown from Sri Lanka and continues its story today in several destinations across Asia. But the idea that gave birth to the Foundation remains the same: if travel allows our company to grow, that growth must also give us greater means to act in the territories that make these journeys possible.

And with €10 donated to the Foundation for each traveler, each of these trips helps, in its own way, to write what comes next.