BA
Thank you very much Rohini and Sumathi for your well balanced comments. I am extremely sorry if I hurt your feelings by my outburst. My personal view is that Sri Lankans by nature, are less charitable compared to the British. Let me quote an example so as to justify my point of view.
"The morning after the tsunami, the first among many calls I received from abroad was from Michael Mars (co-Director of Sri Lankan Cleft Lip and Palate Project, in Galle), inquiring about my welfare. I told him that as I was based in Colombo I was OK, but Galle had been devastated. Next April I travelled to Galle with Michael and showed him the Sambodhi medical students hostel in Magalle (donated by BR Dissanaike) which was flattened. He was really moved after seeing the calamity and mentioned to me that he would try and raise funds so as to construct another hostel. Later the Sri Lankan Medical and Dental Association had their annual academic sessions in Warwick and I chaired a session in which Michael gave a guest lecture. While introducing Micheal, I mentioned about his ambitious project and invited donations from Sri Lankan doctors as he was short of 50,000 pounds. Later he told me that Padmini de Silva (wife of NRP de Silva) who was a former registrar of mine and working as a Community Paediatrican in Eastbourne, had donated 2000 pounds in memory of her late husband and that there was another donation of 50 pounds. That was all ! Later that night Buddhika, Harshan and myself participated in the dinner dance after purchasing three tickets for 70 pounds each. (Michael did not attend the dinner as he was expected to buy a ticket although he was a guest lecturer!) There were hundreds of others at the dance. A band had been flown in from Sri Lanka to perform at the dance although Sri Lankan bands were available in London. When I inquired from Dr. Panagamuwa , the treasurer,what the profits were, he told me that although the ticket sales had raised thousands of pounds, they were breaking even. Later the hostel was constructed within the premises of the Karapitiya Medical Faculty and the British High Commissioner opened the building in the presence of Michael, few other fund raisers and myself. The Kuwaiti government also donated a hostel and thereby accommodation was provided for all the Ruhuna medical students"
The photograph at the bottom is the medical students hostel in Magalle after the tsunami flattened it (Fortunately no students died).The one above are the hostels, built within the premises of the Karapitiya Medical Faculty, The one above it is Michael Mars opening it.
ReplyDeleteSanath
Sanath, it was very gracious of you to post this comment
DeleteI didn't intend to go public about the many areas in which the SLMDA (Sri Lanka Medical & Dental Association in the UK) supported and continue to support Medical Education in Sri Lanka, but I decided it was necessary to do so.
Among the objectives in our constitution are:- 2.1. To advance and assist undergraduate medical and dental education in the Universities of Sri Lanka.2.2. To promote public awareness in respect of the educational needs of medical and dental undergraduates of Sri Lankan Universities. 2.3. To promote and advice on post graduate training opportunities in the UK for medical and dental graduates of Sri Lankan Universities.
Some highlights.
(1)The quality of drinking water in Rajarata area is very poor. At a cost of £5000 we provided two RO filters to the Rajarata Medical Faculty. I know that you Lama has done a lot in this area.
(2) Extension to the canteen facility at Jaffna. The total cost for this project was £9000. SLMDA granted £5000 and one of the committee members provided the balance £4000.
(3) Solar power project at the Rajarata Medical faculty. SLMDA funded this project fully at a cost of £10,600. This is fully functional now providing adequate electricity and saving about Rs 30,000/= in electricity bills every month.
(4) We provided £5,400 to buy 12 computers to the computer lab at the Dental Faculty Peradeniya and one SLMDA member provided money to buy 3 more computers. They had only 15 computers for use by the students previously and the addition of 15 brand new computers have made a huge difference.
(5) Book donation scheme for ALL the Medical Faculties annually for the value of £1300 each.
(6) Help graduates coming to the UK (Mentorship_ , for placements, run Communication Skills workshops in Sri Lanka, raise money for disaster relief as when we helped with Tsunami efforts. We also support and help the METHTHA foundation.
Of course there are colleagues who do not appear to be actively contributing but my stress is on the word "appear". Many do without any publicity. Many observe the principle "Charity begins at home" buy contributing large sums of money to their families in Sr Lanka sometimes at a huge cost to themselves.
As readers can see, the SLMDA does help although as always, more can be done.
But I can well appreciate your frustration at times, like the instance you mentioned in your post.
Sanath, I appreciate your apology though one was not warranted - to me at least .
ReplyDeleteYou did not hurt my feelings at all. I only made my comment in defense of the many expatriate families who work quietly in a variety of ways to serve our motherland as well as the communities in which they live.
I admire you for the enormous projects you undertake even to this day. Many of us are unable to come anywhere close to the scale at which you operate, but I know most expatriates do whatever they can to help needy communities and projects in SL as well as in their adopted homelands with no publicity.
I wish you the best with your ongoing good works and a happy and healthy 2019 - cheers
Rohini, you have said it all, beautifully and sensitively. We all do ourt best, we are not perfect and we are subject to human fallibility. Let us do our best and encourage others to do theirs and rejoice in what we achieve together and not focus on things that could be better, as there will always be there and we must approach them dispassionately and with compassion as we have little knowledge of all the myriads of factors which influence the behaviour of others. The one thing I can be sure is my knowledge of my own circumstances and of my own conscience.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to win the Lottery "Jackpot",I would donate a considerable sum of money to the Sabaragamuwa Medical Faculty.
ReplyDeleteManendra and Rohini ,thank you for you response. Sumathi, please do not wait for the jackpot; please help in whatever way is affordable to you. The latest contribution by the SLMDA is the donation of books to the Sabaragamuwa Medical Faculty which I facilitated through Ajantha Jayatunga and DYD Samarawickrema.
ReplyDeleteSanath
I can remember only too well, Sanath's contributions in fundraising and bringing about undergraduate and postgrad medical education to Ruhuna faculty. People of Ruhuna will never forget what Prof Lama did for them. I remember the cleft palate team Sanath invited to conduct lectures and do surgery on poor patients who would never have had their cleft palates surgically corrected if not for his work. Sanath's name will go down history in Sri Lanka and our batch is proud of him! This is Zita
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Zita for your very generous comments. I remember your days in Karapitiya very well. One day Darrell Wijeratne told me that a new specialist has arrived in Karapitiya, who told him that the only person she knows in Galle is me !
ReplyDeleteSanath