Features
Getting Community Based Rehabilitation started in rural Botswana
(Excerpted from Memories that Linger: My journey in the Word f Disability by Padmani Mendis)
The first group we visited wished to go together to the home of Ntchadi. Before we went to her home, the FWEs (Family Welfare Educators) told me that she had difficulty moving from place to place. She was about 10 years old. They said they wished they could do something for her. She had a very large head. She could not stand up because, they thought, she could not carry the weight of her head. I could see that she had hydrocephalus.
We visited Ntchadi’s home and were invited to sit on the bench outside the door. All the homes in the villages of Botswana were round mud huts. All the family members slept on mats which they would spread out on the floor at night. It was seldom that strangers were asked inside a home. We used the space available on the bench which was always to be found outside the door, while others stood by, leaning against the house or against a post. Ntchadi came close and sat on her haunches ready to join the conversation.
We talked with the mother about all her children until we came to Ntchadi. Her mother told us that Ntchadi wanted to go school. We asked Ntchadi whether she did and why, what she would do at school, did she have any friends and so on. She replied hesitantly and shyly. The mother added that Ntchadi stood at the fence to watch with a sad face as her brothers and sisters left for school. She would stand at the fence later when they were due back.
Ethel asked the group what we should do. “Shall we go and ask the school principal?” SSO (Social Servce Officer) Chele suggested. We asked Ntchadi and her mother whether they would like to do that. “But how can she go to school?” the mother asked. I stepped in say let’s go and ask the principal as Chele suggested.
It turned out the school was just opposite Ntchadi’s home. Chele went across, met the principal and asked him if he could meet us. We all walked across in a group to the school. The school was also made of small mud buildings. The principal, looking pleasant and stern at the same time, said first that he did not know that Ntchadi wanted to come to his school. He said now that he knew she did, of course she could.
At which Ntchadi’s face broke into a smile. SSO Joyce had questions. But how could she get here and back? What if she wanted to use the toilet? The principal replied that he had a wheelbarrow, and would ask children to take turns to fetch Ntchadi and take her back. And if she needed to use the toilet, someone will take her home in the wheelbarrow, he said.
There was a single neurosurgical specialist at the General Hospital in Gaborone, and a single physiotherapist. Where is the access to hospitals, specialised medical treatment and rehabilitation in countries such as these? Were these FWEs then delivering a cheap, low-cost service? Was this improving the quality of life of a child or not? Was this the medical model of rehabilitation? Or was it a developmental model? A rights-based model? Equal access to all or to the privileged few? To whatever questions critics had, this was CBR.
I heard that later the principal was a member of the Rehabilitation Committee Chele had helped their Kgotla or Village Chief to set up. Chele was happy with the interest the committee showed in their disabled people and with the support she got from them. The FWEs learned from this example that sometimes the solution lay within themselves.
Another group of FWEs took us to visit the home of three-year old Kealoboga. Ethel helped the FWEs assess her using Forms from the Manual. They found she could not sit by herself and she could not speak. They decided to teach the mother to use the Package on Play Activities to stimulate Kealoboga’s development. We went with Kealoboga and her mother to the village store and with difficulty got a cardboard box. Even a small box was a scarce resource in the village. The FWEs made some adjustments so that Kealoboga could sit in the box. They showed her mother how to speak to Kealoboga in the way that was shown in the Manual.
Not having the Manual in Setswana made it difficult for the families. Plans had already been made by Adelaide to have it translated. Funds were available, but the translation was taking a long time.
Family Welfare Educators
FWEs were the community health workers. They had a basic education, were full-time workers and came from the villages they worked in. The ones in our group of 15 were in the age group of perhaps 22 – 35 years. They were paid workers. After their field training was over, they told me they would visit the homes of the disabled members when they visited that part of the village for other reasons. In other words, they planned to integrate this task together with others they did in Primary Health Care.
And so we continued from day to day. When we needed a break for lunch we would find a bench to sit on quite close to a village store. FWEs and Ethel brought their own lunch. I would have an oil cake and a coke from the store. I disliked coke intensely, just for the brand name. But most often it was all the small store had. Home-made fresh oil cakes with coke which was probably from South Africa. That country was the source of all imports. Boy, did that white minority exploit their neighbours?
Over our lunch break the FWEs had lots of questions for me of a personal nature. One thing that seemed to fascinate many of them was my complexion. They commented on how smooth it was, and asked what I used. They were surprised when I said I used Nivea occasionally, just to prevent my skin from dryness. I was only forty years of age then. The wrinkles appeared three decades later. And the grey hairs took another decade.
The FWEs told me that most people living in Serowe were from the Bamangwato tribe. Each Motswana family had three homes. Now that they had regular jobs they themselves had to remain in Serowe all through the year. But some of their family when the rains came, had to spend time on their family lands and cultivate their fields. And then they went to the grazing areas or cattle posts to tend to their cattle. But every family was required to spend some time of the year in Serowe itself. They agreed with the chief that this was necessary to maintain tribal unity. They all spoke Setswana at home. At school they had studied in English.
Ethel Matiza
Ethel, always with a beaming smile on her face, always presenting an appearance of not having a care in the world. But there were times, and quite often too, that I caught in her eyes signs of desperation, of a deep unhappiness. In time I found out she had good reason for this. Ethel called herself a refugee from what was then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Southern Rhodesia had a white minority government dominating the black majority. You may remember Ian Smith the white prime minister? The black majority were being discriminated against, segregated and exploited as they were in South Africa.
The majority were struggling for their right to govern their country. Ethel told me this struggle was becoming increasingly violent. Her husband was actively involved in the struggle and his whole family was in danger of persecution. So much so her family believed it was safer for them to take refuge in Botswana. She was here with her parents and two children. Her husband continued to be a leader in the freedom movement. She was very afraid for him. This is the unhappiness, the desperation that I was seeing in her eyes. She told me that she thought their struggle would soon be over, but she still worried.
I heard early the following year that Zimbabwe finally gained its independence from Britain. It was of course world news. I was happy that Ethel could return home with her family and be safe with her husband. I knew at the same time that her going home will be a loss to the disabled people in Serowe, and indeed to Botswana. She was a dedicated worker with immense potential. She too, believed that CBR was the way forward.
The Serowe Hotel
The Serowe Hotel was situated on the Serowe-Palapye Road. The latter was then an important junction for both road and train travel. The distance between Palapye and Serowe was almost fifty kilometres. The road had been built only over ten years ago, so development alongside was recent. The Serowe Hotel was situated just inside the outer boundary of Serowe. From its appearance one would not have thought that it had been built within the last decade.
The hotel was a very small building. Two bedrooms for guests with a common bath and toilet, a small hall cum dining area, kitchen and a room for the manager. I was told that this had been built for travelling salesmen and the like. But in my three months, there were no other residential guests so I had the bath and toilet to myself.
No residential guests, but plenty of others. Every evening the hotel was filled with the male gender and loud noise. Much like the English pubs, they gathered here for beer, company and conversation. As the evening moved on many were intoxicated, plain drunk.
Given the way the hotel was used, after work I confined myself to my room. It was still spring and very cold. I had a single-bar electric heater in my room. Electricity was provided by the Council via generators which operated for two to three hours between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. How long I could use my heater depended on how much diesel the Council had that day.
Before light fell, I was in the habit of sitting outside – one could not call it a garden, rather the space between the hotel and the road. This was to catch as much of the sun’s warmth as I could. To do this, I sat in a chair with a book, and while the shadow moved forward with the receding sun, I moved my chair and myself with the decreasing but still available sunlight. This made me a little bit warmer.
Serowe got its water from boreholes located around the village. Water was rationed and supplied to consumers from these sites. The hotel had its rationed supply stored in their own tank. As is to be expected in a supply chain, the water made available to me by the hotel had also to be rationed. Every morning and evening I was given a basin of water.
I requested that I be given less in the morning and more in the evening.
With the basin I was given in the evening, I had my bath. Nalin still asks me how I did it – and my reply is, there was no choice, I just had to. After a day out on dirt roads, walking from house to house in a village one returned hot and dusty. I used a small towel, soaked it, washed the dust off my body, applied soap, and washed that off again with the flannel soaked in clean water. Finally, with the water that was left, I washed my hair. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.
Meals at the Serowe Hotel
For dinner every night I had a treat – steak. Cattle-rearing is the main occupation of the Motswana. The daily meal of the people was beef with porridge, and so was mine. Only the preparation was different. In the villages they usually cooked it all in one pot – the beef and the grain, like a stew. Sometimes the grain was cooked separately and made into porridge. The grain was either sorghum or millet which they grew in their fields.
The cattle were reared on their family grazing land. The porridge I had for breakfast. For dinner the hotel gave me a choice cut of beef made into a steak, served usually with porridge. Or as an occasional treat, potatoes when they had a supply from South Africa.
From Serowe to Brazzaville
While I was in Serowe I received an urgent message from WHO, Geneva that I should go to Brazzaville to participate as a resource at the Consultation of Directors of Rehabilitation Centres in the African Region. The consultation was to be held from October 8 -12. It was organised by the WHO African Regional Office (AFRO). Gunnel and I were asked to present two papers. One on “A Community-Based Approach to Rehabilitation” and the second on “Manpower Policies in Rehabilitation”. Because Gunnel could not attend, I presented both papers.
Before I came to Brazzaville I had to look up a map to find out where it was. I had actually not heard of it before. And yet the WHO Regional Office for Africa was located here. I found out that what we knew as the “Congo” is two countries. Brazzaville is the capital of what is the Republic of Congo. This had been the French part of the Congo.
The Belgian Congo, or Zaire, is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. The map showed that while Brazzaville was on the north shore of the Congo River, Kinshasa the capital of the former Belgian Congo was on the south side. From Brazzaville on the north side, I could look across the river and see Kinshasa.
The Democratic Republic of Congo at this time had a military dictator called Mobuto Sese Seko. Economically, the Democratic Republic was doing badly and people were poor. The consultation kept me confined to the hotel with meetings in the evenings and many people to talk with. The little bit I saw of Brazzaville was on my way from and to the airport. What I saw indicated to me that it was a much-neglected city.
It was yet early days for CBR but the discussion and recommendations of this consultation could have a very positive impact for disabled people in Africa. The first output of the consultation was that CBR is the likely solution to meet the needs of disabled people. It called for disabled people, family members, neighbours and friends of disabled people, teachers, community leaders and local authorities to all participate actively in this approach; also, to utilise the principles of primary health care.
Second, it referred to the draft WHO Manual and stated that it will be made available to be adapted by countries for their own use. Third, it referred to the Guide for Policy Makers and Planners which had been recently drafted by Einar in Geneva and recommended its use for CBR planning. Fourth, it referred to the need to develop support and referral systems for CBR and called on rehabilitation institutions to take a leading role in this.
Finally, the consultation stressed the need for multi-purpose or mid-level rehabilitation workers to support CBR. I shall be coming back to the mid-level worker many times later in my journey. For now, I was happy that the need for such a professional was expressed at this important forum; let me say for the first time since WHO introduced CBR.
This consultation led to a workshop in CBR being held in Serowe the following year. I returned to Botswana to facilitate that workshop with Gunnel
It could be quite premature to claim that the US has closed ranks completely with the world’s foremost fascist states: Russia, China and North Korea. But there is no denying that the US is breaking with tradition and perceiving commonality of policy orientation with the mentioned authoritarian states of the East rather than with Europe and its major democracies at present.
Increasingly, it is seemingly becoming evident that the common characterization of the US as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’, could be a gross misnomer. Moreover, the simple fact that the US is refraining from naming Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its refusal to perceive Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia, proves that US foreign policy is undergoing a substantive overhaul, as it were. In fact, one could not be faulted, given this backdrop, for seeing the US under President Donald Trump as compromising its democratic credentials very substantially.
Yet, it could be far too early to state that in the traditional East-West polarity in world politics, that the US is now squarely and conclusively with the Eastern camp that comprises in the main, China and Russia. At present, the US is adopting an arguably more nuanced approach to foreign policy formulation and the most recent UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine bears this out to a degree. For instance, the UN resolution in question reportedly ‘calls for a rapid end to the war without naming Russia as the aggressor.’
That is, the onus is being placed on only Ukraine to facilitate an end to the war, whereas Russia too has an obligation to do likewise. But it is plain that the US is reflecting an eagerness in such pronouncements to see an end to the Ukraine conflict. It is clearly not for a prolongation of the wasting war. It could be argued that a negotiated settlement is being given a try, despite current international polarizations.
However, the US could act constructively in the crisis by urging Russia as well to ensure an end to the conflict, now that there is some seemingly friendly rapport between Trump and Putin.
However, more fundamentally, if the US does not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia as a result of the latter’s invasion, we are having a situation wherein the fundamental tenets of International Law are going unrecognized by the US. That is, international disorder and lawlessness are being winked at by the US.
It follows that, right now, the US is in cahoots with those powers that are acting autocratically and arbitrarily in international politics rather than with the most democratically vibrant states of the West, although a facile lumping together of the US, Russia and China, is yet not possible.
It is primarily up to the US voting public to take clear cognizance of these developments, draw the necessary inferences and to act on them. Right now, nothing substantive could be done by the US voter to put things right, so to speak, since mid-term US elections are due only next year. But there is ample time for the voting public to put the correct perspective on these fast-breaking developments, internationally and domestically, and to put their vote to good use in upcoming polls and such like democratic exercises. They would be acting in the interest of democracy worldwide by doing so.
More specifically it is up to Donald Trump’s Republican voter base to see the damage that is being done by the present administration to the US’ standing as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’. They need to bring pressure on Trump and his ‘inner cabinet’ to change course and restore the reputation of their country as the foremost democracy. In the absence of such action it is the US citizenry that would face the consequences of Trump’s policy indiscretions.
Meanwhile, the political Opposition in the US too needs to get its act together, so to speak, and pressure the Trump administration into doing what is needed to get the US back to the relevant policy track. Needless to say, the Democratic Party would need to lead from the front in these efforts.
While, in the foreign policy field the US under President Trump could be said to be acting with a degree of ambivalence and ambiguity currently, in the area of domestic policy it is making it all to plain that it intends to traverse a fascistic course. As has been proved over the past two months, white supremacy is being made the cardinal principle of domestic governance.
Trump has made it clear, for example, that his administration would be close to ethnic chauvinists, such as the controversial Ku Klux Klan, and religious extremists. By unceremoniously rolling back the ‘diversity programs’ that have hitherto helped define the political culture of the US, the Trump administration is making no bones of the fact that ethnic reconciliation would not be among the government’s priorities. The steady undermining of USAID and its main programs worldwide is sufficient proof of this. Thus the basis has been adequately established for the flourishing of fascism and authoritarianism.
Yet, the US currently reflects a complex awareness of foreign policy questions despite having the international community wondering whether it is sealing a permanent alliance with the main powers of the East. For instance, President Trump is currently in conversation on matters in the external relations sphere that are proving vital with the West’s principal leaders. For example, he has spoken to President Emmanuel Macron of France and is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK.
Obviously, the US is aware that it cannot ‘go it alone’ in resolving currently outstanding issues in external relations, such as the Ukraine question. There is a clear recognition that the latter and many more issues require a collaborative approach.
Besides, the Trump administration realizes that it cannot pose as a ‘first among equals’, given the complexities at ground level. It sees that given the collective strength of the rest of the West that a joint approach to problem solving cannot be avoided. This is particularly so in the case of Ukraine.
The most major powers of the West are no ‘pushovers’ and Germany, under a possibly Christian Democratic Union-led alliance in the future, has indicated as much. It has already implied that it would not be playing second fiddle to the US. Accordingly, the US is likely to steer clear of simplistic thinking in the formulation of foreign policy, going forward.
by Upali Gamakumara,
Upali.gamakumara@gmail.com
The Clean Sri Lanka (CSL) is a project for the true renaissance the NPP government launched, the success of which would gain world recognition. It is about more than just cleaning up places. Its broader objectives are to make places attractive and happy for people who visit or use services in the country, focusing more on the services in public institutions and organisations like the SLTB. Unfortunately, these broader objectives are not apparent in its theme, “Clean Sri Lanka,” and therefore there is a misconception that keeping the environment clean is the main focus.
People who realise the said broader objectives are excited about a cleaner Sri Lanka, hoping the President and the government will tackle this, the way they are planning to solve other big problems like the economy and poverty. However, they do not see themselves as part of the solution.
From the management perspective, the CSL has a strategic plan that is not declared in that manner. When looking at the government policies, one can perceive its presence, the vision being “A Prosperous Nation and a Beautiful Life,” the mission “Clean Sri Lanka” and the broader objectives “a disciplined society, effective services, and a cleaner environment.” If the government published these as the strategy, there would have been a better understanding.
Retaining the spirit and expectations and continuing the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project is equally important as much as understanding its deep idea. For this, it needs to motivate people, which differs from those motivators that people push to achieve selfish targets. The motivation we need here is to evolve something involuntarily, known as Drivers. Drivers push for the survival of the evolution or development of any entity. We see the absence of apparent Drivers in the CSL project as a weakness that leads to sporadic hiccups and free flow.
Drivers of Evolution
Drivers vary according to the nature of envisaged evolution for progress. However, we suggest that ‘the force that pushes anything to evolve’ would fit all evolutions. Some examples are: ‘Fitting to survival’ was the driver of the evolution of life. Magnetism is a driver for the unprecedented development of physics – young Einstein was driven to enquire about the ‘attraction’ of magnets, eventually making him the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
Leadership is a Driver. It is essential but do not push an evolution continually as they are not sprung within a system involuntarily. This is one of the reasons why CSL has lost the vigour it had at its inception.
CSL is a teamwork. It needs ‘Drives’ for cohesion and to push forward continually, like the Quality Improvement Project of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Their drivers are outlined differently keeping Aims as their top driver and saying: Aims should be specific and measurable, not merely to “improve” or “reduce,” engage stakeholders to define the aim of the improvement project and a clear aim to identify outcome measures.
So, we think that CSL needs Aims as defined by NHS, built by stakeholder participation to help refine the project for continuous evolution. This approach is similar to Deming’s Cycle for continual improvement. Further, two more important drivers are needed for the CSL project. That is Attitudinal Change and Punishment. We shall discuss these in detail under Psychoactive Environment (pSE) below.
Aside from the above, Competition is another driver in the business world. This helps achieve CSL objectives in the private sector. We can see how this Driver pushes, with the spread of the Supermarket chains, the evolution of small and medium retail shops to supermarket level, and in the private banks and hospitals, achieving broader objectives of CSL; a cleaner environment, disciplined behaviuor, efficient service, and the instillation of ethics.
The readers can now understand the importance of Drivers pushing any project.
Three Types of Entities and Their Drives
We understand, that to do the transformation that CSL expects, we need to identify or adopt the drivers separately to suit the three types of entities we have in the country.
Type I entities are the independent entities that struggle for their existence and force them to adopt drivers involuntarily. They are private sector entities, and their drivers are the commitment of leadership and competition. These drivers spring up involuntarily within the entity.
Type II are the dependent entities. To spring up drivers of these entities commitment of an appointed trustee is a must. Mostly in state-owned entities, categorized as Boards, Authorities, Cooperations, and the like. Their drivers do not spring up within or involuntarily unless the leader initiates. The Government of a country also falls into this type and the emergence of drivers depends on the leader.
Type III entities have neither independent nor dependent immediate leader or trustee. They are mostly the so-called ‘Public’ places like public-toilets, public-playgrounds, and public-beaches. No team can be formed as these places are open to any, like no-man-land. Achieving CSL objectives at these entities depends on the discipline of the public or the users.
Clean Sri Lanka suffers the absence of drivers in the second and third types of entities, as the appointed persons are not trustees but temporary custodians.
The writer proposes a remedy to the last two types of entities based on the theory of pSE explained below.
Psychoactive Environment (pSE) –
The Power of Customer Attraction
Research by the writer introduced the Psychoactive Environment (pSE) concept to explain why some businesses attract more customers than others who provide the same service. Presented at the 5th Global Conference on Business and Economics at Cambridge University in 2006, the study revealed that a “vibe” influences customer attraction. This vibe, termed pSE, depends on Three Distinct Elements, which can either attract or repel customers. A positive pSE makes a business more attractive and welcoming. This concept can help develop Drivers for Type II and III entities.
pSE is not an all-inclusive solution for CSL, but it lays the foundation for building Drivers and motivating entities to keep entrants attractive and contented.
The structure of the pSE
The three distinct Elements are the Occupants, Systems, and Environment responsible for making a pSE attractive to any entity, be it a person, institution, organization, or county. Each of these elements bears three qualities named Captivators. These captivators are, in simple terms, Intelligent, Nice, and Active in their adjective forms.
pSE theorizes that if any element fails to captivate the entrant’s mood by not being Intelligent, Nice, or Active, the pSE becomes negative, repelling the entrant (customer). Conversely, the positive pSE attracts the entrants if the elements are Intelligent, Nice, and Active.
For example, think person who comes to a Government Office for some service. He sees that the employees, service, and environment are intelligent, nice, and active, and he will be delighted and contented. He will not get frustrated or have any deterioration in national productivity.
The Significance of pSE in CSL
The Elements and the Captivators are universal for any entity. Any entity can easily find its path to Evolution or Progress determined by these elements and captivators. The intangible broader objectives can be downsised to manageable targets by pSE. Achievements of these targets make the entrants happy and enhance productivity – the expectation of Clean Sri Lanka (CSL).
From the perspective of pSE, now we can redefine the Clean Sri Lanka project thus:
To make the Elements of every entity in Sri Lanka: intelligent, Nice, and Active.
How Would the pSE be A Remedy for The Sporadic Hiccups?
We have seen two possible reasons for sporadic setbacks and the discontinuity of some projects launched by the CSL. They are:
The absence of involuntary Drivers for evolvement or progress
Poor attitudes and behaviors of people and leaders
Remedy for the Absence of Drivers
Setting up a system to measure customer or beneficiary satisfaction, and setting aims can build Drivers. The East London NHS principles help build the Aims that drive type II & II entities. The system must be designed to ensure continual improvement following the Deming Cycle. This strategy will create Drivers for Type I & II entities.
This process is too long to explain here therefore we refrain from detailing.
Attitudinal Change
The most difficult task is the attitudinal and behavioural change. Yet it cannot be postponed.
Punishment as a strategy
In developed countries, we see that people are much more disciplined than in the developing countries. We in developing countries, give credit to their superior culture, mitigating ours as rudimental. The long experience and looking at this affair from a vantage point, one will understand it is not the absolute truth. Their ruthless wars in the past, rules, and severe punishment are the reasons behind this discipline. For example, anyone who fails to wear a car seatbelt properly will be fined 400 AUD, nearly 80,000 LKR!
The lesson we can learn is, that in Sri Lanka, we need strong laws and strict punishment together with a type of strategic education as follows.
Psychological Approach as a Strategy
The psychological theory of attitude formation can be used successfully if some good programmes can be designed.
All attitude formations start with life experience. Formed wrong or negative attitudes can be reversed or instilled with correct attitudes by exposure to designed life experiences. The programmes have been developed using the concepts of Hoshin Kanri, Brainstorming, Cause-and-Effect analysis, and Teamwork, in addition to London NTS Quality Improvement strategies.
The experience and good responses we received for our pSE programs conducted at several institutions prove and have built confidence in our approach. However, it was a time, when governments or organisations did not pay much attention to cultural change as CSL expects in the country.
Therefore, we believe this is a golden opportunity to take the CSL supported by the pSE concept.
Although they are visually impaired youngsters, under the guidance of renowned musician Melantha Perera, these talented individuals do shine bright … hence the name Bright Light.
Says Melantha: “My primary mission is to nurture their talent and ensure their sustainable growth in music, and I’m thrilled to announce that Bright Light’s first public performance is scheduled for 7th June, 2025. The venue will be the MJF Centre Auditorium in Katubadda, Moratuwa.”
Melantha went on to say that two years of teaching, online, visually impaired youngsters, from various parts of the island, wasn’t an easy ride.
There were many ups and downs but Melantha’s determination has paid off with the forming of Bright Light, and now they are gearing up to go on stage.
According to Melantha, they have come a long way in music.
“For the past few months, we have been meeting, physically, where I guide them to play as a band and now they show a very keen interest as they are getting to the depth of it. They were not exposed to English songs, but I’ve added a few English songs to widen their repertoire.
Melantha Perera: Invented a notation
system for the guitar
“On 7th June, we are opening up for the public to come and witness their talents, and I want to take this product island-wide, giving the message that we can do it, and I’m hoping to create a database so there will be a following. Initially, we would like your support by attending the show.”
Melantha says he didn’t know what he was getting into but he had confidence teaching anyone music since he has been in the scene for the past 45 years. He began teaching in 2015,
“When I opened my music school, Riversheen School of Music, the most challenging part of teaching was correcting tone deaf which is the theoretical term for those who can’t pitch a note, and also teaching students to keep timing while they sang and played.”
Melantha has even invented a notation system for the guitar which he has named ‘MelaNota’. He has received copyrights from the USA and ISO from Australia, but is yet to be recognised in Sri Lanka.
During Covid-19, Melantha showcased MelaNota online and then it was officially launched with the late Desmond De Silva playing one of his tunes, using MelaNota.
Melantha says that anyone, including the visually impaired, can play a simple melody on a guitar, within five minutes, using his notation system.
“I’ve completed the system and I’m now finalising the syllabus for the notation system.”
Melantha has written not only for the guitar, but also for drums, keyboards, and wind instruments.
For any queries, or additional information, you could contact Melantha at 071 454 4092 or via email at thebandbrightlight@gmail.com.
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