Features
Imran, a baby born without arms and Ayu, a teen with Down’s Syndrome
Exploring Geneva with my colleagues
(Excerpted from Memories that linger: My journey is the world of disability by Padmani Mendis
My responsibility (in Malaysia) was to facilitate two training courses. One was five weeks long and was for social welfare assistants and other officers from the district who will initiate CBR here in this part of Kuala Terengganu. The second of the courses was for two weeks and was for social welfare officers from other selected states as well. Participants of this second course will be responsible for planning and developing CBR projects in their own states. We discussed how monitoring and evaluation could be carried out as a continuous process during project development and the material in the Manual for measuring these.
All through my three-month assignment I had as my national counterpart a Social Welfare Officer from the Training Division of the Ministry of Social Welfare. She was an experienced trainer and we shared our teaching tasks. When I left, I was confident that she will be quite capable of carrying out the training function that we had carried out during our time together. The Secretary of the Ministry in Kuala Lumpur and that of the State took personal responsibility to ensure the CBR programme will benefit their disabled people.
In Batu Rakit, the work that was started during the training course blended with field work. In both courses it was possible to spend much time in field learning and teaching. We met community leaders in Batu Rakit for mobilisation. We also made visits to the homes of people who were in need of interventions. Many children were not going to school. Some immediate improvement was evident soon after starting CBR. Two children started going to kindergarten. Others who had been isolated before were participating with the family, going visiting together and so on. Many showed functional improvement.
The seed had been sown. How would it grow?
Two disabled individuals and another family stand out in my mind from those that we visited. One was a baby boy called Imran, six months of age. Imran had been born without both arms. He was not sitting up by himself as yet and spent most of his time lying on his mat and cooing. His mother appeared not to know quite what to do. We talked with her and introduced to her the possibility of teaching Imran to use his feet as his hands.
She welcomed the idea. His mother propped him up with pillows and gave him the toys that lay around him to hold. Imran soon caught the idea. It is of course natural that babies should do so. It is just that the mother either had not thought of the possibility, or did not want him to use his feet for some reason.
When we returned a few days later we found his sisters playing with Imran with great fun and making lots of noise; they were throwing back and forth a colourful cloth ball. Other playthings lay around on the floor. The Social Welfare Assistants taught Imran’s mother how to use the package on play activities from the Manual to take his development further. They taught her to assess at which stage of development Imran was at in areas such as communication, movement and so on. Then they showed her how to select corresponding play activities from the Manual to take him to the next level of development.
We visited Imran once more before I left. He was now sitting up on his own. And he was discovering with joy what a lot he could do with his feet. Later he would stand, walk and run about with neighbourhood playmates like any child would. He would go to school and out on trips with his family. Grow up to be an independent young man. He may now be in the fourth decade of his life. Where are you now Imran? How are you doing?
The second individual was Ayu, a young girl of fifteen years. She had Down’s Syndrome with some intellectual impairment and difficulty in learning. Here the mother cared for Ayu completely not letting Ayu do anything by herself, including washing, bathing and all other self-care activities. Ayu never went out of the house. We talked with both mother and daughter who were alone at home at that time. Ayu talked with us and responded to us shyly. We asked her whether she would like to be able to feed herself so her mother could do something else at that time. She nodded her head happily. The Social Welfare Assistants talked for some time with mother and daughter. They talked about going out to meet neighbours.
After explaining to them about it, the Social Welfare Assistants left relevant material from the WHO Manual for the mother and daughter. They asked them to look at it and see if they could do some of the things that were suggested. When we went back in five days the mother was preparing the family meal. Ayu was sitting with her in the kitchen cleaning vegetables. The mother said that Ayu was helping her now with simple tasks. The mother took Ayu out to the village – Ayu had gone with her to a meeting of the women’s group the previous day. Ayu had been very happy and the women had talked a lot with her.
The third I recall is of visits to a family. A home we visited quite early on in the programme. When we entered, we found the family ready to receive us. The mother, father and with them, three young children. The two older children lay on mats while a younger child was sitting up. All three were boys. All three had a progressive muscular condition. All three had gone to school but as each reached the age of ten to eleven they had dropped out because they could no longer move independently. Now the older two had to be fed, washed and clothed. The youngest needed assistance. We talked with the family for a while. The biggest problem I saw here was that the family was completely isolated with no help and no social support.
Afterwards, I discussed with the Social Welfare Assistants what they would do to improve the situation of the boys and the family. I visited this family again before I left. The mother, along with the three boys, greeted us with a smile. She said her husband had been found work with a farmer. She herself no longer felt alone because her neighbours and even the community leaders visited her. She had made two special friends in whom she could confide. One would sometimes stay with the boys so she could go out to visit family and friends.
Former school friends of the boys visited. They shared with her boys some of what they had learned at school. She felt what was important is that her boys now had friends with whom they could play and interact.
The Social Welfare Assistants were hoping to soon deliver three wheelchairs to the home so that the boys could be taken out into the kampong. So here, in the presence of severe disability, the therapy or the medical rehabilitation required by the boys was not available. But the social impact of CBR was remarkably evident.
Many are the stories of how a visit from a trained Community Worker could make such a difference to the quality of life of individuals and families living in somewhat different circumstances. How will Ayu’s life change with the visits from the Social Welfare Assistant and with interest taken by the women in the village? The Social Welfare Assistant planned to join a meeting of the women and then take Ayu to other activities in the village. Will this make a difference to other disabled people in the village as well as to Ayu? What will be the quality of life of the three boys? Time will tell.
Malay Houses
Although the rest house in which I lodged was made of brick and mortar, other houses in the Kampongs were stilt houses. Kampongs are what villages are called in Malaysia. Stilt houses are the traditional Malay architecture. Wooden houses built on thick strong pillars. There is a central pillar surrounded by may be by six to twelve pillars spaced around the periphery and some closer to the central pillar, depending on the size of the house. The roofs were also made of timber. They were high allowing for good ventilation in a humid climate. The walls of the houses in Batu Rakit were made of wood because that was plentiful. I was told that in some areas walls were made of bamboo. The space under the house was used for storage.
Houses were generally spaced out in large compounds. In their compounds owners had planted trees which they could use in twenty to thirty years to refurbish their houses. Or to extend a house when a child was getting married and needed a home. Extended families lived together, cooking together as one household. I was glad I had lived in Batu Rakit and experienced their traditional lifestyle when I visited their homes.
One entered the house on a wooden ladder. At night they took the ladder up to prevent small animals like rats and bandicoots from climbing into the house. I would not have experienced this traditional Malay architecture and lifestyle had I been confined to Kuala Lumpur as I was on subsequent visits to Malaysia.
Gunnel Nelson
Gunnel Nelson, my much-loved friend and travel companion on my CBR Journey passed away in July 1984. She met with a fatal car accident in Zambia while on an assignment for UNICEF. The assignment concerned improving the lives of disabled children. A cause that Gunnel was devoted to since she started working as an Occupational Therapist, and later as the Principal of the School of Occupational Therapy in Goteborg, Sweden.
With her sudden passing away CBR suffered an unexpected loss – the loss of a human being who would have hastened considerably improvement in the quality of life of disabled people in developing countries. She was firm in her beliefs and convictions with a rare ability to take action to realise them. Like her fellow-Swede Einar, she empathised with the poor and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to bring them social justice. Like Einar and me she was convinced that CBR would initiate changes required to bring disabled people that social justice.
Gunnel and I first met in Geneva in May 1979 when we came together at WHO to work with Einar on developing a strategy for implementing WHO’s new disability policy. Our work in CBR was targeted at enabling disabled people come out of their isolation and exclusion and be included and be participating members within their families and their communities.
Gunnel and I had similar but separate roles in this work. She travelled to certain countries and I to others. But in those all-too-brief five years that we worked together, we met regularly in Geneva and at meetings held in other parts of the world; meetings which brought people together to discuss the way forward for disabled people through CBR. Although the concept and implementation of the CBR system was pioneered in Geneva as a seed, nurturing the growth of it was a global effort involving too many countries to be counted at the time of her passing away.
Gunnel’s work flowed from Geneva like mine, with assisting countries to set up field trials of CBR. She visited first Nigeria in January 1980 for three months. A research project was set up jointly by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Orthopaedics in Lagos and the National Youth Service Corps. She followed this up with a visit in December of the same year.
Her next task was to set up a research project in Kerala, India in collaboration with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the Medical College in Trivandrum. Her counterpart was Prof. P.B.M. Menon. Before starting on the project with Prof. Menon she visited the WHO South-East Regional Office in New Delhi for discussions. She also met other Rehabilitation Specialists first in New Delhi and then in Kerala to inform them and their institutions and seek their support for the project; and similarly, with the Ministry of Health in Kerala and other professorial staff at the Medical College in Trivandrum.
From Kerala, in November 1980 she proceeded to the Philippines to evaluate the progress made in the ongoing field trial of CBR and of the WHO Manual in the Rizal District of Metropolitan Manila. The project used Primary Health Care as an entry point with PHC workers who had been trained for two years. As in Bacolod City where the Philippines had their first experience of CBR, the urban project here commenced with an intensive information programme.
When we had an assignment in Geneva, Gunnel always drove down from Goteborg so that we had the use of her car in Geneva. Many a time she offered me the use of it. I told her I would not dare to drive in Europe. All those multi-lane high-speed highways and one-way road systems had me quite confused even sitting by her side as a passenger. In these circumstances, I could never be a navigator either.
It was not too difficult to find accommodation in Geneva for a period of three months. Sometimes we stayed separately, sometimes we shared an apartment. I recall how amused she was when once I stayed in a guest house run by the Salvation Army. I had selected it because it was located in the old city which I thought would be interesting.
It was. Only after I went into occupation did I know that it was maintained for retirees from the Red Light District not far away.
The ladies would come to breakfast in flimsy negligees with their faces made up as they would have been made up when they were employed. The trade was lawful in Geneva. The occupant of the room next to mine was quite elderly and confined to bed. She was looked after 24/7 by staff of the guest house. Still dressed in her flimsy negligees. Still with her face made up immaculately.
Most Saturdays we spent working. If we did not, I was out window shopping. On Sunday we would relax, driving out of Geneva. Sometimes we drove around the picturesque countryside of Switzerland through pretty mountain villages. In the spring and summer colourful wild flowers covered every available space on roadsides and spread up the mountainsides. But to me all this appeared to be organised just like all else in Switzerland. I felt that the flowers had been planted there by human hands. Not really wild. But of course they were wild. Just God’s wonders.
One Sunday we drove through the very old village of Gruyere famous for the cheese it produces. Outside this village high up in the Alps, fat and healthy cows were grazing on the mountain sides.
Other Sundays we drove in the French countryside. More often than not I had no French entry visa. But this was no obstacle for someone who knew the back roads where there were unmanned border posts. We would drive around and find a Michelin recommended restaurant to enjoy a late lunch.
On Sundays roads in France were deserted not just of vehicles, but there were no people to be seen either. When once I remarked on this to Einar he said to me, “Do you expect to see people as you would in your part of the world?” Sunday, for the French, was a day spent with one’s own family at home. For us, it was largely visiting extended family and friends. And catching up with the weekly marketing.
Gunnel and I enjoyed the food of foreign countries. In Geneva, after a long day of work, we indulged in dinner at different restaurants. One of our favourites was a Turkish restaurant popular for its Doner Kebab. Lamb grilled on the spit to perfection and served as slices as thin as paper.
In autumn as the weather became colder it was time for genuine Swiss Cheese Fondue – two or three special cheeses melting and blending together in a pot into which one would dip cubes of soft bread and pop them hot into one’s mouth. My favourite Swiss food was Raclette. Although here traditionally, the melting slices of cheese were served on potatoes, I preferred this on toasted bread. Eaten with pickled gherkins and onions.
Knowing my liking for steak, Einar would, on each one of our periods in Geneva, take Gunnel and me to enjoy a good French steak at the Café du Paris on the Rue du Mont Blanc in the centre of the city. Such a popular spot that we had always to stand in a queue to get in.
Before my first visit to Geneva in 1979 I did not drink wine. Associated this with alcohol. But dining out so often with those two Swedes, that habit soon changed. After some time I was persuaded to, “Just try it. Have a sip.” I enjoyed it so much that before the end of three months, I could drink three glasses of it with a meal. And feel no effects of it.Those days in Geneva were memorable – both for the work we did and for the enjoyment we had. I missed having Gunnel to work with. She still lives in my memory from day to day.
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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