Features
Joining in Psychosocial work back home in Sri Lanka
(Excerpted from Memories that linger…..My journey in the world of disability by Padmani Mendis)
When my memories come back to Sri Lanka they call out urgently, “Remember first the Psychosocial Project!” For the PSP was unique. It was implemented during the long conflict for our people affected by it in the northern and eastern parts of our country. Led by Gameela Samarasinghe and Ananda Galapatti with Harini Amarasuriya, Kusala Wettasinghe and others.
Later, but still also during the conflict, with some of these and other committed psychosocial workers memories of meeting needs this time of our “Ranaviru” or disabled soldiers. This was with the Ranaviru Seva Authority, RVSA, under the chairmanship of Dr. Narme Wickramasinghe with the able assistance of Dr. Visakha Dissanayake. The RVSA worked in the areas where our armed forces came from.
Within both the PSP and the RVSA I had the privilege of being invited to work with our psychosocial workers to see to the disability needs of civilians in the first project and of members of our armed forces in the second with whom they interacted. Those were difficult times for our people, but as always, our young professionals stepped forward to serve their fellow country women and men.
Introducing Community-based Rehabilitation to the NGO Sector in Sri Lanka
To continue with memories of my journey, I have to go back now to the year 1979 and the month of August, when I returned home after my first assignment for the WHO in Geneva. Whilst I was carrying out my task participating with so many others in the global development of the concept, strategy and technology of CBR (Community Based Rehabilitation), my thoughts were constantly of how these would fit so well in Sri Lanka to benefit our disabled people.
So, no sooner I returned to Colombo, I made an appointment to meet the Deputy Leader of the NGO Sarvodaya, which in Sri Lanka has been the most well-known NGO in community development. The work of Sarvodaya was based on social mobilisation, just as CBR is. I had come to know Mrs. Sita Rajasooriya when she was a Commissioner in the Girl Guide Movement and I was a teenage girl guide.
Over a chat about what I had been doing in Geneva, I gave her a copy of the WHO Manual and asked her whether she would look at it. She called me a year or so later to tell me that Sarvodaya was implementing a CBR Project in the district of Kalutara in the Western province. I have been there and elsewhere with Sarvodaya several times, visiting with them their people in their homes.
Over the next several years, other NGOs called on me to help them start implementing CBR in many parts of Sri Lanka – Fridsro in Kandy in the Central province, Navajeevana in Tangalle in the Southern province and SEED (Social, Economic and Educational Developers) in Vavuniya in the Northern province were some of the larger ones. All the projects had funding partnerships with outside donors. With evidence of visible and measurable impact, projects grew. In the long-term however potential growth was sometimes stunted by limited funding.
I shall come back to Fridsro later and its relationship with Government CBR programmes under the leadership of Gihan Galekotuwa. Fridsro sans Gihan Galekotuwa has now had to fade out of the realm of disability due to unavailability of sponsorship.
Sarvodaya, Navajeevana and SEED led respectively by Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, and later his son Vinya, the late Kumarini Wikramasuriya and Ponnambalam Narasingham, together with many other NGOs continue their work in disability promoting CBR. The last of the three named above gave his formal name reluctantly when I asked him just now on the telephone, emphasising that he preferred being called “Singham”. This is what I had always known him by.
Time spent with these organisations so long ago are among my most memorable. With SEED it was focused on teaching their staff. SEED had been within sight of the conflict. We used for teaching the top floor of their three-storey building with a roof made of green metal sheets. Made the room very, very warm. But the breeze that wafted through its open sides compensated somewhat.
Here we had some of the most participatory of my teaching sessions in Sri Lanka. SEED staff were active, interested, motivated. Both the heat generated in the atmosphere and that in debate called for frequent ice breakers. These were innovative and enjoyable. But mostly I sat out, needing for myself a mental and physical break from all that dynamism around me.
The only hotel in Vavuniya was filled to capacity with families from the North fleeing the conflict. I stayed there only once. Having to jump over a smelly open sewer made so by disrepair to get into the hotel was off-putting. The disrepair extended to the inside of the hotel because such was the time. Compensating for this the management was concerned and kind, and had found for me a small room with many stairs to climb to get to it. I had all my meals here in my room because there was no other place for it. It was simply furnished with a bed, desk and chair.
There was no kitchen either and the hotel bought me my food from outside. An upset tummy on a few occasions indicated to me that I should find other lodgings next time. So on my following visits, SEED found for me a convent to stay at. Here, living with nuns, I felt cherished. I was their first paying guest. They were truly beautiful with their warmth and their empathy.
Other Experiences with NGOs
Many years later, and still during the long conflict, I was back North again twice on my journey. The first time I was in Jaffna. It was with Save the Children Fund (SCF), UK. They sent me so I could advise them how they could include actions for disabled children within their Northern programme.
Much of Jaffna district at the time was under the control of the Tamil Tigers. SCF had to obtain special permission for me to come to Jaffna, which, it turned out, they did quite easily. I believe it was easy because someone had got my name wrong. On the letter granting permission it was written “Pathmini”, the way it is in Tamil. I was given permission to travel anywhere I needed. I was not even stopped at checkpoints. Everywhere I went, it seemed as though I was expected.
The next work assignment in the North at this time included coming back to Vavuniya. I was here with Hameed of UNICEF as part of a series of teaching assignments I did to introduce to district and divisional officials issues related to disability in children. And to discuss with them how they may deal with such issues during the course of their work, so attempting to include childhood disability in development strategies during this time of conflict.
The series also covered Puttalam, Mannar and Trincomalee, stretching out across our island. As far as I know, those workshops were never followed up. I hope the seed had been planted in many an interested mind and would have taken root in some. It was a difficult time for all.
Before my memories of the NGO sector move on, there is another that asks for recall. Save the Children Fund, UK showed much concern for disabled children, making their work inclusive to the extent possible. With that in mind, they had me develop for them in partnership with teachers, parents, children and others, “A Guide for Preschool Teachers”. SCF had it published in all three languages and it was widely used, especially in CBR. It helped bring into the preschool mainstream many young children at an early age. This was a task that gave me much satisfaction.
This was soon after the Tsunami of 2006. Looking back, it is clear that activities of the International NGOs at this time was at a peak. Sri Lanka was the beneficiary of generous help from a caring world.
How CBR came to be in government
Dudley Dissanayake was the Director of the School of Social Work managed by the Department of Social Services. This was located on Bagatalle Road in a two-storied house. Rent was paid for by Government. One day I received a call from Dudley asking if we could meet. We met the next day. He told me about the reason for his call.
He said that quite recently he had found in the back seat of the pick-up truck that he drove, a photocopy of a book. He did not know how it had got there, but his staff shared the use of the pick-up truck. They used this also to transport students for official tasks.
The book had been made by WHO and was about disabled people. It had my name on the cover along with two others. Dudley wanted to know what it was about. I was of course only too happy to share with him the work I was doing in Geneva with my colleagues Gunnel Nelson and Einar Helander and with innumerable others spread throughout many countries.
This was now 1981 which the UN had declared as the “International Year of the Disabled”. It was customary for the UN to do such things on subjects that they felt required the attention of member states. To mark its significance, Dudley felt that students of social work should have an exposure with disabled people and disability. We discussed how this could be done.
The result was that two students expressed their wish to carry out their final year project study testing the usefulness of the Manual in Sri Lanka. Dudley asked me if I could help them, and I believe I was fortunate to be able to do so. I said that first I would have the Manual translated into Sinhala.
For this purpose, I obtained the willing help of two physiotherapists, formerly favourite students. By name Wettimuny Silva and Somadasa Mohettige. While they did the translation in their own homes in the evenings after work, we met at my dining table in my home in Swarna Road for joint sessions which, as you can imagine, were called for quite often. We had the Sinhala Manual ready in no time. Wetta and Some, as their friends called them, and I maintain the bond we established at that time and continue our friendship.
First Field Tests in Sri Lanka
Dudley had the necessary photocopies made. I was soon walking the two villages of Meegolla and Kahandawelipotha in the Kurunegala district with the two students of social work. They had selected between them 20 children who had disability all under the age of 14 years. At the end of the six months of the project, 19 of the 20 showed improvements. Some of those children still live vividly in my memory.
One was Mala, aged eight years, who had cerebral palsy. Her mother cared for her with utmost love. She bathed, dressed and fed Mala in the morning and sat her on a chair at a window. Mala spent her day watching passers-by on the road.
That was until the two students of social work came into their lives. Soon Mala was learning to walk using bars her father made in the garden using long bamboos. She was helping her mother in the kitchen. Children from the neighbourhood came to her house to play with her. Hopefully in a few months she would go to the village school. The students arranged for the local social service worker to come to see Mala. The social service worker will get a wheelchair for Mala.
Another was 11-year-old Nandani. She too did not go to school. Her parents could not see how she could do that, seeing she could not speak. But she could hear. Like Ntchadi in faraway Serowe in Botswana, she too looked on longingly when her young siblings went to school. Counselling from the students, an appointment with the principal and the education officer and Nandani was in school.
When we visited the school before the project ended, Nandani was already showing signs of leadership in the classroom. She was a bright girl. She will surely catch up with her peers before long.
Dudley shared with UNICEF Colombo the study and the results of the work of the students. He was able to secure from UNICEF formal support for the development of CBR as project studies for a number of his students over the next few years. But within three years UNICEF, with the Department of Social Work and the help of students, started a large CBR project in Anuradhapura district.
In time Dudley, climbing the administrative ladder step by step reached the Ministry of Social Welfare. It was first as Senior Assistant Secretary, then as Additional Secretary, and finally reached the peak as Secretary of the Ministry. Dudley took CBR there with him. Dudley had the Manual translated into Tamil and introduced its extended use in the North. From then on CBR grew within Government with generous allocations directly from the national budget.
Disability Studies Unit – Early Years in Sri Lanka
I shared with you in the section above how the University of Kelaniya, in 1993 with support from Sweden, set up the Disability Studies Unit or DSU and of my role in it. I also continued in that section to share with you my journey in disability during my time there, focusing on aspects of international work. This is a suitable time perhaps to reflect on my journey with the DSU in Sri Lanka.
It was Anoja Wijeyesekera, at the time a Programme Officer at UNICEF Colombo who introduced the DSU to the Ministry of Social Welfare. Viji Jegarasasingham was the Additional Secretary at the time. Mrs. J. was one dynamic lady with a mission. That mission was to ensure the effective functioning of her ministry and other institutions under her purview. She was later promoted as Secretary and held that post for many years until her retirement from Government service.
Viji Jegarajasingham, our Mrs J., set up within the Ministry a Resource Group on CBR with just five of us as members. One of them was Gihan Galekotuwa or Gale who was then the Disability Programme Head at the NGO Fridsro. Our Resource Group strengthened the relationship in disability work between this ministry and that of health and of employment. This was with the aim of planting the seed of multi-sectoral cooperation to benefit disabled people with a wider perspective of their rights.
Gale was convinced that CBR was the way to go if the rights of disabled children and adults were to be fulfilled with their inclusion and participation in their communities and in society at large. Fridsro had developed their CBR capacity by implementing CBR themselves in parts of the Central Province where they were located. Starting in Poojapitya Division and spreading to 11 others in the Kandy district. These were developed as learning and teaching areas.
Gale soon had Fridsro draw up an MOU with the Ministry of Social Welfare to provide technical and other support to the Ministry to improve their CBR programme both in quality and in coverage. This agreement and action continued for many years, even after I was no longer at the DSU.
Within a few years many disabled children and adults spread out in most of Sri Lanka’s districts had been reached. A change was being brought about in their lives, families and communities. Monitored continuously and evaluated at intervals by Fridsro.
Working with me at the DSU was Somadasa Kodikara, a former student of mine at the School of Physiotherapy. Representing the DSU “Kodi” and I worked with the Ministry and with Fridsro as a threesome to reach disabled people in more than 50% of Sri Lanka’s districts during those few years. The DSU had roles in both teaching and in monitoring. We soon learned that Sri Lanka government workers were loath to submit written reports. As for us, we were happy monitoring through field visits. For us it was any excuse to go to the people.
During our years together at the DSU, Kodi and I continued to evaluate the WHO Manual in the two languages with periodic revisions and continuous improvement. Fridsro provided financial support for publishing them in both languages for field use. Kodi and I also produced and published through the DSU much teaching-learning material for both community workers and for their divisional and district supervisors.
Soon after the DSU was born, we were invited to link up with the Global Disability Database maintained jointly by Uppsala University and AHRTAG in London. Before I left the DSU in 1998, we had an agreement drawn up with the International Health Unit of London University and the Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street to start the Education of Speech and Language Therapists or SLTs.
. The DSU has come a long way. And it will continue its own journey as it grows unendingly.
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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