Opinion
Dr. Mary Srikanthi Handy, philanthropist extraordinaire

Dr Mary Srikanthi Handy was the daughter of the famous Dr George Rajanayagam Handy who was the pioneer cardiologist of Sri Lanka and the founder president of the Sri Lanka Heart Association. She was born in 1935 and is the eldest child and only daughter of Dr. George and Mrs. Kanmanie Handy. Even as a very young lady she is known to have organized and coordinated fund-raising events for the YWCA and similar associations to help the poor.
Dr Srikanthi had her primary and secondary education at Ladies’ College, Colombo. She obtained her MSc from the University of Bradford, UK and joined the University of Sussex, UK for her doctoral research on motor neuron disease. She was awarded the PhD for her thesis on “Putative protein abnormalities in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” which also generated several scientific papers on related scientific matters in peer reviewed journals.
She has two brothers, Dr John Lakshman Handy, consultant anesthetist in UK, and youngest brother, Emeritus Professor George Handy, University of Southern Carolina, USA.
Dr Srikanthi worked as a medical researcher in the university department in the UK for over 30 years and returned to Sri Lanka in the early 1990s to care for her father Dr G R Handy who was ailing at the time. Dr G R Handy passed away in 1995 and it was then that Dr Srikanthi decided to harness her resources and energies into philanthropic projects to commemorate her father’s memory.
She adored her father and used to relate how he would take her as a young girl on his hospital ward rounds, casualty and home visits and describe the medical condition of the patient and how he planned to tackle the problem. One had the impression that she would have liked to have pursued a career in medicine, but it was not to be so.
Her lasting legacy will be her philanthropic efforts in her father’s name.
She founded the Dr. G R Handy Foundation that donated a state-of-the-art cardiology ward at the General Hospital, Colombo which she then visited daily to assist and support its maintenance.
She donated a computer laboratory to St John’s College, Jaffna where her grandfather had been a principal and where Dr. G R Handy had his initial years of education.
She extended a generous hand to the Children’s heart project which was run under the supervision of Dr P N Thenabadu and Dr J J Stephen. Many children with heart disease profited from this project. Later on she decided to embark on her own by establishing the Dr. G R Handy memorial trust fund.
A major target for this trust fund was the Children’s ASD surgery project. When she realized that the waiting time in the National Hospital cardiac surgery lists were long, she decided to help these children by sponsoring their surgery in the private sector. She put in place an efficient mechanism to assist the patient’s families, with monetary difficulties, to obtain the President’s fund allocation and paid the remainder of the surgical expenses for the closure of the ASD in the private sector. Over 100 children with ASD’s were assisted in this way. The patients were referred to Dr. Y. K. M. Lahie, MBBS, MS, FRCS, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon who helped and cooperated with Dr. Srikanthi in this work.
When ASD closures were transformed from thoracic surgery to device closure techniques, she provided the funds to purchase ASD devices when the General Hospital Device stocks were exhausted.
Dr. Srikanthi’s special concern for children with heart disease made her decide to sponsor a pediatric heart disease ward in the institute of cardiology. Ward 70 was allocated for this, and she refurbished the ward and equipped it fully. This unit functioned very efficiently until pediatric cardiology was shifted to LRH. Dr Srikanthi was disappointed but agreed to have ward 70 as a post cardiac procedure ward.
Other major contributions by Dr. Srikanthi were to donate the funds and organize the Cardiology unit at the Teaching Hospital, Jaffna, which was named as Dr G R Handy memorial cardiology unit. It is now a full-fledged Cardiology unit, rendering invaluable service to the Northern province.
From the academic perspective, Dr Srikanthi endowed the annual Dr G R Handy memorial oration of the Sri Lanka Heart Association, now Sri Lanka College of Cardiology. She would attend the annual oration with her friends and well-wishers.
She used her personal wealth both inherited and earned and also organized fund raising events (A musical extravagance organized by Dr Srikanthi made a profit of one million rupees) to extend and expand the Dr G R Handy memorial trust fund.
Her love for her father flowed out to his village as well.
Eagle Care Project: This Project is based on the slogan “Give a child a life”
The Eagle Care Project operates in the below areas:
(Provision of scholarships at St John’s College, Jaffna for needy, academically gifted children, Improvement of educational facilities at St John’s College, Provision of financial assistance to children with medical needs, Technology enhancement programs, Mental health awareness and children with special needs etc).
She also donated a stock of bicycles to the students of that area to facilitate their school transport.
The agriculture improvement program at St. John’s College is up and running. Under CTF’s “Eagle Care” has been invested in this project. This project is funded by Dr. G. R. Handy and Mr. John Roy Fussey, Memorial Agriculture Improvement Fund. The primary purpose of the project was to educate the students on agricultural science and as it is related to the syllabus, the project provides practical knowledge and farming experience for the agriculture students.
In more recent years, the Dr G R Handy foundation also funded the building of a considerable amount of social housing for widows in Jaffna and 16 houses were built in the village of Ariyalai, which was her father’s birthplace. The social housing project was facilitated through Zonta International. The ground supervision of this project was personally done by Prof Chandrika Wijeyaratne who was the Zonta president at that time.
Dr Srikanthi went out of her way at times to help patients. A case in point: A young woman with primary pulmonary hypertension who needed domiciliary oxygen to help her breath was given an oxygen concentrator and container which was fully funded by her. This equipment was passed on to three more patients.
During her final years when her health was failing and she was frail, she chose not to live in luxury with all comforts but decided to leave her assets in a trust to facilitate education for children of poor families.
Born and bred in a strong Christian family with an ancestry of priests within it as well, Dr Srikanthi would attend Sunday mass whenever she could.
Her only child, Professor Paul Rohan Mather, studied at St Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia and qualified as a chartered accountant in the UK where he worked for many years. He did further studies at the University of Lancaster and completed a PhD at Monash University, Australia. He has had many academic roles including as an Associate Dean at Monash University, Dean of La Trobe University Business School and had visiting professorial appointments at the London School of Economics, University of Liverpool and the University of Colombo. She also has three grandchildren and two great grandchildren in Australia.
Dr Srikanthi used to recall that her father Dr G R Handy would often quote “Service is the rent we pay for the room we occupy on earth”. None could contest that Dr. Srikanthi has paid her ‘rent’ more than fully, when she peacefully passed away in August 2023.
Sri Lanka College of Cardiology
Opinion
Turning around national carrier pie in the sky?

Nothing pleases me more than being greeted with Ayubowan by the smiling face of a beauty clad in a bright blue saree, every time I board a SriLankan Airlines Airbus to fly to Sri Lanka, which I was forced to leave during the second JVP uprising during which people were executed for doing their duty. Perhaps, SriLankan may outlast me as I am already in the departure lounge of my life! The million-dollar question is how long. Though my fervent wish is for SriLankan Airlines to flourish as a global carrier with repute, a potential it once had, omens predict otherwise. Some of the best who worked for the predecessors of SriLankan have ventured out to build very successful airlines. Successive governments have been grappling with the question as to what could be done to the loss-making carrier; ditch it or continue to fly for prestige?
One of the key decisions of the NPP government was to let SriLankan continue as a state venture. For the Marxist-orientated JVP, perhaps, any input from the private sector is an anathema although most successful airlines are private sector entities. Many countries that had state-owned carriers have opted for privatisation for reasons of economy, only countries with vast wealth to buy aircraft outright being able to maintain state airlines. Emirates Airlines, owned by a super-rich Gulf state, which started in 1985 with only two aircraft on wet-lease from Pakistan International Airlines, is a giant in aviation today. So is Qatar Airways, which started operations only in 1994 and is owned by another super-rich Gulf state. On the other hand, the UK handed over British Airways to the private sector a long time ago and India handed over Air India back to the original owners, the Tata Group in 2021. Despite the setback of the recent downing of the 787 Dreamliner, Air India is bound to prosper as the modernisation of the fleet goes on at an unbelievably rapid pace. In early 2023, Air India ordered 250 new jets from Airbus and 220 from Boeing, the largest order in modern times. The Airbus order was increased by another 100 in December 2024. This order exceeds the total fleet strength of Emirates and Qatar combined!
True to form, the NPP government made one hell of a show with the new acquisition to the SriLankan fleet, bringing the total number of aircraft to 23. Some communiques gave the false impression that it was a brand-new aircraft bought by the airline, flypast down the West coast on its way from Airbus headquarters in France to BIA adding to the show. One can understand the water-jet welcome to any acquisition but the rest of the celebrations was well over the top. It transpires that the ‘new’ Airbus A330 is actually a refurbished 14 years old aircraft, originally owned by Garuda Indonesian Airways for 12 years and then by a now-defunct South Korean Carrier. It was not bought either but is on a dry-lease. It is said that the order was placed by the previous government! NPP seems very adept at taking credit for the actions of others and to excel in words!
I have been on board a brand-new aircraft during its inaugural flight. A grateful patient of mine, who happened to be a travel agent, passed on his invitation for the maiden voyage of a new Swissair aircraft on the Zurich to London sector. I cannot recollect the type of the narrow-body jet, as it was so long ago, but I distinctly remember that there was no tamasha at all, the only difference to a routine flight being the addition by the captain that it is a brand-new aircraft in his welcome announcement! SriLankan, as well as its predecessors have added brand new aircraft to the fleet but I cannot remember any tamashas like this. In fact, SriLankan was the first Asian airline to operate the four-engined Airbus A340 in 1994.
SriLankan can trace its ancestry to Air Ceylon, which was established in 1947 as the state-owned flag carrier which ceased operations in 1979, to be replaced by Air Lanka. Rebranding as SriLankan happened when Emirates Airlines took a 43% share of Air Lanka together with a 10-year management contract. With the end of the management contract SL government decided to buy back the shares, more due to political reasons. Though there was an operational profit during the Emirates period, it is claimed that SriLankan lost in many other ways to Emirates including valuable routes.
Srilankan could have been a success story, if not for political interference, the worst offence being handing over the chairmanship to those without adequate experience. JRJ appointed a pilot to the top job whilst Mahinda appointed his brother-in-law. Some CEOs were totally corrupt, one of them hitting the headlines when Airbus settled a graft scandal with British authorities. Worst crime, among his many others including the idiotic agreement on Hambantota port by Ranil on SriLankan Airlines was the cancellation of the order to purchase four A350 aircraft, one of the most advanced aircrafts in the skies. Perhaps, he cancelled the order to spite the Rajapaksas rather than renegotiating to buy a fewer number instead of paying hefty cancellation charges with no aircraft. If the cost involved in establishing service facilities for a new type of aircraft was deemed unjustified, SriLankan could have purchased the A350s and dry-leased them, using the funds to dry-lease a few more A330s to expand services. Puny actions of this nature together with rampant corruption at the top has made SriLankan Airlines a liability to the nation. The previous government had drawn plans for a sale and there were interested parties. AKD decided that SriLankan should remain a state venture and appointed a person from one of the interested parties as the new chairman. If he steadies the ship and the IMF demands that SriLankan be privatised as a condition of one of the future tranches, a miracle could happen!
by Dr Upul Wijayawardhna
Opinion
Fallen tree claiming life of student

All the print and electronic media report that a huge branch of a large tree has fallen on a school in Balangoda, killing a 17-year-old student and causing severe injuries to 16 students.A mother of a student whose son is studying with the victim, giving a voice cut to the media disclosed in a heart-rending story that the repeated reminders on this hazardous threat made to the Principal and the Regional Education Office for the last five years have not been heeded to until this tragedy claimed the life of an innocent student.
This is not the first time that students have perished in the school premises. A sixth-grade student died when a discarded iron pipe of a soccer goal post fell on his body at Thopawewa Maha Vidyalaya, Polonnaruwa. Senith Wijesinghe, a bright student at Ananda College, Colombo, perished on the spot when the turf roller fell on his body. Another student at Wellampitiya Maha Vidyalaya met his untimely death when a part of the parapet wall connected to the water pipeline fell on his body. Another unfortunate death of a student was reported from the south when a Hume pipe brought for road development work rolled out accidently killing a student in the school premises.
A careful analysis of the statistics of fatal and grave accidents to students disclose a shocking revelation. According to NHSL, 2,691 schoolchildren have been treated, out of which 274 were related to accidents in the school premises. Health Ministry sources say that 10,000 to 20,000 students are being treated for accidents annually.
Educational authorities should bear in mind that parents send their children to school on the basic premise that the school provides an accident free safety environment to their children. School Principals as well as the Regional/Zonal Education Directors have an inalienable duty to provide this basic protection to the students, leave aside the education. What the Education Ministry and the Department should do is not to resort to knee-jerk reaction when a fatal accident occurs and issue precautionary guidelines. Their hunky-dory attitude does not bode well for the wellbeing of the student community. What is required is a well-planned institutional strategy to face this calamitous situation.
My recollection says that the Ministry of Education had issued directions by way of circular instructions to the Zonal Education Directors to visit schools periodically and identify the hazardous situations and unsafe structures and trees with a view to taking on the spot remedial measures. If the authorities heeded such directives, the life of a Balangoda student could have been thwarted.
This short note would not be complete if it does not cover the numerous safety hazards frequently confronted by the student community in a school setting. In laboratories where students are called upon to deal hazardous chemicals. They should not be mixed together and stored separately. Students should handle chemicals under the direct supervision of the teachers. Unsafe and unregulated pits and trenches should be identified and barricaded with tiger tapes immediately with prominent wordings and luminous colors. Unsafe old structures such as old buildings, rusted iron structures, unsafe roofs and materials, heavy rollers should be identified and they should be immediately discarded/dismantled before such structures cause any harm to the students.
During sports activities- dehydration and heart related injuries should be prevented by proper re-hydration and avoiding vigorous outdoor practices in hot sun during hot periods of the year. In this country, school athletic meets and big matches are held in the month of February and March during which period, heat temperament is relatively unbearable. For long distance running, medical certificates from a medical doctor should be mandatory.
School principals are the custodian of the children’s safety and a competent safety team should be formed to avoid unsafe accidents with the collective support of the teachers and school prefects. The creation of a safety conscience and culture should be inculcated across the board. When questioned by a Principal of a leading girl’s school in Nugegoda, she was very complacent about the safety arrangements of the school by delegating this function to a lady PTI instructor, which is most unsatisfactory. The Principal or the Vice Principal should personally and directly take over this prime responsibility. It is utmost paramount to analyse everything from a safety eye and the PTI is woefully lacking this trait.
Last but not least, I could render my support to the Prime Minister who is in charge of the Education to create a hazard free safety environment in the schools with the expertise I have obtained locally and globally for over five decades voluntarily. What I emphasise for the hazard-free school environment is that the safety aspect should be institutionalised within the main system of education. It would be a desirable step to establish a safety branch in each Zonal Education Zone, considering the adverse trend of tragic accidents. Essentially the present adverse trend of accidents in schools has to be arrested as a utmost priority.
It is much regretted that my comprehensive article published in a leading newspaper have not had the desired effect for the last six months.
J. A. A. S. Ranasinghe
Productivity Specialist and Management Consultant
(The writer can be contacted a49@gmail.com)
Opinion
How to earn extra income from recycling plastic waste

If any material has a commercial value people will be motivated to collect, and sell it in return for some additional income. From this perspective, even cow-dung when presented in the form of suitable fertilizer for agriculture can be a good source of income for the owners of livestock farms. When concerned about the present-day economic hardships many people in the low-income range are badly in need of money for their day today struggling for a living while facing an atmosphere of skyrocketing cost of living. Hence, the duty of the state and the media is to enlighten and educate the public about the available avenues and encourage them to engage in the business of the waste recycling industry.
At present there is a lack of information or frequent publicity about any collecting centers that accept and pay for polythene and plastic wastes. Therefore, the public are not interested in collecting them. As a result, tons and tons of plastic and polythene wastes are dumped, burned or thrown into waterways. It has become a widespread menace that wherever and whenever a mass gathering such as a procession, political rally, musical show, protest march, demonstration, a get together party is held, tons of waste, particularly, polythene and plastic items scattered in heaps on roadsides are an ugly sight to see. For example, Annual events like the Sri pada pilgrimage, numerous religious processions countrywide, new year celebration sites, sports meet, hotels and reception hall-based events etc. during the last tooth relic exhibition period in Kandy too, piles of waste were left to the annoyance of the municipal authorities. This is an everlasting environmental disaster which causes further and further degradation and destruction to the entire country.
In a recent news item, I happened to notice an entrepreneur, Sulalitha Perera from Bandaragama, is becoming successful in a polythene recycling scheme. He has expressed that he hopes to expand his business in all districts if he gets help from the government and other stakeholders. This is, indeed, a praiseworthy effort which should be encouraged and assisted by all concerned authorities, mainly by the ministry of environmental affairs. The media particularly the television and social media like YouTube must highlight the value of such environment friendly businesses which protect the environment, bring in forex to the economy, and provide employment opportunities to the community.
In this regard, the main responsibility of all media particularly the electronic media (specially TV+ you tube) is to glorify the recycling industry by creating new dramatic episodes and new songs encompassing the environment cleanliness and benefits of recycling industries as well as to encourage the communities to collect and sell all polythene and plastic products to the collecting centers to earn an additional income instead of throwing or burning them in the neighborhood. For anybody, rich or poor, it is no shame to take back the collection of polythene and plastic that gathers in one’s homestead to the place where one purchases daily needs. A certain amount of deduction of the costs by the trader in lieu of the returned waste material is also profitable for the customer. This is the greatest contribution that all of us can make to sustain a Clean Sri Lanka.
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