Despite being recognized as a developing country, Sri Lanka have always fared exceedingly well when it comes to global social indices, especially in the field of education. With the more mature segments of the country’s economy becoming increasingly knowledge based, the role of education will play an even more critical role in helping the Sri Lankan students of today compete in the marketplace of tomorrow. However not all young Sri Lankans are able to access a quality education, especially those children with disabilities. Compared with our more developed counterparts who have invested in more specialized educational tools for this group of children, Sri Lanka is significantly behind in addressing the educational needs of those children living with disabilities. Not only are these children marginalized from the mainstream education system here, they are further stigmatized socially for allegedly being harbingers of bad luck, including on some occasions by their own families.

Twenty two young interns who were selected to participate in the prestigious annual Summer Internship organized by MAS, Dialog, Deutsche Bank and 3M are working to make inroads in this regard. Apart from interacting with industrialists and learning about the Sri Lankan corporate environment, these twenty two young professionals are working to raise awareness about the unique challenges that Sri Lankan children living with disabilities have to confront in today’s circumstances. Titled “Aarambhaya” (The Beginning), the movement also hopes to raise a minimum of Rs. 3 million through this movement. The monies would be donated to the construction of a National Centre of Excellence in Ragama to provide care and counselling for children living with disabilities and their families. The centre would also be equipped with the relevant state of the art technologies to help those children living with disabilities to identify their unique strengths and then subsequently work with them to nurture these skills.

Aneeq Hashim the Chief Coordinator of “Aaramabhaya” speaking to Daily Mirror explained that the movement will entail a vibrant social media marketing campaign that would promote crowd sourcing, the sale of a 1000 “Aarambhaya” T-Shirts, raffle tickets and a musical concert featuring Sri Lanka’s all-time favourites; Sunil Perera from the Gypsies, Misty, Natasha Rathnayake, Corrine Almeida, Tehan&Shameen. “The Musical Concert is our signature event and it is through this event that we hope to raise the lion’s share of the funds” said Aneeq commenting on the entire initiative. Anisha Gooneratne who is handling the media engagement for the initiative urged the public to attend the concert to show their support for this most worthy cause. “It is high time that we paid attention to this group of children and empowered them to contribute to our country by harnessing their own unique strengths,” explained Anisha. Another 21 year old intern – Natasha Gajanayake claimed that given the encouraging response the group had received from sponsors, she was confident that the Sri Lankan public would back them in this endeavour.

Tickets for the concert can be bought at Torana – Liberty Plaza and Torana Music Waves - #26, First Floor, Supermarket, Nugegoda.

For ticket enquiries call : 0777341979 , 0772830857.