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August 17, 2009
Report from Shalika-Sri Lanka
The Sri Lanka Council for the Blind held its annual Higher Education Scholarship Award Ceremony on the 31st of July 2009.
This special project is sponsored by the Korean Businessmen’s Organisation in Sri Lanka and almost all the graduates with visual disabilities have benefited from it. This year, we identified 46 such deserving students with visual disabilities, out of which 27 were from the Nothern and Eastern provinces of the country (areas which were heavily affected by the war). Seven of the recipients were residents of IDP camps (camps for Internally Displaced Persons). The Deputy Ambassador for Korea in Sri Lanka who was the Chief Guest pointed out the importance of supporting students with visual disabilities to pursue higher studies. The Guest of Honour, the Secretary of the Korean Businessmen’s Association in Sri Lanka vouched to continuously sponsor this benevolent service. Each student received a gift parcel of a cassette player, blank cassettes, Braille paper, slate and stylus. a talking watch and a white cane. Mr. Asoka Weerawardena who himself was a beneficiary of this programme many years ago, testified to its success. He is now the Computer Instructor for PWDs at the University of Colombo. He said that he hailed from a extremely poor family and that his parents could not afford to buy him educational equipment and if not for this programme, he would not have been able to graduate from university. Officials from the ministries of education and social service were present too.
Shalika Karunaratne
Sri Lankan Representative – Leaders Course 2006
Member – Executive Committee of the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind
Posted by jicafriends at August 17, 2009 10:53 AM