THE SRI LANKA CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 30TH ANNIVERSARY (1986 - 2016)

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love ensures forever.
Psalm 107:1

The Sri Lanka Christian Association (SLCA) is 30 years old!
It is with the abundant grace of God that it has lasted this many years.

The SLCA was the idea conceived by Ms. Charmaine Jayetilleke MBE on 30th March 1986, and ever since it has been her baby.

To get a sense of how long ago this was, we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the first time, Beatle records officially went on sale in Russia, protesters try to stop Land Rover motor company being sold to the USA, Out of Africa wins Best Picture at the 58th Annual Academy Awards and Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey, among others of course.

As the first part of the commemoration of this landmark anniversary, we will look at the various fundraising events the Sri Lanka Christian Association has organised to help raise funds to help the needy and destitute in Sri Lanka.

Despite it being formed under Christian principles, it is strictly neither a religious nor political organisation. Current and past members of the committee and generous donors and selfless helpers have been Christian and non-Christian alike.

In 1986, Ms. Jayetilleke had an inner voice from God spoking to her powerfully to bring the people of Sri Lanka together, after the country was devastated by the civil riots of 1983, which contributed to the gradual escalation of the animosity between the Sinhalese and Tamil, even in England where she was living at the time, when perfectly normal friends started to fall out with each other, based on their ethnicity. This made Ms. Jayetilleke, who was and is a glamorous socialite and party lover, to bring back these people together again, under one banner, which led her to form the Sri Lanka Christian A

Ms. Jayetilleke used to work for the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, and so, she invited many of her broadcasting friends and other distinguished circle of people to party and dine together, irrespective of which race they belonged to. Whether they were Sinhala Buddhists or Sinhala Kandyan Buddhists, Hindu Tamils or Muslims, Burgers, Christians or non-Christians, everyone was invited.

Since those early days, when friends merely got together to party, the idea of raising funds for charity began to develop. Being also the niece of Sir Oliver Goonatilleke, the first Ceylonese Governor General of Ceylon, who played a pivotal part in the gradual independence of Ceylon from Britain, Ms. Jayetilleke was soon in to organising charity fundraising events, with the great and the good, with the support of Lady Oliver Goonatilleke, who was one of the first to make a donation. Lady Goonatilleke was the first Patron of the Sri Lanka Christian Association. Raja Ratnagopal, a very successful Sri Lankan businessman living in London and his wife Helga, were also among the first to make a donation to SLCA. Helga became the public relations officer, and thus SLCA started to take wing with a host of generous donors.

Within three months of forming, the SLCA became a UK registered charity, being formally accountable to the British Charity Commission. SLCA is proud to be one of the few charities that hardly spends any money on administration, as everyone involved in the SLCA is a volunteer. Every penny raised is accounted for, and almost every penny raised is given to charitable causes. Committee meetings are held in rent-free spaces or in members' homes to minimise costs. Ms. Jayetilleke personally visits the charity benefactors in Sri Lanka, to minimise any middlemen to hand over the funds raised personally, and travels there on her own steam.

She responded to the cries for the need of education by providing basic educational facilities, to provide knowledge through education, for Ms. Jayetilleke believes that education is the richest gift a child could receive. This has been done and continues to be done by identifying trustworthy and reliable people with a heart for giving, who implement these actions on the ground. Over a thousand orphans are benefactors of education so provided and are assured of a better future.

The recipients of the aid from the Sri Lanka Christian Association are not in any way discriminated by age, cast or creed. Those who are educated are now rich with the knowledge they have gained, thanks to the financial aid provided.

Some of the projects taken on by the SLCA are long term in nature.

The SLCA has been the pioneers in several projects. The very first project was to do with helping the blind, building the first braille library, sending between 10 and 15 girls and boys to attend university. Some of these visually impaired people are now teachers and lecturers and bankers. It is unbelievable to witness the change in their lives. Some other group from Jaffna are lookingto form a choir to empower them to be able to learn to sing.

Then the SLCA sponsored the first Vedda boy, T. M. Goonewardena, to attend university. This was a particularly proud achievement for SLCA, as it was history in the making. He is now a teacher in Mahiyangana, where his school is trying to set up a foundation to encourage more children from the Vedda community to attend higher education. SLCA are looking in to helping here.

St. John's Home in Moratuwa is an orphanage for girls. They come from probation centres where they have been rescued from harmful events in their lives. They are given a good upbringing with love and care. They are educated and grow up to be wonderful and resourceful women, well equipped to go back into society to face the world with courage. The SLCA set up the first sewing centre for these girls. The girls are so enthusiastic when they get back from school to learn to sew and do embroidery. This also attracts other poor underprivileged women in the neighbourhood, who do not have a sewing machine to do their own children's clothes, to come over here to make clothes for their own children, with materials provided, and they in turn also to help the girls with the training side of sewing. Now there are trade orders coming through from churches and other small business enterprises for babywear and so forth.

SLCA help differently abled children quite a lot. Recently they opened a home in Kegalle and the SLCA donated towards this home which accommodates about 50 children. Dayamina is a beautiful place for differently abled children, in Embuldeniya, Nugegoda, where SLCA opened a candle workshop and store. They are so excited to use the moulds and create beautiful coloured candles. Sr. Anastasia, a good Samaritan nun is in charge. She looks after these children with such love. When customers come to their shop, these children are so proud of their creations. The most excitement comes when they receive the money for their wares! It is now a thriving successful small business. Safety of these children is paramount.

The Colombo Centre for Disables People is full of talent. The SLCA helped to open an Art Room here. They produce greetings cards. The generous hearted ladies and gentlemen who volunteer, teach them English. SLCA also helped with the provision of a state of the art Music Room. They learn a trade and are able to become self-sufficient, in the trade centres SLCA helped to set up. Other skills taught and helped to trade with are carpentry, broom making, vase making, and wall hangings.

SLCA built the first ever retirement home for disabled people. It also provided abused girls and women with the security and warmth they longed for, and teaches them sewing and embroidery, so they can earn a living and be proud of themselves.

In 2009, at the end of the 30-year war, SLCA was one of the first to offer help to purchase a building to house a Montessori school for the children, with a modern playground. It was an act of love to these children who were robbed of their childhood, who were denied their innocence and deprived of normal family lives, all due to the war. It also funded the building of a vast hall to accommodate hundreds of people to assemble for various gatherings during the day. They would hold classes for children and adults and exchange arts and crafts. The uses of this building were limitless. Nights were of course, a time of fear.

The manageress at the Lankadara Buddhist Home, is always happy to see Ms. Jayetilleke as they are often continuously in need of funds for such items as school uniforms and other needs for the 80 or so girls there.

SUROL (Society for the Uplift & Rehabilitation Of Persons affected by Leprosy) is the Leprosy project supported by SLCA with financial aid. Another first. Two houses were built for these people of God, who are a forgotten section of our society shun by the rest of us, due to the stigma attached. They support leprosy sufferers island-wide and have been doing this for many years, by teaching them and setting up trade centres to become self-sufficient.

It is astonishing to realise that a small band of people could achieve such great heights, daring to venture in to areas like leprosy that not many would be willingly want to be involved in, as even today vast sections of society shun these people with this commonly occurring chronic infection among those living in abject poverty. The Sri Lanka Christian Association has made an impact to these people, who are children of God.

The SLCA help to feed the poor throughout the island. Twenty five years ago, they took lorries packed with food to Jaffna. This is now done in all parts of Sri Lanka. Each year Ms. Jayetilleke would travel to Sri Lanka with the funds raised and visit various feeding centres where hundreds gather to receive their bags of dry rations during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and during Christmas.

During the 30-year war in Sri Lanka, the SLCA has supported orphanages in these war-torn areas of Jaffna, Vavuniya and Batticaloa.

SLCA helps Dr. Ajith Fernando who is dedicated in helping drug addicts to kick their addiction and in the meantime help their children with providing educational support by providing school books and stationery and school uniforms.

SLCA helps a Buddhist monk in Wellawatte who cares for little boys ranging from age 3 to about 12. They jump for joy when they hear that ‘The Lady from London' (Ms. Jayetilleke) is coming to visit them. That is because; The Lady goes to see them with a bunch of little girls from another charity. They simply love to play with each other, as any child would do. They just need time and love, and Ms. Jayetilleke ensures that she spends as much time with them as possible.

The most recent and substantial beneficiary of the Sri Lanka Christian Association is the modern Cancer Hospital in Kandy. The SLCA has ventured out to partner with such a large project to raise funds for the building of the 10-storey, 700-bed modern Cancer Hospital being constructed in Kandy, with a state-of-the-art Oncology unit. It also helped fund the Leesons Hospital in Ragama. It is a noble act to be able to provide for the comfort of men and women, and little boys and girls and to bless them with the facilities that these hospitals provide, to ease their pain and make them comfortable.

The Sri Lanka Christian Association was one of the first to arrive with food for the 2004 Tsunami victims, especially to children who were left orphaned overnight.

It has provided aid for the countless families and traumatised children from the war-torn areas of the north, some of whose parents left their children behind to go in search of jobs in the Middle-East, which created broken homes. The Sri Lanka Christian Association has taken hundreds of these children in to care.

In fact, the SLCA helps anyone it feels has a good cause or need for help, and any aid is considered following an assessment of that cause or need.

All beneficiaries provide receipts for the funds they receive and are accountable for the money they receive from SLCA. Ms. Jayetilleke scrutinise the way the monies are spent, especially if they are meant for purchasing equipment such as sewing machines and materials or braille machines.

Fundraising events organised by the SLCA are mostly fun filled events and functions - hard work for its organisers - but they are so satisfying with the realisation that they are all done for good causes.

Concerts with International stars, Fashion shows, Quiz Shows with Lunches and Afternoon Teas, Musical Extravaganzas, Cruise boat trips, Dinners and Dances are just some of the events, that has taken place every year. The photos you see in these pages are just a selection, of the numerous photos which are impossible to publish here.

Every year, the SLCA organises a glorious Christmas Carols service, where distinguished guests have graced the occasion over the years. They include Lords and Ladies, Mayors and Mayoresses, High Commissioners and Ministers of the British and Sri Lankan Governments, Statesmen and Stateswomen from other nations, Religious and Church Leaders, even Princesses! The guests and chief guests arrive with deep pockets and have been very generous indeed, towards the Sri Lanka Christian Association. The committee and organisers treat everyone who attend the Carols evening to sumptuous Sri Lankan pastries and finger food each time, and this is so much talked about...

People over the last thirty years have been very interested in the noble work that the SLCA has been doing. They have long term regular donors who are so faithful and generous in their giving. They know that the SLCA does not discriminate with race or religion, when it comes to beneficiaries. For thirty years the SLCA has worked hard to raise funds for the needy in one nation - Sri Lanka, to provide to those in need from Jaffna to Matara, and from Colombo to Trincomalee. For this reason, people from all walks of life in the UK are keen to help the SLCA to raise funds.

Ms. Jayetilleke recently said "It is difficult to visualise the enormity of the benefits our donors have made possible over the years, to so many children, so many disabled people, and so many of our fellow human beings. I am ever so thankful to them, and of course nothing would have been possible without the grace of God"

On average the events organised by SLCA are attended by at least twenty different nationalities.

The Sri Lanka Christian Association, continues to provide help and support to those in need, and has become a source of light to those in darkness.

"The Lord enabled many countless projects to come in to being, and when I think back how they all happened, it is almost unbelievable" said Ms. Jayetilleke, of her encounter with God that resulted in the formation of The Sri Lanka Christian Association.

Ms. Jayetilleke never expected it to last so long and that it would go so far. It is no less than a dream. Perhaps it is a miracle.

The Sri Lanka Christian Association is indebted to its generous donors, the general public, Friends of SLCA and regular distinguished patrons for their support and generosity over the past thirty years. Without your love and support for our fellow human beings, The SLCA would not have been able to celebrate our thirty tears of receiving, to give away. Thank you!

Next week, the Sri Lanka Christian Association looks forward to sharing in some more detail, the beneficiaries of this noble charity.

Hebrews 13:16
"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

Matthew 25:35-40
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of t he least of these my brothers, you did it to me."