Page 139 - Hemas_Piyawara_Book

On the road to becoming a Centre of Excellence, it is home to Sri Lanka’s
first sensory room and also comprises a state-of-the-art audiology unit,
multi-disciplinary clinics and research and development facilities. Training
programmes are held for undergraduates, community paediatricians, parents,
caregivers and teachers.
AYATI’s clinics are conducted by highly qualified professional experts of the Faculty of
Medicine, University of Kelaniya.
When the world including Sri Lanka faced the unprecedented and unexpected
COVID-19 pandemic, the centre switched gears and supported families struggling
with travel restrictions with tele-health services.
Looking back at the recent past which led to the setting up of the centre, the then Dean
of the Faculty of Medicine and current Vice Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya,
Prof. Nilanthi de Silva says that the dire need for a facility that offers different forms
of therapy and rehabilitation for children with developmental disabilities was first
brought to her attention by colleagues in the Departments of Disability Studies and
Psychiatry nearly 10 years ago.
The then State Minister of Defence, Mr. Ruwan Wijewardene accompanied by Major General Kumudu
Perera inspects the ‘model’ for the AYATI building (above). AYATI Trustee Ms. Indrani Sugathadasa, Major This is a glimpse into the sequence of events as noted by Prof. de Silva: “Dr. Samanmali
General Kumudu Perera and Mr. Husein Esufally at the foundation stone laying ceremony (below).
Sumanasena, who had specialized in developmental disorders of children, and
Dr. Leenika Wijeratne, who had specialized in child psychiatry, together explained
to me that there are many forms of therapy that can greatly benefit children with
conditions like cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, hearing impairment, etc. They
told me that while Sri Lanka had professionals who could offer many of these forms of
therapy and rehabilitation, there was no place where all these services could be easily
accessed under one roof.
“A hospital setting was not suitable because these children were not sick and did not
require acute, in-ward care on a daily basis, but instead, should be seen by professionals
at regular intervals while continuing to live with their families. The weekly Multi-
Disciplinary Therapy (MDT) clinics that they had already started for these children,
while training our students (especially those on the speech & language therapy and
audiology programmes) needed to be housed in a better, more spacious, customized
environment. I recall that we identified a possible location for a small building within
our faculty premises at Ragama and wrote up a proposal that we submitted through
the University Grants Commission for funding from the Treasury at an estimated cost
of about Rs. 25 million. However, while waiting for that to materialize, we heard that the
Hemas Group was looking to support a CSR project along the lines that we had in mind."

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