Page 25 - Hemas_Piyawara_Book

Mr. Abbas Esufally presents tokens of appreciation to Prof. Elsie Kotelawala and Mr. Jayantha Peiris (above) at Piyawara’s 10 anniversary commemoration in early 2012. Prof. Kotelawala lights the traditional oil lamp at
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the first teacher training programme (below).
“We learnt new ways of teaching the children,” says Usha, as Wasantha points out that
“the world opened out to us”.

Wasantha and Usha had not ventured out of Jaffna before and it was the first time
that they had come thus far, all the way to Colombo. It was an unforgettable and
life-changing experience. They were the only fluent Tamil-speaking teachers, while
everyone else was Sinhala-speaking and just one teacher from Badulla could speak a
smattering of Tamil.

However, they never felt left out and using sign language and smiles got on well with
the group. The goodbyes, once the training was over, were emotional with lots of hugs
and they still keep in touch.

A wonderful experience it was for R.M. Ratnaseeli from the town of Badulla in the lower
central hills, who was in charge of the preschool with 50 little ones, on Racecourse
Road. Initially, she felt scared to come to Malabe. However, not only did she get a honda
puhunuwak (good training) in dancing and singing but also awareness on spotting
child abuse through lectures by the police.

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