With the aim of helping to create awareness of the dreaded disease leprosy and also to promote early detection, the students of the Colombo School of Arts (CSA), a newly established international school, have initiated a fund raiser to buy electronic wheelchairs and other individually custom-made equipment for the incapacitated inmates of the Leprosy Hospital in Hendala.  

The fund raiser will be a benefit concert titled ‘SPERO – Hope for Serendib’ and will be held at the British School Auditorium on Saturday, August 1, 2015. Sitarist Pradeep Ratnayake will be joined on stage by Ananda Dabare (violin), Ravibandu Vidyapati (percussion), Sureka Amarasinghe (flute) and Peshala Manoj (tabla). Together, these renowned Sri Lankan artistes will recreate the magical musical style of ‘Pradeepanjali’ in a new light. Silver Sponsor of ‘SPERO – Hope for Serendib’ is Ceyline Group of Companies. MTV and MBC join hands in this venture as the official Electronic Media Sponsor.

Speaking of this initiative the Principal of the school Shaleeka Jayalath stated, “As the number of Sri Lankans detected with leprosy is on the rise, there is now a great need to raise awareness of leprosy and to reduce the numbers, as well as, accept and reach out to those living with leprosy. Successful treatment with multi drug therapy (MDT) can help to reduce and eventually eradicate the disease in Sri Lanka. For this we need awareness, education and constant vigilance to ensure patients take regular treatment within the prescribed period. 

“We also need to overcome stigma and myths that still continue in remote areas. Besides, for a country with high literacy, good accessibility to health facilities and highly trained medical professionals, such diseases being rampart is unacceptable.  Hence, we thought this to be an appropriate and worthwhile project to undertake as the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative of the school.  Encouraging our students to carry out annual social service projects to benefit less privileged members of our society is a part of our agenda at CSA.”