SLT Rainbow Pages partners Indigenous Medicine Ministry to promote ayurveda

Sri Lanka Telecom Rainbow Pages has partnered with the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine Ministry to promote ayurveda locally and internationally.

The move is in keeping with the visions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has stated “We have an indigenous system of medicine that is the pride of the whole world. I believe that preserving this knowledge and sharing it with the rest of the world is a responsibly that has devolved on me.”

The tie up between the two organizations was announced at a media launch.

“Our effort is to transform Sri Lanka into Asia’s miracle and in this context the contribution our ayurveda to this end is immense. Today the whole world is directed towards this miraculous system of medicine that unifies man with nature and cures diseases of both the body and mind with the minimum side effects,” Minister of Indigenous Medicine Salinda Dissanayake said.

“We should make this our strength and harness its potential to increase tourist arrivals and thereby take the message of ayurveda to the rest of the world. The commitment of the President to accomplish this aim is immense and is amply evident by his message in the Mahinda Chinthanaya manifesto. Therefore to reap the maximum potential and harness its benefits, first we must give wide publicity to this locally and then internationally,” the Minister added.

Minister Dissanayake said he together with the Deputy Minister Pandu Bandaranaiyake and the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry Bandula Dahanayake are committed towards developing this vision of the President.

Rainbow Pages, a subsidiary of the flagship telecommunication provider to the nation Sri Lanka Telecom, understood this important need, has taken steps to produce the directory to promote the Ayurvedic concept in collaboration with the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine.

The major challenges in this context are promulgating the act of Indigenous Medicine, enhancing the standards of Indigenous medicine currently practiced in our country, optimizing research on indigenous medicine and the locally harvesting of all plant ingredients that are needed for the production of herbal medicines. The collaboration between the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine and Rainbow Pages at a strategic time such as this is of paramount importance in making this brainchild of the President successful.

SLT Rainbow Pages CEO Malraj Balapitiya and General Manager Ruwan Wijetunge represented SLT Rainbow Pages at the launch.

Efforts also have been taken by SLT Rainbow Pages to upgrade the web site of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine. This newly updated informative web site gives information of the various services of the ministry. This web site also lists the various institutions and organisations that come under this Ministry. Accordingly information on social services carried on by this Ministry, nutrition houses, herbal gardens and information on medicine houses are included. This web site also gives detailed information on projects and public outreach programmes carried out by the Borella Ayurvedic Teaching Hospital, the Bandaranaiyake Ayurvedic Research Center, and National Center for Indigenous Medicine, and also information on Ayurvedic Doctors, Hospitals, and Herbal Drug Producers.

Another initiative was the launch of the Rainbow Pages designed Ayurvedic e-Brochure for Ministry of Indigenous Medicine.

Recently the Communication Unit of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine issued a series of emails that contained detailed information of the Ministry.

Rainbow Pages annually releases directories in accordance with various themes of national benefit for the betterment of the nation. In keeping with this trend, the Rainbow Pages Western Province Directory has been issued for 2011, keeping tourism in the forefront. The colourful front cover of this directory depicts places of interest for tourists.

The Ayurveda system of medicine is unique to Sri Lanka and has been practiced in our country for thousands of years. Rainbow Pages has dedicated the 2012 Directory to the theme Ayurveda to recognise the importance of this indigenous system of medicine that is synonymous to the world over for its highly curative effects. Accordingly, the front cover of this directory will depict photographic scenes relevant to ayurveda and the inner section will contain detailed information of various medicinal plants of our country, the health arts of ayurveda and native ayurvedic doctors. These details will indeed be useful to local and international clients.

This will help to popularise the ayurvedic system of medicine among those who use this directory, especially the upper and middle class clients.

The recently upgraded web site of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine is:

 www.indigenousmedimini.gov.lk

Rainbow Pages is the directory information dissemination provider to the nation and is a fully owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. In addition to the printed directory SLT Rainbow Pages has taken steps to disseminate directory information through the latest cutting edge devices like the Directory CD, Rainbow Pages on WAP for mobile phone users and the www.rainbowpages.lk web site.