Colombo West Rotary Club creates a symbol of national unity

Friday, 18 April 2014 04:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Builds prayer rooms for major faiths at Juvenile Home, Halpathota Rotary Club of Colombo West, in association with the Department of Probation and Childcare Services Southern Province and donors, constructed and handed over four separate Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim prayer rooms located adjacent to each other on the same compound to the children of Government Detention Home, Halpathota, Baddegama recently. Speaking at the handover over ceremony, Rotary Club of Colombo West President Jerome Rajendram stated, “Our intent in building these four separate prayer rooms was two-fold. At the national level, we wished to bequeath future generations of detention home children a means to forge religious amity and create a harmonious society. The four prayer rooms will outlive my generation and serve as a symbol of our country’s religious unity and harmony.”

“At the individual level, we wanted to ensure that children living at the Halpathota Home do not think of themselves as victims of fate but rather as masters of their destiny. The prayer rooms offer them the feeling of moving about freely, worshipping their individual faiths peacefully, and getting to know the practices of each other’s religions, thereby contributing to their spiritual development, giving them the opportunity to internalise religious values, and providing them with a platform to celebrate religious diversity.” Department of Probation and Childcare Services Southern Province Commissioner Indumini D. Liyanage observed, “The only way to get others to respect your religion is to respect theirs. These four prayer rooms afford the opportunity for inter-religious harmony. In this respect, on behalf of my Department, I am grateful to Rotary Club of Colombo West and the donors for their enthusiastic, committed and unstinted support to make this multi-religious space at the Halpathota Home a reality.”

Rotary Club of Colombo West Community Service Director Yukthi Gunasekera explained, “Our Club’s Community Service vision this year has been to serve Sri Lanka’s marginalised communities and people. Children living in a detention home constitute a marginalised group. Also, Rotary International’s theme this year is ‘Engage Rotary, Change Lives’. It is in this spirit that we engaged six donors to support this project: Expo Lanka Group, Ceylon Hindu Congress, Prestige Automobile Ltd, S. Mahenthiran, Dhammika Perera, and Rotary Club of Sunnyvale-Sunrise, California, USA. The unstinted and caring support given by Department of Probation and Childcare Services Southern Province Commissioner Indumini D. Liyanage, Government Detention Home Halpathota Superintendent M.T. Dharmasena, and their respective teams was critical to the success of this project. Whilst appreciating our donors without whom the four prayer rooms would not have seen the light of day, we salute the enlightened, committed and ground-breaking leadership shown by the hardworking, dedicated, and caring government servants of the Department of Probation & Childcare Services Southern Province: they are indeed a pride to all Sri Lankans.”