Kurunegala boy wins British High Commission Annual Greeting Card competition

In December 2010, the British High Commission (BHC) in Colombo organised the annual Season’s Greeting Card Competition.

Held for the second consecutive year, this is an annual event with a two-pronged

objective: recognising the creativity and artistic talents of differently-abled children in Sri Lanka and developing a seasonal greeting card to be used by the BHC. In November 2010, the BHC invited seven schools for differently-abled children located outside Colombo to send it drawings by their students on the theme ‘My Wish for Sri Lanka’.

“We received over 50 entries, from which a panel of five judges at the BHC chose the top three,” said Mark Gooding, Acting High Commissioner. “BHC staff then voted for their favourite drawing. Since the entries were all so colourful and attractive, we had quite a task choosing the winner!”

The winner of the competition was Chanuka Sandaruwan Herath, a nine-year-old boy from the Sandagala Special School in Uhumeeya, Kurunegala. Chanuka, who has a permanent hearing deficiency, joined the school three years ago.

According to his teachers, he has a real talent for art and craft activities. The first runner-up was Rangika Jayasinghe, an 18-year-old girl from the same school, while the second runner-up was Nivanthika Indeewari (14 years) from the Rohana Special School, Matara.

Dominic Williams, Second Secretary, Political and Public Diplomacy at the BHC visited the Sandagala Special School on Friday, 14 January, 2011, to award Chanuka with his certificate and prizes. The BHC also gifted a high-tech fax machine to the school.

Established in 1969, the Sandagala Special School currently has 132 students, most of them with hearing-deficiencies.   

The British High Commission Colombo first organised the annual Greeting Card Competition in 2009, as part of its corporate responsibility initiatives. The 2011 competition will begin in the last quarter of the year. Notification will be sent to schools for differently-abled children at the end of the year.