They sang their hearts out for the children!

Saturday, 23 November 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By David Ebert

The spirit of giving was alive and kicking at the glittering second edition of the ‘Imagine Concert for the Child – 2013’ held at the Bishop’s College Auditorium on Thursday, which highlighted how a simple donation of just Rs. 1,000 per month goes a long way in helping a less fortunate child of a prisoner by giving them a chance to better themselves through education. The concert featured a star-studded line-up of musicians, all performing free to help this worthy cause. The line-up consisted of Flame, Afrah Saldin (with Nishan Daniel accompanying on guitar), The Little Sopranos, Rajitha Rupasinghe, The Revelations, Rukshan Perera (the main man behind the success of this concert, who brought all the musicians together for this worthy cause), The De Lanerolle Brothers, Natasha Rathnayake and Wildfire.

The concert was organised by the Friends of Prisoner’s Children organisation and is held each year to raise funds to support the organisation’s activities, geared towards offering children of prisoners a chance to have a normal life with the right opportunities and the required attention that they lack. With it being the only program of its kind in Sri Lanka that deals with prisoners’ children, the program uses a sponsorship-based program that assigns each sponsor a child that they can communicate with and track their progress through this system. The children in turn respond with letters through ‘Friends of Prisoners’ Children’ and are keen to show their progress in school to these sponsors. Begun in 2005 and headed by its founders, Sister Immaculate de Alwis and Priyanthi Dissanayake, the organisational mission of ‘Friends of Prisoners’ Children’ as they stated, is to “free prisoners’ children from the stigma attached to them and give them an incentive to ensure they complete their education and eventually aspire to sustainable employment avenues and not follow their parents’ example”.