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The cyclists set out from their campus in Jaffna on 15 August at 7 a.m., travelled 140 kilometres and reached Vavuniya where they spent their first night. On 16 August they travelled another 181 kilometres, to Kurunegala where they spent their second night and finally on 17 August they left Kurunegala, travelling another 93 kilometres before reaching the Royal College Skills Centre in Colombo, which was the finish point.
The cyclists were accompanied by a support team of around 60 people, assigned with the task of attending to the well-being of the students and promoting awareness of their cause.
Speaking at a media briefing that was held at the Royal College Skills Centre at the conclusion of the event, University of Jaffna Lecturer in Pharmacology/Cycling Team Chief Representative Pratheesh Maheswaran conveyed his utmost admiration of the boys. Addressing the cyclists he said, “You have travelled over 400 kilometres in the last three days. There is no doubt that you will feel excruciating pain in the coming days; you may feel the pain for a day, a week or maybe even for a month but believe me the achievement you have made today will last forever.”
Heart operations have now begun in the North of Sri Lanka, he said and added that prior to this heart patients had to travel 300-400 kilometres to get this service but at many occasions the patients died on the way because cardiac patients are the most unstable patients; the journey is too long for them and they can have heart attacks at any time.
“It is my view that everyone in Sri Lanka should be given equal opportunities for healthcare. Now the war has ended; show your sympathy to the people of the North and East; show your support and nurture them until they can stand on their own feet. I believe the Oxonion Heart Foundation is doing exactly the same thing. OHF has a great vision of providing cardiac care to all people but mainly to the destitute and improvised people; providing opportunities to local medical professionals to improve their skills and promoting cardiac research,” he said.
Oxonian Heart Foundation
Oxonian Heart Foundation Founder/Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon/University of Oxford Senior Lecturer Dr. Ravi Perumalpillai said, “I would like to congratulate the large number of young, enthusiastic people for a spontaneous gesture of physical turpitude in order to help raise funds for the sick people with heart disease in the northern and north central parts of Sri Lanka. It’s the spontaneity and ease with which one could persuade them to undertake such a task that has absolutely taken me by my heart.” 
“The Oxonian Heart Foundation was set up two years ago as a charitable trust in Sri Lanka and as a registered charity in the United Kingdom. The idea of developing cardiac surgery in the Northern Province has been gestating for 15-20 years. As a cardiac surgeon I have previously been involved in the development and facilitation of cardiac surgery in Colombo in the early 90s where we brought a large number of staff including anaesthetists and intensive care nurses to set the program off. We did this over several 2-3 week visits.”
OHF is in partnership with the North Central Hospital (NCH) which is a modern hospital located in Thirunalvely near the University of Jaffna campus, providing 60 beds and 10 intensive care units/high dependency beds, a high grade operating theatre, 4-bed intensive and high dependency area, 10 bed ward for pre and post operative patients, specialist doctors, technicians and nurses. Their CSR initiative is to ‘bear the cost of one in five patients’.
The foundation has received donations from abroad as well as from local corporate and individual donors. The total funds required are estimated at US$ 2 million and are to provide the necessary capital for the successful execution of their plan, which includes obtaining equipment to set up cardiac surgery at the North Central Hospital; providing for the support team from Oxford that will initiate, train, monitor and support the program until it is established; and allocating $ 300,000 to treat destitute patients during the first year.
In response to a question posed by the Daily FT on how they plan to fulfil the need to raise further funds as there seems to be yet a long way to go before they can reach their target, Dr. Pillai said, “In 18 months we have collected a quarter of the target and have already commenced operations. People can now see that as work has begun and our efforts are evident in the hospital, that it hasn’t been just ‘words’ but actual actions that have been delivered.”
The first round of surgeries commenced on 6 July. Having already raised $ 600,000, OHF is looking for an additional $ 1.4 million to complete their mission. “With people being convinced that we are delivering our promise, we are hopeful that more people will contribute funds for our cause,” he added.
Reconciliation
The keynote speaker at the media briefing was Retired Bishop Colombo Duleep De Chickera, who focussed on reconciliation. “It is an enormous and difficult task. It’s on the agenda in Sri Lanka and various parts of the world,” he said.
“My understanding of a society in which reconciliation prevails is a society in which injustice is addressed seriously with the objective of getting rid of it. By injustice I mean circumstances in any given society where people are deprived of their rights, freedom and dignity. And connected with injustice is another cluster of negative human experiences such as violence, discrimination, poverty, suppression, oppression, etc. If reconciliation is to grow, injustice must disappear. That is a part of a reconciled society. Where there is injustice in any given society, there is no reconciliation.”
“If we are able to address injustice and we are beginning to reach reconciliation what do we need to do to make sure that we do not lose reconciliation all over again; that we can sustain some degree of a reconciled society for the future?” he asked. “We are a pluralistic society; I am a Sinhalese. I’m also a Christian. We have Sinhala Buddhists, we have Tamils, who are Hindus and Tamils who are Christians, we have Muslims and Burghers; different ethnic groups and cultures, different religious groups and aspirations. In any society like this where different cultural, religious, ethnic groups have to live with each other there will from time to time be differences and little tensions. That’s natural,” he said.
“The question is ‘How do we deal with these differences?’ What we don’t want to do is deal with differences through violence. Very sadly, if we are different and we can’t get what we want, then we fight and destroy. The civilised way of addressing differences is dialogue. Talk and see whether we can all create circumstances and a situation in which we can all live together with equal respect.”
Integration
Another principle of sustaining reconciliation is integration, he said. “By this I mean communities being able to interact with each other and this has been part of the problem that has added to the conflict in Sri Lanka. Some of us have lived in regions distant from each other. Consequently we are not able to understand the identity and aspirations of the other person.”
He spoke of the immense benefits of integrated schooling and education for this purpose. In the school that he studied, up to this day, they have a model for integrated education where Sinhala medium students and Tamil medium students study under the same roof.
“I know this may not be possible in all parts of the country but wherever it is possible schools that are integrated need to be set up,” he added. He expressed his pleasure in noting that there are now as many Sinhalese students in the University of Jaffna as there are Tamil students in other universities.
Healthy society imperative to build nation
BCAS Campus is one of the main sponsors of this cause. BCAS Campus Chairman M.M. Abdur Rahman spoke of the importance of sound health in developing the nation.
“It’s not only good education that helps a nation; it is not only the talent or skills but also a healthy society. There may be educated people but if they are sick, they cannot develop the nation. You will find that anywhere in this country, there are two places that are always jam-packed. One is the hospital, the other is the courts. The people are sick; their bodies are sick, their minds are also sick. Since their bodies are sick they go to the hospital, and their minds are sick so they go to the courts. Therefore as a developing nation it is imperative that we take care of our health,” he said. He commended the cyclists saying, “You have done a wonderful, praiseworthy job; it is a very valuable task that you have involved yourself in.”
Pix by Upul Abayasekara
