Sunday Times 2
Renuka honoured with OBE for child care service
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Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent received her OBE awarded in the 2020 Queens New Year’s honours list on February 25. This is almost a century after her great grandfather Timothy Nevins Selvadurai received an honour for services to education in Sri Lanka.
Both have championed for children — Timothy as principal of Jaffna Hindu College and a member of the State Council of Ceylon and Renuka as an educational psychologist and Director of Operations/Deputy CEO at Coram which is one of the oldest children’s charities in the world, set up in 1739 by Thomas Coram with the help of benefactors.
Coram took children who would not have survived the streets of London because of destitution and illegitimacy and provided foster and residential care and an education. Today the organisation still works with children in care but also provides a whole host of services for children who are or might suffer vulnerability. Its international arm works with others to improve services for children – especially those in need of protection from abuse.
Renuka’s mother and father (Felicia Nevins Selvadurai and Reginald Jeyarajah) left Sri Lanka to work as expatriates in Africa in 1961. Renuka attended 10 schools in three continents but mostly in Lusaka, Zambia before finishing her education in England.