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Exhibition at Special Education Centre
At the very end of Layards Road, nestling between two large trees, is a comfortable house, the home of the Colombo Centre for Special Education. It was established nearly 30 years ago by Rev. Celestine and Nora Fernando of the then Bible Society of Ceylon with the help of a few family friends.

The students, all male, range from the age of 18 to 52 and enjoy the companionship only their classmates have the ability to give. "There is no ideal age to join, and when they do join, they are here for life," says Ms. Anna Rebert, the coordinator of the Centre and member of the Board of Management. "We function very much like a school. The students come in about 8 a.m. and are here until 12:30, or until their vans or families come to collect them."

The work is distributed amongst the many volunteers and the five permanent members of staff. As there are only 25 students at any given time, each student is given personalised attention in a carefully integrated programme of basic schooling, speech therapy and occupational therapy. These include lessons in carpentry, cooking and rattan weaving.

Their education is not limited to schoolwork. "We visit their friends who are unable to come to school on a daily basis. For example, one of the students fell very ill during the last few years of his life and we did our best to visit him as much as we possibly could. This really helped him," Ms. Rebert said.

The products of their hard work will be exhibited at a sale held on November 30 at the Centre at 80/7, Layards Road, Colombo 5. Many items will be on sale.

"Greeting cards made by the students for Christmas will be available," says Ms. Rebert enthusiastically. "There are also collections of recycled stamps for all those stamp collectors out there." All your Christmas gifts can also be purchased at the sale as there is something for everyone. T-shirts emblazoned with daring prints, dish towels, pot holders, art and craft items and woodwork products such as stools and bookshelves, all produced during the year by the students themselves with a little input from their teachers.

"This year, lunches are being served from 12 noon to 2 p.m. so that the event can be a longer and more enjoyable one. The food stall which has been organised by the Parents' Group will serve an ideal blend of edibles."

For Chitranjan, David, Roshan, Rajan, Dirk, Viren and the others, this year-end sale is what they've been waiting for. It's the perfect time to exhibit their work and help the Centre realise its dream of building a hostel of their own.
-Ruwanthi


Captured on film
By Vidushi Seneviratne
Capturing some of life's rare moments is a photographer's ultimate goal. These moments could be sometimes lost for ever, if not captured on film in that particular instance. That is exactly what Mervyn de S. Jayasinghe has been doing over the last 50 years.

"I got a box camera when I was about 18 years old. This is how I got interested in photography. When you are young, you just click anything that looks interesting, sometimes it is a beautifully lit pandal, sometimes it is an animal."

Mr. de. S. Jayasinghe began his professional life as a photographer in 1952, aged 21. Responding to a newspaper ad calling for medical photographers, he was selected to serve the General Hospital, Colombo. "I was required to take pictures of patients before and after operations and sometimes of unusual medical cases such as deformities," he said. He also served in hospitals in Africa and England, for over 25 years.

The irony is that Mr. de. S. Jayasinghe is more renowned internationally than locally. Having membership in the Royal Photography Society based in the United Kingdom, for over 45 years, he is now a complementary member. He has received many trophies and certificates from countries such as Zambia, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Germany, Brazil and England.

Image World, his exhibition now on at the Art Gallery also features the work of photographers from 23 invited countries.

Mr. de. S. Jayasinghe enjoys sharing his knowledge with interested individuals and delivers lectures at The Green Forest Association.

"I got my education free, and so I want to give it back free," he says.

Image World will be open to the public at the National Art Gallery from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. today.


Watercolour exhibition
Basil Cooray's fourth solo exhibition of watercolour paintings will be held at the Alliance Francaise, Colombo 7, from November 29 to December 2. The exhibition will feature 35 recent paintings of the artist, under the theme 'Facets of the Rural'.

Cooray exploits the medium of watercolours innovatively to present Sri Lanka's rural life in a refreshing manner. The haunting natural beauty of the village with its myriad vibrant ways of living and culture is central to Cooray's paintings. His works cleverly capture the religious sentiments of pilgrims and the serenity of Buddhist shrines. With his subtle brush strokes he unravels the aesthetic mood and feeling with great authenticity. Working with almost a forgotten medium, Cooray brings to life several facets of rural life. His intensity of expression permeates all his paintings.

His previous solo watercolour painting exhibitions were held at the National Art Gallery, the Lionel Wendt Gallery (Perspectives of Life) and at the Hermitage Gallery. He has also participated in several group exhibitions.

Cooray's paintings adorn reputed institutions such as the President's House, the Hatton National Bank, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Embassy of Sri Lanka in South Africa. He works as an illustrator and visualiser for Phoenix O & M (Pvt) Limited.


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