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Fistful of self-esteem

by Aditha Dissanayake

"I went to a Christmas party in Negombo at the Cheshire Home for the disabled. While the rest of the audience watched local school children performing, I was watching the residents of the Home and wondered how it must feel to always be on the other side of the fence, to be excluded.

That's when I decided to concentrate on investigating the possibilities of dance more carefully, perhaps making a different kind of dance theatre as a form of creative experience for people who otherwise would never have the chance to develop their artistic potential", said Wolfgang Stange, and went on to create a special dance theatre with the collaboration of the Sunera Foundation, which culminated in 1998's grand-scale performance of Butterflies will always fly and Flowers will always bloom, in 2001.

In a society that too often stigmatises those who are different, here was an effort to bring self-confidence to marginalised people enabling them to find their inner-strength and to discover their hidden talents. "More than food, more than clothes, what they need is self-confidence" says Sunethra Bandaranaike, Chairperson, Sunera Foundation.

"Sunera features more than 30 regular weekly workshops and touches the lives of no less than 650 differently-abled Sri Lankans each week".

Today, in the aftermath of the tsunami, the Foundation has moved one step further, with the launch of the Tsunami Theatre Outreach Project (T-TOP) using the performing arts to provide therapeutic relief to hundreds of children who were traumatised by the 2004 tragedy.

So, imagine an open air theatre, (the exact location is the Centre for Professional Development in Meepe) with white flowers falling on you every passing second. The solitary sound of a flute mingling with the rustle of leaves and the chirping of birds, a moment's silence, followed by thundering music.

They dance, they grab each others arms and swing in circles, they perform summersaults, and above all, they smile. Surely, there is no better picture than this to symbolise true happiness. The look of sheer joy on the faces of the performers of "The Prayer for Peace" is worth the click of every camera around. Why? Because every smile has a history; every smile is a sign that the horrors of the past has gradually begun to recede, paving the way for sunnier days.

From 16 year old Kosala Perera who is mentally handicapped, to eleven year old Jayarathi from Trincomalee who had experienced the tsunami, the performers of the dance recital proved the astounding feats that could be achieved through the healing powers of music and dancing.

Yet, G.D.U Samanthilake from the Ranaviru Sevana says that when he was selected to join the Butterflies Theatre Company he had had his doubts. "Maha vikara vadak kiyala hithuna" (I thought the whole thing was as crazy as they come). But not any more.

Having lost both his legs in the war, he says he had found it difficult to get on with the Tamil performers at first. They too had looked at him with suspicion because he was from the army. "But gradually I realized I fought with the LTTE and not the ordinary Tamil men, women and children.

I see and treat them as if they are my own brethren now". He has no problems performing with K.Thuwasker from Batticoloa, nor chatting with Anyhya, Vijayarani, Jemoslin and Anthany, the T-TOP trainers from Jaffna. Nor does Susantha Edirimanne, the visually handicapped graduate teacher from Embilipitiya who says he is happy to take part in all the T-TOP programs.

Disabled, blind, mentally-retarded, traumatised by the tsunami, yet, rejuvenated through Sunera's efforts of providing psychosocial therapy, they flit around, happy, graceful and free like butterflies.

Talking about the disabled like Samanthilake, who has no qualms about jumping from his wheelchair to the ground and back on to the chair, or wriggling his torso to the music, Ms. Bandaranaike says " He doesn't give a damn whether he has legs or not, and we don't give a damn either". The key words here are "never sympathise". They do not need pity. They do not need sympathy. All they need is self-confidence.

The efforts of T-TOP is visible in the transformation of M.H Samanmalee, who till recently had refused to talk about the day at Peraliya when the train carriage she was in was toppled over, by the tsunami.

Ramani Damayanthi, Assistant Creative Director, Sunera Foundation, says when she first met Samanmalee the girl was scared of the slightest sounds around her, and suffered from nightmares, reliving the moment when the train stopped and people started to shout "A Weave, a weave".

Her dancing teacher had died in the tragedy, and Samanmali had survived only because her sister had carried her and run towards higher ground, before the weave could hit them. Today thanks to the efforts of T-TOP, a smiling Samanmalee speaks of the tragedy treating it as if its just another event in the past.

Rohan Deva, Sunera's Creative Director who was at the site of the Peraliya train disaster the day after the tragedy and who had realized the need for long-term phycological support of the tsunami survivors says he embarked on this project by utilising Sunera's existing practices as a healing process.

Sunera's Chairperson, Sunethra Bandaranaike, as a member of the Task Force for Rescue and Relief had extended Sunera's normal work in rebuilding confidence, and enabling self-discovery to include traumatised tsunami survivors, by holding weekly workshops in six affected districts and using similar techniques to the ones that have proven useful as psychosocial counselling tools in the regular Sunera workshops.

The one major difference in T-TOP is that it does not target only the differently-abled. Having realised that as beneficial as the outpour of international aid that came after the tsunami had been in rebuilding the material infrastructure, an area which will continue to need support essentially by a Sri Lankan Organization in keeping with traditional background and cultures, is that of addressing the phycological trauma suffered by many of the tsunami survivors, Sunera plans to provide psychological therapy through TTOP workshops to at least 1600 children each week.

Apart from the National Youth Services Council, which is handling the monitoring of the administrative aspects of the project, some of the key funding agencies behind TTOP include Deutsche Bank, The East West Centre in Hawai, Force of Nature, Global Fund for Children and Seige Social Jules.

Emphasising that the differently-abled should not be marginalised, the words of the song in "A Prayer for Peace" says it all, "Obamaya Apamaya Deviyo".

If there is a will, there is a way.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.