Sumithrayo to mark World Suicide Prevention Day

The seminar ‘Say Yes to Life’ organised by the Sri Lanka Sumithrayo will be held on September 3, at the BMICH, to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day and also to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Sumithrayo Rural Programme.

Forty two years ago the first ‘Befrienders International’ suicide crisis intervention centre named Sri Lanka Sumithrayo was set up in Colombo by its Founder, Mrs. Joan de Mel and a few other like-minded people.

This was in response to the increasing numbers of people being admitted to the General Hospital in Colombo having made and failed in their deliberate attempts to end their lives.

The majority of the suicides, 75% of them takes place amongst the rural communities of the country. The Sri Lanka Sumithrayo Rural Program works in over 100 remote farming villages and has won international recognition having received two international awards in 2008 and 2011 as a successful Suicide Prevention Initiative at the grass roots level entirely manned by trained volunteers and well trained field officers.

The Founder Director of the Programme won the coveted Erwin Ringel Service Award for significant contributions to Suicide Prevention presented at the ‘International Association for Suicide Prevention’ (IASP) conference in Killarney, Ireland in 2007.