Full paper template for 3rd APCBR Congress- Japan.

Kasun Chandana Jayathunga. . Country: Sri Lanka.

・Country:Sri Lanka
・Disability: Deaf.
・Occupation:: - Founder of Ahanna Video Production House.　www.ahanna.org; - President & Programme Manager of Sumaga Ruhunu Circle of the Deaf, Matara, Sri Lanka.; - Volunteer with Department of Special Education an Rohana Special School, Matara, Sri Lanka
・Organization: Sumaga Ruhunu Circle of The Deaf, Matara,: Sri Lanka. http://www.sumagadeaf.org/
・Email: talktokasun@gmail.com

1. BACKGROUNG

Population of 20 million, of which more than 70, 000 are hearing impaired. The recent statistic says that can be around 300,000 deaf people around the country as a whole. There are over 75,000 Deaf youth who are currently unemployed in Sri Lanka due to the lack of education & vocational training. Even though Sri Lanka has 25 special schools and 730 special units for handicapped students, they are not strong enough to cater a deaf population over 300,000 properly. For the completely deaf, their only means of communication is sign language. Whether learning in school or communicating with people, they are helpless without Sign Language. Since teachers are not proficient in sign language it is hard to communicate with the students and therefore, they can’t learn properly. Because of the less knowledge of the sign language, deaf people can’t convey any message without the help of an interpreter and sadly there are only seven interpreters in the country at present to become a support to over 300,000 deaf population.

Kasun Chandana Jayathunga is one of 300,000 people in Sri Lanka who have some from of hearing loss. Thanks to the educated parents, he was able to communicate through lip reading and in 2008 able to win a scholarship to Japan for their Duskin Leadership Training Program by representing Sri Lanka. After completing two years of Japanese Leadership training, Kasun came back to Sri Lanka with the hope of sharing his knowledge to enhance the deaf people’s life in each possible way. Kasun is from Southern Province, Matara in Sri Lanka. So, once he return to Sri Lanka, he thought of having a beginning from southern province. He became a member of Sumaga Ruhunu Circle of Deaf (SRCD) at Walgama which is one of the deaf organization in Southern Province, Sri Lanka.

In that time, there were no projects, No HR resources, there were loads of financial difficulties with SRCD and Kasun was able to become the president of this organization.

02. Story of the start Project…..

Every morning he has to wake up with the question of “where do I have to begin…?” He noticed 03 sewing machines at SRCD… laying in a corner covered with cobwebs and dust. He had no idea of their background story. From where they have come from… why they have donated to this organization… no details… nothing… he was clueless…

But he had sensed some rays of hopes with these 03 machines… he felt that he can begin to provide some proper training with these machines to the unemployed deaf members of the organization.

Kasun contacted Mr. Upul who is again a deaf member of SRCD and have a proper experience with Juki machine operating & sawing. Ms. Daya a deaf member of the SRCD also joined the team as the coordinator for the Juki Machine program. Kasun started training with 3 deaf girls and provided meals, travelling expenses and other expenses to the trainer and to the coordinator by his own.

He was spending all his earnings continuously for four months, which he earned from Japanese training. Day by day he felt that it is going to be difficult to continue this project just by his own earnings.

Then one a rainy day Mr. Kalum Samarawickrama one of the Sign Language interpreter visited SRCD organization. His visit changed their destiny. As soon as he noticed the working 03 machines on the floor he unveiled the story behind these machines… where they came from… why they are here… all of them…

He also given the numbers & email addresses of Mr. Shabry, compliance manager of world famous “Mark & Spencer” group who donated these machines under the project call “Mark & Start”. With the support of Kalum, Kasun contacted them on the same day.

After a five months, one Friday was indeed beautiful for the Kasun & his staff at SRCD as they got the chance to visit Mark & Spencer head office at Colombo to discuss about the further progression of the project. When Kasun explained, Mr. Shabry how difficult it is to continue on his own and how they need support to make this training session successful in future, Mr. Shabry asked him to write a Project Proposal.

Back at the SRCD, Kasun fully focused on writing the project proposal. It was great chance for him to experience his first ever Project Proposal on real life, after what he learnt from Duskin leadership training in Japan.Duskin training program was fully focused on How to write Project Proposals, how to handle & Improve organizations of disable persons etc… So, Duskin training program is one of the best training program in the world which provide one year complete training to make a Dis . Ability leaders for Asia Pacific countries. Then few weeks of hard effort, The Project Proposal was sent to M & S head office at UK. Then it was the waiting period for all of them.

After a weeks of time, Mr. Shabry and his team visited the opening ceremony of “Sumaga Ruhunu Juki Machine Apparel Training Centre” on 17th October, 2013. He said that the project proposal was accepted by UK head office and they can continue the training project as the same name “Mark & Start” and also they are going to cover the all kind of expenses such as office rental, Juki machine trainers’ salaries, electricity bills & everything which needed to successful the project.

That was one of the best day of Kasun’s life which is unforgettable to him. The project started… SRCD new Juki Machine Training Center got 10 more new Juki machine from Southern Province M&S Factories (Visible their logo).

Now the training center has 13 Nos of Juki machines. Today they are happy, because they get the methodically Training opportunity about Juki Machine Training using with Sri Lankan Sign Language. It wasn’t easy at the beginning. Most of the Sri Lankan parents are afraid to let their deaf children go out to explore the world. They believe deafness as a terrible disability and those who are deaf can’t do anything at all. So we had to get the contact of each parents through social service departments & Deaf Schools & other governments organizations, discuss with them. We had to convince the parents to prove their view is wrong about their own children. With 13 new Juki machines and the financial support to hire more trainers, SRCD managed to produce over 114 Juki machine operators in less than a 18 months. 86 of these young people are currently employed at M&S garment factories in the South of Sri Lanka including Brandix, Nobleswear, VorgTex and-BAM-Holdings.

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Sanjeewa whom popular as “Bobiya”, Udaya, Chani, Chamari, Amith & Susantha are few of the happy deaf youths who had the successful training and job opportunity at few famous factories under the “Mark & Spencer” Group.

So thanks to the “Mark & Spencer” support now Kasun is doing his first project for the deaf community in Sri Lanka through the “Sumaga Ruhunu Circle of Deaf” at Walgama, Matara.

Through these trainings, Kasun’s goals & objectives are; to develop sewing skills and Juki operating skills of deaf people in southern province as a beginning and then to the whole country, reduce the communication barriers among the deaf & non . deaf people by arranging awareness programs, sign language training programs Encourage them to find their own methods of earning money by finding their own career. To provide all kind of facility to coordinate with employers To give the chance to obtain deserved respect as a human being among their own family & society.

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Also for most of the deaf youth working environment was a totally new environment. Their weakness of anger management cause few troubles at the beginning. We had to continue our awareness programs and promote sign language programs to convince & connect the both deaf & hearing worlds.

Waiting till someone else to do something is the biggest mistake one can do. There may be millions of criticism when you begin something different… but that doesn’t mean you should stop being different…

This is just the beginning and Kasun is already started his own service label call “Ahanna (listen)” which provide a vast area of services to the whole Deaf Community in Sri Lanka through his talents, skills and new innovative ideas. That’s how Kasun is all geared up to serve his best to the society by making an example & role model to the whole deaf community around the world. He just want to thank everyone who become a huge support to make his journey successful!