Dear friends, colleagues, supporters, and collaborative partners,

Greetings to all of you from all of us at VACD Australia and Sri Lanka.

Please share this newsletter with your families, friends, loved ones, colleagues and acquaintances and help us broaden our sponsorship group through your patronage and participation. This regular publication keeps subscribers informed of important projects, new initiatives and ongoing activity of our mission which supports and uplifts children with disabilities and their families in the Uva Province (8th poorest out of 9 provinces) of Sri Lanka. Many thanks for your continued support, patronage and commitment.

Our Mission: Our mission is to serve children with disabilities and their families as equals, regardless of their caste, creed, race, or locality, and to foster VACD’s ethos of love, care, unity, and support for each other, thereby fortifying multi-layered and long-lasting foundations for community accord, harmony, prosperity and mutual well-being.

Working Bee at the VACD Bandarawela centre:

VACD parents and older children got together on Wednesday, 26th March to weed and clear the grounds surrounding the centre as seen in the photos below:

VACD/Teardrop Ambagasdowa Centre Street Vegetable Market:

Parents at the VACD Ambagasdowa centre held a street vegetable market of their home produce for the local community on Wednesday, 26th March as seen in the photos below:

Fabulous and Heart-warming News: WASLA Autumn Night 22 March 2025 Perth Western Australia:

The Western Australian – Sri Lanka Association also known as WASLA hosted an Autumn night Dinner Dance solely to raise funds and support our mission for children with disabilities in the Uva province of Sri Lanka. Our heartfelt thanks to the President of WASLA, their committee, their amazing members and last but not least their generous sponsors who helped make this event a grand success. All of us at VACD Australia & Sri Lanka, thank you WASLA for your support, big-heartedness, generosity and kindness.

Photos of this memorable event are shown below:

VACD Staff Training & Development Programs:

Our regular on-the-job hands-on and theoretical staff training curriculums are formulated to improve VACD staff members’ skills, reduce performance gaps, increase their knowledge and enhance their ability to perform their roles under any challenging situation in a competent, professional, successful, confident and efficient manner.

Mr. Rajkaran Mahendran: We are delighted that Mr. Rajkaran Mahendran – Physiotherapist at Cerebral Palsy Lanka Foundation – CPLF (Faculty of Medicine University of Colombo, specialist in Neurology and Musculoskeletal System and Executive Committee member of Sri Lanka Society of Physiotherapy) conducted staff training programs for our VACD Sri Lanka staff under a collaborative partnership arrangement that was established many years ago between VACD and CP Lanka Foundation. Photographs of these training sessions held on 9th, 10th, and 11th of April are shown above:

VACD’s Projects, Programs and Planned Activities in the Uva Province for 2025/26

Please visit the following link: Ongoing Projects | Volunteers to Assist Children with Disabilities for detailed information on the above

Regular updates on our VACD Facebook Page:

Ms Aloyna (Pinky) Taylor, VACD’s Head of Digital Communication together with Mrs Yasmin Stephen, VACD’s Administration & Communication Secretary, post regular news and updates on a range of VACD activities and news on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vacdlk.

Australian Dollar Donations via Direct Bank Transfers:

Name of Account: Volunteers to Assist Children with Disabilities Limited

Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Liverpool & Castlereagh Streets Branch,

Cnr of Liverpool & Castlereagh Streets, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

Account No: 1130 2156    BSB: 062-016    BIC/SWIFT Code: CTBAAU2S

Sri Lanka Rupee Donations via Direct Bank Transfers:

Name of Account: Volunteers to Assist Children with Disabilities Private Limited
Bank: Seylan Bank, 240, Badulla Road, Bandarawela, Sri Lanka
Account Number: 046035439722001

Note: Please send an email to: fstephen@bigpond.net.au ensuring that your name and email address are mentioned when making direct bank transfers. Thank you

International Multicurrency Donations:

International donors who wish to support our mission can do so through the Benevity Causes portal via the hyperlink below for all your multi-currency donation options:

https://mygoodness.benevity.org/community/search?query=vacd&country=036

The full list of all your donation options:

The following hyperlink will enable you to find all donation options that are available to you on our webpage: https://www.vacd.org.au/donate/

A big “Thank You” to all of you from all of us at VACD and children with disabilities and their families in the region

Our journey is bound to be long and challenging. The official and unofficial number of children and their families who need our love, support, compassion, and care are sizeable and increasing steadily. We look forward to your continued generosity, active support for our undertaking and your partnership with us in this most fulfilling and worthwhile 13+ year journey that we traverse together.

Please visit us at: https://www.vacd.org.au/ and reach out to us at: fstephen@bigpond.net.au should you choose to support our mission. Please share this newsletter with your network so that together we certainly can make a difference in the lives of children with disabilities, one by one!!!

Many thanks for your continued support, best wishes, and warmest regards…. Felix

Felix Stephen

Chairman of the Board of Directors – VACD Ltd. Sydney – Australia – https://www.vacd.org.au/

Member of the Advisory Board – VACD Sri Lanka

Member of the Advisory Board – Two Leaves Foundation Sri Lanka

Senior Associate – Cognoscenti Group – Sydney – Australia- http://www.cognoscenti.global/

Member of Investment Committee – Arrive Wealth Management – Brisbane – Australia – https://www.arrivewealthmanagement.com.au/