“When we give alms with our hearts, we give well”
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 assist us to broaden our sponsor/supporter base by your patronage and contribution. This regular publication keeps our VACD family closely informed of important projects, ongoing activity and new initiatives of our mission that supports and uplifts children with disabilities and their families in the Uva Province (8th poorest out of 9 provinces) of Sri Lanka. We deeply appreciate and thank you for your continued support, guidance, patronage and commitment towards our compassionate undertaking.
Our Mission: Our mission is to support and serve children with congenital disabilities and their families and accept and respect them as equals irrespective of their caste, creed, race, or locality, and to promote and cultivate VACD’s ethos of love, care, unity, mutual respect and sincere affection. These values assist us to fortify long-lasting deeper and broader multi-layered foundations of local community well-being and shared prosperity that eventually leads to the most disenfranchised and disadvantaged sector within the community being accepted and cared for by their very communities across Sri Lanka.
VACD Australia Annual Report 2024/25:
The VACD Australia Chairman’s Financial Year 2024/2025 annual report to the VACD Australia Board and Fellows can be found via the hyperlink below:
We are extremely pleased that the VACD leaderships in Australia and Sri Lanka have continued to maintain our legal and administration expenses averaging at or around 5% of total expenditure since 2016 with the balance being deployed towards supporting and uplifting those whom we have pledged to serve. This has been possible only because most of our services to our beneficiaries and their families are provided by committed and dedicated volunteers. We value, appreciate, admire and thank these volunteers for their passion and commitment towards our benevolent mission.
Enhancing VACD’s Sponsor/Support base:
- Yasmin and I met with Ms Sarah McIntyre and Ms Hayley Smithers-Sheedy from Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Australia with whom we had an inspiring and enlightening discussion while briefing them of our mission, vision, history, ongoing and proposed projects and programs etc. We also learnt of their own experiences in supporting the disability sector in Sri Lanka. We eagerly look forward to their guidance, support and partnership in future VACD Australia and Sri Lanka initiatives in Sri Lanka.
- Yasmin and I also met with Ms. Karolina Pulczynski – Community Relations Manager of Hon. Julian Leeser – MP – Federal Member for the electorate of Berowra in New South Wales Australia to share with her VACD’s history, our mission, vision and ongoing and future projects and programs. Mr. Charles Stephenson – Electorate Officer of Hon Julian Leeser MP shared with us their views of how we can enhance and improve our sponsorship/support base in order to fortify our long-term capability to broaden our services to our benefactors in Sri Lanka. We will remain in regular and close communication with Mr. Leeser and his kind-hearted team.
More details and updates on the above will be shared with you as they unfold.
Delightful News!!!:
Muthukumara Mahappukorala (Muthu) – ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8J-Wz7AsNnWMgxKl1X4tcDcIwwx6a51Q) has extremely big-heartedly offered to donate profits made from his public performance of his own modern Sinhala-Pop songs to be staged in Canberra ACT in early February 2026 to VACD. This is an extremely generous and magnanimous gesture on the part of Muthu. More details about this event, venue, cost of tickets etc, will be shared with you no sooner they are finalised so that you can make plans to be at this function and play an important role of supporting our mission.
VACD’s Projects, Programs and Planned Activities in the Uva Province for 2025/26
- Parents of VACD registered children have been encouraged to take their children to local public hospital paediatric clinics for regular checkups since local paediatricians have pledged to extend their support to our mission, parents and children.
- VACD Australia Director Ms. Gabriella Vascotto (Autism/Behaviour Consultant– Greater Melbourne Area, Australia) is scheduled to introduce a comprehensive “Early Childhood Supported Playgroup Program” to our VACD Sri Lanka staff across our VACD centres later this year.
- VACD centres to continue extending specialist rehabilitation services performed by trained and qualified VACD staff to our VACD children, such as life and special skills development and also provide guidance/assistance to parents enabling them to cope with their daily challenges whilst caring for their children in their homes.
- The Uva Provincial Council Governor’s office plans to hold a one-day seminar involving Sri Lankan and international industry practitioners and experts and all stakeholders covering children’s disabilities across the province in October. This will assist them to plan and implement more targeted and comprehensive long-term rehabilitation programs for disabled children in the Uva province over future years.
- We are pleased that industry experts from the Kelaniya University and Ayati Foundation and Mr. Rajkaran Mahendran from Cerebral Palsy Lanka Foundation are among the practising consultants billed to present at this conference.
LEAP- (Learning Through Everyday Activities for Parents of Children with Congenital Disabilities in the Uva Province):
- Dr. Gopi Kitnasamy, Founder Cerebral Palsy Lanka Foundation and his colleagues, in collaboration with the Ayati Trust, the Uva Provincial Ministry of Health, local Paediatricians, other local medical professionals & specialists and VACD will implement a two-year LEAP program commencing early next year.
- This two-year LEAP program aims to enhance early detection and intervention for infants with congenital disabilities in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka.
- The primary focus of the project is to train Public Health Midwives on identifying infants at high risk for developmental disabilities, following care pathways developed by the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka.
- Infants identified with high risk factors will be referred to community paediatricians for further evaluation, with referral to a multi-disciplinary team for surveillance and early intervention.
- Key objectives of the program are: Capacity Building – Train Public Health Midwives in the Uva Province to identify infants with high risk for congenital developmental disabilities, Referral Pathway Establishment – Strengthen the referral pathways from Midwives to community paediatricians and then to multi-disciplinary teams, Surveillance & Early Intervention – Ensure infants at risk receive early surveillance and intervention by appropriate professionals and Data Collection & Monitoring – Implement a robust system for monitoring and tracking the progress of infants referred for early intervention.
- Early detection and disciplined professional intervention will ensure a better and brighter future for children with disabilities and their families.
- The professionally and officially estimated total cost of the two-year program is A$ 70,000.
Our VACD children, their parents and families and we at VACD Australia and Sri Lanka need your love, support and assistance for us to successfully implement this program. Please dig deep, reach out to your loved ones, families, friends, work colleagues, social and philanthropic organisations and institutions etc. to help us source these required funds so that we can launch our program with confidence and a great sense of fulfilment, achievement and pride to all of us.
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
(Donations made during the Australian financial year are tax deductible for Australian Taxpayers)
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, to enable us to issue a receipt. 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 Emeritus – 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/