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.

Sad news:

It’s with sad and heavy hearts that we wish to inform you that our VACD Sri Lanka founding director and Assistant Secretary Mr. Sujeewa Abeynayake passed away on Friday, 24th October. Sujeewa encouraged and inspired us to establish our mission to support and uplift children with disabilities and their families in Bandarawela (and then across the Uva Province) as far back as 2011. His contribution to our mission and disabled children and their families in the Uva province will be treasured and remembered.

1 – Exciting News!!!:

Muthukumara Mahappukorala (Muthu) – ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8J-Wz7AsNnWMgxKl1X4tcDcIwwx6a51Q) has charitably and generously offered to donate to VACD profits made from his public performance of his own modern Sinhala-Pop songs to be staged in Canberra ACT on Saturday, 7th February 2026. This is an extremely 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.

2 – Delightful News!!!:

Parents and staff at our Dora Jeanne VACD Centre in Badulla held a children’s street fair as per images below:

3 – Inspiring News!!!:

Members of the Young Women’s Muslim Association (YWMA) of Badulla visited our VACD Dora Jeanne Centre in Badulla to celebrate international children’s day and provided our VACD children with food and gifts as per photos below:

4 – Encouraging News!!!:

Staff and children from two nurseries around Ambagasdowa-Welimada visited our Teardrop Hotels/VACD Ambagasdowa centre to celebrate Children’s Day with our VACD children and staff as per photos below:

Our VACD Children participated in the UVA Navodaya Cultural Festival conducted by the Uva Provincial Council in Badulla:

Our VACD children performed a dance item in the Uva Navodya Cultural Festival conducted by the Uva Provincial Council as per the photo below:

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 Badulla. 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.
• Children identified as having special needs under this initiative will be referred to VACD so that they can benefit from our rehabilitation, skills training and early childhood supported playgroup program across our VACD centres.
• Early detection and disciplined professional intervention will ensure a better and brighter future for children with disabilities and their families.
• This two-year program is estimated to cost 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/