Dear friends, colleagues, supporters, and collaborative partners,
Greetings to all of you from all of us at VACD Australia and Sri Lanka.
As we draw closer to the end of another calendar year, we fondly recall the long and meandering journey that our mission has traversed since we were established on 27th December 2011 in the township of Bandarawela Sri Lanka. Many of you have partnered us on this journey and continue to encourage and support us in this humanitarian and magnanimous undertaking. Thank you.
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 this benevolent 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 as equals.
Floods update on our VACD Centres in Uva.
Thankfully, as per frequent communication with our VACD leadership team in Sri Lanka, there have been no injuries or loss of life to our VACD staff, children, parents caused by the recent floods in Sri Lanka (particularly Uva) or damage to our VACD centres. However, public and private transport to our Ambagasdowa centre (sponsored by the Teardrop Group of Hotels) are yet to be restored due to significant damage to public roads in these areas caused by unprecedented flooding.
Season’s greetings and the absolute best in 2026 and beyond from all of us at VACD Australia and Sri Lanka to all of you and your loved ones:
Exciting News!!!:
Muthukumara Mahappukorala (Muthu) – ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8J-Wz7AsNnWMgxKl1X4tcDcIwwx6a51Q) has 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. We appreciate this extremely magnanimous gesture on the part of Muthu.
Please make every effort to make your presence felt at this occasion, enjoy an evening of contemporary Sinhala music and in the process support our philanthropic mission so that together we can care for and uplift children with disabilities and their families in Sri Laka. Thank you
VACD’s Projects, Programs and Planned Activities in the Uva Province for 2026 (post recent flooding in Sri Lanka)
- POSTPONED from Q4 2025 to Q1 or Q2 2026: VACD Australia Director Ms. Gabriella Vascotto (Autism/Behaviour Consultant– Greater Melbourne Area, Australia) to introduce a comprehensive “Early Childhood Supported Playgroup Program” to our VACD Sri Lanka staff across our VACD centres in Q1 or Q2 2026.
- POSTPONED from Q4 2025 to Q3 2026: The Uva Provincial Council Governor’s office to host 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.
- POSTPONED from Q4 2025 to Q3 2026: 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 the above conference.
- 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 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.
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/