email reply from Nalini

daya & nalini rodrigo to me

show details 12:14 (5 hours ago)

Thanks Dawood. I do need more strength in my elbow - now that I have to carry two grand daughters! Daya double checked to see who's calling me "girl" - and not "old girl"!
Anyway after all the undeserved compliments I thought I'd better really do some research. So I spoke to :

1. The Librarian Miss Kuruppu who said they need more books, journals & if finances allow - an updated computer.
They have 24 computers in the library but some of them are used by the library staff. Students use them till 8pm. There is always a demand & the computers are now quite old & very slow. Hence the need for a state of the art one!
They order the core journals each year (BMJ, NEJM, Lancet, Surgery, Medicine, NMJ - 1 of each) which cost a staggering Rs 3 million a year! They would also like to have journals such as Social Science & Medicine & books like Kumar & Clarke.
The Library also has a separate ledger account where money can be donated for books.

2. Representatives from the Buddhist Brotherhood, FOCUS & Catholic Students Union who accept second hand books to be distributed among their needy students.

3. Student Sponsorships : About 25 new students qualify for sponsorships each year. The 2010 batch is expected to be admitted soon.

Food for thought :

1. If each of us brings just one book for the library that would be a whole load of books! They neednt be brand new - so long as its not an outdated edition. Last years BNFs would also be welcome.
2. Journals too - again not too old.
3. Maybe we could sponsor a few students - thats just $15 per month/student.

Nalini

email from Dawood

F.Dawood to me

show details 20:35 (9 hours ago)

Thank you Nalini for your response.
It provides a definite sense of direction.!
As always well researched and pragmatic.
The naming of areas requiring assistance, especially,
makes the project convincingly "doable"!
This I must say has been Nalini's forte.
More strength to your elbow girl!!
Best
Dawood

e.mail from Nalini

Daya & nalini rodrigo to me

show details 10:20 (35 minutes ago)

Dear All,
I must say its been very interesting reading the e-mails these days & very heartening to see the enthusiasm generated & suggestions from Daya, Nana, Tissa, Karals, Dawood & others. Ranee's "dig deep" for our Alma Mater was also very touching!
After Bernard's query re scope & specific projects, I thought it was time to contact Prof Harsha Seneviratne (Dean) regarding the current needs.
He was very enthusiastic, but warned us that there have been several attempts at forming Alumni Associations in the past but as there was no proper Chairperson & committee - they all generally fizzled out. So it seems important to get our act together on that first.
He said there were dire needs in the following areas :
1) Academic (contact person Rohan Jayasekera)
2) Structural (the front lobby needs sprucing up)
3) Student Welfare which was being handled very well by Priyadharshini Gallappatti. A needs assessment is done & the deserving students are assigned a sponsor & get Rs. 1500 per month from their sponsors (which is hardly sufficient, but something!).
4) The Medical Education Unit (MEDARC) run by Indika Karunatilleke also needs equipment, mannekins, etc.
5) The Library needs books & journals - very specially journals which have become a very costly item.

The Faculty of Medicine Colombo has a website from which we could obtain more information.

Harsha said he could give more specific information & suggestions if we could indicate something of our financial commitment to this - lakhs, millions or billions!! He said there have been several proposals from alumni in the past which didnt go through due to a lack of finances. Hope this doesnt happen to us too!
Nalini

email from Bernard De Silva

Any idea, what the scope of the activities are/

Any specific projects,

Or base on what we know best,

Use our education to help as much as we can,

For as long as we can?

How many can we solicit for help in consults in the south,

1-2 weeks or less at a time.

Some can afford to pay for services,

To be used ,if possible to provide more services. to the less endowed and to cover other pro bono work.

Many of us can bring medicines and other supplies,

And also solicit more samples and drugs to be contributed

By the pharmaceutical companies,

Not for sale, but for donation only.

A mobile service to be manned by the less disabled of us,

And run in rotation, along main roads,

With regular mobile clinics

To meet the needs of those who cannot or will not reach the fixed locations.

The north, north eat, southern coastal belt

Could be in need of more work,

At least until these areas turn economically and are more self sufficient.

We can convert a truck chasis,or import motor home or other vehicle.

email from Ranee Wijesurendra

Dear Daya,

I heartily support your idea to commemorate our Anniversary Gathering this year.Some form of local charitable assistance would be of lasting benefit. " Hard " labour is now beyond me, but i will dig deep tohelp.

Kind regards,

Ranee Wijesurendra.

raneew37@waitrose.com

email from Dawood

Hello all,

A suggestion from Daya has enthused many.

Responses from Tissa, Karals, Nana (of course!), Derryck are on record.

It seems to me that what is mooted is an Alumni Association.

Pardon me for being stupid, But don't we already have thenucleus of one with a website to boot!

Thanks to the early efforts of Phiilip Veerasingham, Tissa Kappagoda et al.

What is required now is to get cracking:

1. Define Objectives.

2.Outline an Administrative structure. Fine Tune the existing Organisation.

3. Appoint a CEO/Council to attend to individual tasks - Phillip Tissa Duru Kapuwatte Buddhi Nana

4.Find A Home

5.. Communicate within and without the Organisation / Sri Lanka

6.To manage finances- Buidges, incomings, disbursements,taxation etc

etc etc, I see no need to labour the issue!!

Blow me down, if needs be!

Best Regards

Dawood

Discussion re Tissa's idea

1. 1. Tissa, I agree without any reservations re your suggestion. In fact Peradeniya has an alumni organization referred to as PEMSA which helps in several ways the faculty and students and was established by late WDH Perera, Palitha Abeykoon, Somasiri, Nimal et al. We may have to specify the year, alternatively we can invite all Colombo graduates to join. I am confident that you will sort out the administrative issues, objectives etc and if I can be of any help, please let me know. Perhaps someone from PEMSA would also be able to provide useful tips, Karals

2. 2. This is an excellent idea.We can also get the support ofother batch members to join us.Bye Daya.

3. 3. Dear Tissa

Need for establishing an Alumini Association- 1960 Batch

I am pleased to note that our thoughts are similar and I agree with most of the sentiments expressed. It is possible that some others may hold very opposite views.

I believe we need to get a consensus 1^st and we could use this forum for sharing our thoughts and asking others for their response.

If there is a good positive response, we need to carefully agree on how best we can move forward. I fully agree that we must focus on ‘Continuing Medical Education’ and we should have very clear, rational and practical aims and objectives.

With such a diversity of expertise, experience and clear vision which some of our batch mates possess ( if it fits, then put it on), this would be a golden opportunity for us as a Group to offer any such assistance to our Alma Mater( provided we mutually agree with the Medical Faculty hirache)

I believe we can offer very valuable assistance in a variety of ways and I can thinkf few:

1 Financial ( for very specific targets)

2. Library and Audio Visual Aids and facilities

3. Teaching and training ( in deficient areas if any)

There must a many more opportunities.

This is just food for thought.

Best wishes

Nana

C.S.Nanayakkara

4.

We can get other batch mates to join too. Likes of channa wijesinghe etc are here and iam surethey will support.Bye Daya j.

5.

Hi!

I am glad that you think this is a good idea! This is something to put on the agenda for discussion (Perhaps Philip could discuss this with the organizing committee). If we set this up and give it a neutral name, other graduates would feel inclined to join in. The thing to remember is that none of us are getting any younger and it would be a good idea to get some folks from the next generation involved as well. Our view of current needs may not be accurate!

At this point, the more discussion and comments we have the better.

Best wishes,

Tissa