A camp to provide artificial limbs to 1,000 Sri Lankan beneficiaries was jointly inaugurated by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha and Defence State Minister Premitha Bandara Thennakoon on Tuesday (7), in the presence of Defence Secretary, Gen. Kamal Gunaratne and Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Vikum Liyanage at the Ranaviru Seva Authority premises in Gampaha.
The camp will be conducted over a period of two months at two locations viz Colombo and Vavuniya, and will serve civilians and defence personnel from different regions of the country. The civilian beneficiaries have been identified with the support of All Ceylon Buddhist Congress.
The camp is supported by India and is being conducted by an Indian NGO Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), which works for physical and socio-economic rehabilitation of the physically disabled. The Jaipur-based NGO, which was founded in 1975, is also the world’s largest organisation for the differently abled in terms of fitment of artificial limbs and other related aids.
The BMVSS had organised four such camps in Sri Lanka earlier – Vavuniya in March-April 2010; Jaffna in September 2011; and Colombo and Jaffna in February 2022. More than 3,100 people had then benefitted from these camps with more than 2,200 alone getting the ‘Jaipur Foot’.
The High Commissioner Jha reiterated India’s deep and abiding commitment to the people of Sri Lanka. The Artificial Limb Fitment Camp exemplifies the persistent endeavour of the India-Sri Lanka partnership to deliver tangible impact on the lives of people.
