Late last night I heard the sudden departure of Janaka Jayasinghe, Warden RCH.
Although currently we have no involvement whatsoever with RCH, we feel very sad and dejected because Janaka was one of the few shining stars at RC.
Few of us had to fight tooth and nail to get the previous Warden Chulathissa Danuddhara out because Principal Abeyrathne was protecting him like his most precious asset (where ultimately Abeyrathne too had to be removed along with his despicable Warden). But before leaving Mr Abeyrathne made one of his most astute and sensible decisions by appointing Janaka as the acting Warden. Janaka was easy to work with; he embraced changes readily. He cared for his charges and was capable of getting work done effortlessly across the board. From ‘20-‘23 few of us (whom Hemantha Senanayake coined “unlicensed volunteers”) were able to achieve far more compared to the barren two decades proceeding it. Without Janaka’s enthusiastic participation, none of it would have been possible. In fact there were moments we had internal discussions how we should try to keep him once he retired from teaching profession.
Our biggest disappointment was when the RCU kept blocking our efforts to construct a new building as the current facilities were bursting at the seams. What we envisaged was just not another building but an architectural masterpiece - a model green building. What’s more, we worked hard and round the clock as we were very keen to commence work on the day RC was celebrating the centenary of its main building in the presence of the Executive President of SL. This was going to be our biggest tribute to RC to date. The drawings were done by the best known Lankan born Architect in USA Prof Raj Barr, National President American Institute of Architects. When the Secretary RCU blocked it Lorenz Pereira introduced Athula Amarasekera of Design Team 3, another internationally renowned SL Architect, who offered to do the drawings free of charge. When that too was blocked, Janaka Jayasinghe was the most disappointed of all of us because he was experiencing the overcrowding on a daily basis.
We have seen both great days and bleak years at RCH. We have seen it as the Orphanage at C7 and as the Incubator for producing future leaders at RC. We had always dreamt of it as the Heaven for rural kids and empowering them to become global professionals bringing honor to Mother Lanka. And we always saw Janaka Jayasinghe as the welcome rain after decades of prolonged drought.
Let us hope his successor proves to be far better than Janaka in every way!
Writer with Janaka, Venura Welagedara and Nihal deRun at RCH.
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Comment from a Hostel Parent:
Uncle,I went through the article.unless n otherwise people like you keep stirring these places would never be cleaned up.with CLEAN SRILANKA project we should all join hands to clean everything.
May God bless you for all the effort with the right intention.
Sorry to hear of leaving of a committed teacher as warden who saw to the wellbeing of the hosteler in every possible aspect. Hope is what we could await as in the case of Pandora's box
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