Over 25 renowned artists, collectors donate works to aid Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication Impaired

 Cardboard on canvas by Prageeth Rathnayake

• Exhibition and Sale of works on 1 and 2 April at Barefoot Gallery Loft
• RCCI founded by Shiranee Joseph de Saram for persons with multiple disabilities

Over 25 renowned artists and collectors have donated their works to aid the not-for-profit Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication Impaired (RCCI) that cares for persons with special needs.  The exhibition and sale will on 1 and 2 April at the Barefoot Gallery Loft. 

All proceeds from these generous donations will fund the continuing work of the RCCI/Shiranee Joseph de Saram Foundation supporting its skills development programs for people with cognitive disabilities and outreach efforts to increase awareness and facilitate integration.

The works donated to the Charity Art Sale include those from the collections of Dominic Sansoni, Pala Potthupitiya, Kingsley Gunathilake, Tilak Samarawickrama, Malinda Jayasinghe, Prasadani Kumari, Parageeth Manohansa, Prageeth Rathnayake, Siva Kajendran, Susiman Nirmalavasan, Ajantha Ranaweera, Layla Gonaduwa, Lester Perera, Prameesha Abeysekera, Saashya Rodrigo, Kamilka Perera, Aruni Wijegunewardena, Dila Weerasinghe, Janaki Perera, Shasheema Ambegoda, Lochana Abeysekera, Sithila Dassanayake, Praveena Joseph de Saram, Veen Redwood, Champika Waidyaratne, Donna Baitey, Sarath Prematillake and Habeeba Haroon. 

The sale will feature over 50 pieces of artwork including oils, acrylics, tapestries, prints, photographs as well as crafts produced in the RCCI workshop by the persons with disabilities.  

RCCI was founded in 1993 by Sri Lanka’s very first speech and language therapist Shiranee Joseph de Saram to care for children and adults with special needs including persons with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, learning disabilities and other speech and cognitive disorders.  The RCCI strives to help people with disabilities gain skills, confidence and independence to enable their integration into wider Sri Lankan society. This includes life skills, functional literacy, travel training, survival skills, cookery, gardening and other vocational activities. The RCCI also works to build awareness around diversity and inclusion and share best practices for the creation of sustainably inclusive workplaces. 

Conducting development and social communication, training in vocational skills, cookery, gardening, travel training, survival and life skills and instilling confidence and independence to facilitate integration into society, the diversity of the persons with disabilities in the school-like setting, includes the buy-in of the families as well. 

The RCCI Board comprises of Lalini Kobbekaduwa, Shyama Perera, Deshal De Mel, Dr. Jagath Wijesekera, Nilusha Kapugama, Kaushalya Bandara, Chiranthi Cooray and Chamindi Ekanayake, while the Centre is managed by Praveena Joseph de Saram.  

The media sponsors for this event is Daily Mirror online, Weekend Online, TNL radio and Lite87.