He didn’t need any prodding or prompting, extremely vocal, equipped with immense clarity of thought, he knew exactly what aspect of his personality I was looking to highlight through this interview.

Mohan Samarasinhe, an old boy of St. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia, after a successful planting career here left to London where he and his wife worked until their children finished their education. Although he has made London his home, his love for his motherland has been embedded deeply in his mind.

During the course of the interview I realized that what inspired this energetic and zestful individual was dedication and commitment to help the poor to improve and enrich themselves socially, culturally and financially.

An unique character in Mohan rarely found in most of other Sri Lankans living abroad, is his dedication to his mother country and the Sri Lankans, especially the marginalized.

A very good sportsman, his team building experience always stood him in good stead in his career. Mohan reckons his greatest strength is his ability to relate to people. His school days at St. Thomas’ College perhaps may have been what instilled this character trait.

With time his love for his country and its people increased and he volunteered to fully devote himself to provide help to many local institutions especially the health sector by enlisting foreign help to get down urgently needed life saving medical equipment. The Army, Police and Matara hospitals benefited greatly due to Mohan’s initiative through an organization called Action for Sri Lanka which he set up following the Central Bank bomb blast. This organisation promoted a programme to counsel victims of the blast by a group of British based consultants who continue to support their Sri Lanka peer groups in this field. Mohan also assists his wife Celine, who has established three Community Nursing Centres for the elderly amongst the very poor in Kotahena, Payagala and Alagollawe (near Galenbindunuwewa off Kekirawa) as well as a tsunami relief livelihoods programme which he set up in Thirukkovil in 2005 through SHARE Foundation www.s-h-a-r-e.org

He also spearheaded programmes to support underprivileged children through The Ruhuna Children Development Trust that was set up in 2002 together with Professor P. P. G. L. Siriwardena (former Vice Chancellor of the University of Sri Lanka, and a few of his friends. The objects of the trust are to equip these children with the basic educational and social needs to improve their social mobility and acquire an identity of respectability. English being a world a language and vital necessity for progress in the modern competitive world and an important link language in a plural society promoting unity in diversity and social integration, Mohan organised classes in English for the children of Ruhuna. The classes were held even in Kataragama. Local teachers were recruited to conduct classes, he said. This method proved to be unsuccessful and Mohan realised that the reason for this was the lack of knowledge and the necessary skills amongst the teachers.

Our primary objective, he said was teaching spoken English. It is a challenging and daunting task, the infrastructure being not conducive and the standard of English in these remote villages very poor and the children lacking basic knowledge of the language. Professor P. P. G. L. Siriwardena and I approached the British Consultancy Charitable Trust to fund this project; we got the services of an excellent trainer in Clifford Fathing a former Headmaster and an OFSTED Inspector of the British Education Department to help us in this project to teach English teaching skills to teachers of English in rural schools, with the accent on Spoken English.

The project was initiated at the Management Development & Training Institute in Wakwella with the collaboration of the Department of Education - a residential programme for teachers of Englishwas held in the Southern Province. Following this course a group of 20 teachers were selected and provided all the necessary training. Clifford’s method of teaching the students was a novel experience. He infused confidence building and establishing a rapport between the students and teachers. The teachers were co-operative, and showed enthusiasm to learn from Clifford. Since English as a subject is compulsory in all schools under the Presidential initiative, it was a benchmark programme very similar to the more recent Presidential Initiative to teach English as a Life Skill.

The teaching methods taught them team spirit activities, all focused on confidence building and the teachers learned to manage their classrooms. Group studies were encouraged and the teaching methods enabled students to do things on their own. The teachers became articulate, motivated and self disciplined.

Many literary programmes were initiated and at the end of the long session a concert was organized by the teachers. We want the teachers of outstanding ability to become mentors for other teachers.