Hi guys,
Hope you all are having a great time at the moment. Yes it’s a bit of a nostalgic day because madam is leaving but I want you to celebrate a couple of moments I had with madam that I hold personal.
I met Dr. Asoka Ramanayaka when I joined the gavel club. The Gavel Club of the University of Colombo was established under the advice of madam after she saw the exceptional oratory performance of the students in the University of Kelaniya.
Dr. Asoka established this club under the vision of making spoken English and presentation skills accessible to every possible student regardless of the race religion ethnicity or financial status.
The club faced many challenges over the years and madam made herself vacant every time we wanted her advice
But what I really admire about Madam is the role she played in the Gavel Club behind the screen. When Gv. Fadil Iqbal organized “Oration”, the first intra-university best speaker competition, the organizing committee faced a very challenging time. The sponsors we’re not convinced about the competition and we were out of money to run the show. That’s when madam stepped in and got Codegen to sponsor the competition. This how the first intra-university best speaker competition was made possible.
Madam dropped by our meetings whenever it was possible for her and even organized an English language training programme for the students who were finding it difficult to manage the language.
She had a very good sense of judgement about the club growth and would participate for orientations to carry the message of Gavel forward.
So I believe that it had been a privilege to work with a person like madam whether we knew it or not.
Finally I would like to say “Madam we hope as the Gaveliers who chaired the executive committees at various phases through the club history we would have done a decent job to make you proud about the decision you made to make Gavel possible in the University of Colombo.”
Gv. Oshira Peiris
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