Wheelchair-bound hero seeks assistance

Staff Sergeant Sarath Kumara like many young men who fought in Sri Lanka’s near 30-year conflict was once hailed a hero.

Wounded, when a heavy calibre bullet entered his abdomen literally through a chink in his body armour, the young man who led an assault on an enemy bunker on 11 May 2009 at Pudumathalan, the last bastion of the Tigers, was left paralysed waist down.

Returning home two years later in a wheelchair to his wife and young daughter in Bibile, Mahiyangana, he set about picking up his life where he had left it aged 19.

At first everything worked out well, with the generous funds provided by the government, he set about completing his house and started a business so he could be independent. A trishaw was leased and modified to give him better mobility and became his lifeline. Equipment was purchased to make `joss-sticks’ and wicks for clay lamps which were sold in nearby villages.

Fortune seemed to smile on the disabled soldier. Business was brisk when he opened a grocery shop at his partially built house.

Advice from a well- meaning friend led to the purchase of a lorry to transport his wares further afield.

Misfortune struck when his wife became ill. The leasing companies were ready to pounce on his possessions and the bills mounted. Unable to see her husband’s desperate efforts at paying off the bills and manage the family, she was mentally affected and attempted suicide.

But Sarath Kumar was not the type to give up. He approached the ‘Ranaviru Seva Authority’ (RVSA) which assisted with the family’s medical needs and the incomplete house. It also helped negotiate with the lessors about the trishaw, his lifeline. The Authority would not give the deeply indebted soldier a grant to pay the lease and burden him with a big loan. The lessors however took the lorry.

Financial assistance to get his then 15-year-old daughter through the `O’ levels and high school education was obtained through private contacts of then Authority Chairman Maj.Gen. (Retd) Janmika Liyanage.

The Covid-19 restrictions virtually brought his business to a halt and the lessors have come calling again. They would take away his lifeline, the trishaw and only economical means of travel for him to the Military Hospital in Colombo for his regular treatment.

Appeals to those in authority have brought no response, he claims. He is now supported by his aged parents.

The once proud soldier who put his life on the line to give his wife and daughter a decent home and life deserved by any Lankan family, today seeks a good Samaritan’s help.

Anyone willing to help the former soldier could be contacted on + 94 786664201. Former journalist who served the Army Panduka Senanayake brought the ex-soldier’s plight to the notice of The Island.