Royal College Interact surges ahead
By Uditha Devapriya
Interactions are about connections. Connections are not always about commonalities. After all, it is not just commonalities that are celebrated, it is also differences. There are many ways of celebrating differences, many ways of affirming them. The Interact Movement in Sri Lanka is now almost 60 years old. The Interact Club of Royal College, established in 1965, is Sri Lanka’s oldest functioning such society, and Asia’s third oldest. Through the years it has picked on new ways of celebrating differences. In doing so it has opened its members to the world beyond their homes, a world that remains much less privileged.
Interactions are also about relevance. There is no point organising this project or that if it is out of step with the times. But there is no point in being relevant if the same thing is done and repeated every year. The Interact Club of Royal College has a series of projects that it commits to every year. These target specific communities and social groups. While going ahead with them, however, it also devotes time and space to new initiatives. These have helped it revive the movement, at a time when the idea of voluntarism has become limited to flowery cosmetics. The Club has had no choice there: if it is to live up to its name, it has to go beyond mere show. It has to embrace the new without neglecting the old.
COVID-19 did not really disrupt the work of organisations like Interact, but it did force them to think of new ways of achieving their objectives. For close to two years, if not more, these organisations were forced to shift to Zoom and social media. With an economic crisis and a fuel shortage around the corner, they had no choice but to go online. 2023, however, spelt out something totally different. With a new board of directors – the Interact Club calendar runs from July of one year to June of the following – the Royal College Interact Club decided to do something new and different. Because of the pandemic, Interact Club projects had become restricted to visiting underprivileged communities and donating money and rations to homes and hospitals. This year’s Board wanted to go beyond that.
Out of their desire to do something different, the Board came up with Surge, a series of projects revolving around the idea of giving back to deprived communities while going beyond just handing over money and rations.
The Interact Club at Royal, like Interact Clubs everywhere else, is divided into five divisions or departments: Community Service, Finance, Green Life, Club Service, and International Understanding. Each division has a director, known as an Avenue Director. Though they have distinct aims, divisional projects are open to all Club members.
This year’s Avenue Director for Community Service Projects, Buda Cumaratunga, wanted not just to revive the Interact Club culture which had prevailed before the pandemic, but to breathe new life into existing projects and bring out a new meaning for the Club: in short, to make the College Interact Club more interesting, innovative, and relevant. The team zeroed in on Surge as their launching pad in this regard.
“Our aim for Surge was to go beyond field visits. Surge was not a new-new initiative: we had organised it many times before. But it lacked the vitality that it demanded. For that reason, I wanted us to go out, to interact with other communities, to experience and absorb their feelings, wishes, anxieties, and aspirations. So we brainstormed for new ideas and I must say our team came up with some pretty interesting pitches. We did not have a set code for what we wanted to do. But we knew we had to break out from the past.”
The Committee thus got together. Chaired by Buda, it included Radeesh Manoharan, Sahan Agalawatte, Hansana Jayawardena, Tehan Gunathilake, Lithum Karunasena, Dinuka Rajapaksha, and Sasen Premaratne. With the support of parents, school administrators, and well-wishers, they endeavoured to surge ahead.
On May 15 the Committee visited the Mihindu Seth Madura, a resort for disabled war veterans. “We donated some much-needed UPS machines, though we ensured we did not leave it at that and organised a tea and a ranaviru gee session.” Two months later, on July 8, they visited the Cancer Hospital. Two days later they went to the Diabetic and Endocrine Unit at the National Hospital. On July 18 they visited the Gamini Matha Elders’ Home, and on the next day they visited the Victoria Home in Rajagiriya. The sixth phase, on July 25, saw the team make donations to Talahena Maha Vidyalaya, while in the seventh and last phase they donated uniforms to some students at Royal College.
At first glance, these appear to be typical “volunteer society” projects, hardly distinguishable from those for which Interact Clubs have gained a reputation. What made these projects memorable was not so much what was done as how it was done and where. The ranaviru gee session at the Mihindu Seth Madura provided a template for the kind of interactions Club members aimed at in their other visits. That, however, was not to be with their next two projects. “We could not interact with patients at the Cancer and National Hospitals because of hygiene concerns.” Once those phases were done, a well-wisher of the Interact Club, Shannon Raymond, suggested that the members visit Victoria Home.
Founded in 1888 to commemorate the Coronation Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the Victoria Home for Incurables was planned as a home for some of society’s most ostracised communities, a safe haven for physically and mentally handicapped patients who had been neglected or abandoned by their families.
“Mr Raymond told us that we needed to talk and make friends with the residents. However, he warned us to prepare ourselves. It was not a typical elders’ home or orphanage type establishment. It was a far cry from the kind of places we visited. Having said that, we felt confident enough to go and do what we could for these people.”
Fortunately, the day lasted well enough, involving music, merriment, and interaction. The patients had not experienced a visit this informal, still less one with a calypso band. While some of the students may have been daunted at first, doubtful of what sort of impact they would have on the patients, they soon felt confident enough to go ahead. The patients for their part, not surprisingly, felt happy. “They knew we were doing something different, and they responded accordingly.” Somewhere down the line the team became more than just visitors, they became close friends of the residents. “Our fears vanished at once. They loved the music and loved that we were talking with them.”
After they broke the proverbial ice, the Victoria Home phase became the highlight of the whole project. This, of course, is hardly surprising. It is easy to make donations and feel good and smug about it, but harder to break through to and establish common ground with the people you are trying to help. Not surprisingly, the Interact Club received the endorsement and support of the school staff, including administrative officials.
“We were helped a lot by our former principal Mr R. M. M. Ratnayake and current principal Mr Thilak Waththuhewa. Mr M. V. S. Gunathilake, our Deputy Principal, intervened as well, as did Mr Chandana Liyanage and Mr Jaliya Yasarathna, our former and current Assistant Principals and Senior Masters in Charge of Clubs and Societies respectively, and Mr M. A. M. Riyaz, our Senior Games Master. Ms Iresha Gunethilaka, Ms Inoka Perera, and Ms Geethika Ariyawansa, Staff Advisors to the Interact Club, and Rtn. Majeed Cader and Rtn. Sureka Amerasinghe, Rotary Advisors, also guided us throughout.”
The team also remembered this year’s Interact Committee: “Our Club President Talal Sabry, Vice President Sanuka Wanasingha, Secretary Niven Dorabawila, and Treasurer Sasindu Perera, along with our Divisional Directors: Charith Ahangama in Club Service, Aaqib Mohideen in Finance, Charith Ahangama in Club Service, Dinindu Salgado in Green Life, and Shankarshana Ratnasabhapathy in International Understanding.”
Interactions, like I said, are about connections, and connections are not always built on commonalities. In that sense clubs like Interact have two main objectives: on the one hand they push their members to confront and interact with other communities, to experience the world those communities come from. On the other hand, they occupy members with projects and inculcate organisational skills in them. With Surge, the Interact Club of Royal College has chosen to do something new, and to break new ground, and in doing so to make itself more relevant, not just to the school, but to society at large.
The writer is an international relations analyst, independent researcher, and freelance columnist who can be reached at .
