The first centenarian-member

It is a routine day. The morning begins with the chanting of gatha at the shrine of the little Budu Medura followed by twos and threes making their way in an orderly manner to the large hall in which they take their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That morning, the breakfast is kekulu buth, paan and string-hoppers with kiri hodi, katta sambol and egg, with banana for dessert, washed down with a cup of tea which helps them to gulp down their medicines. Then they queue up at two taps in the garden, where they target the waste bins with the remnants and wash up their plates and cups, scrubbing them thoroughly.

Next follow their daily chores, cleaning the tables and sweeping, after which, some make their leisurely way to the Walawe Ganga, which flows quietly along the boundary, for a bath within the enclosures erected to keep them safe from crocodiles.

This is the life of more than 28 people, 17 women and 10 men, at the Sarana Blind Elders’ Home in Godawaya, three kilometres from Ambalantota in the deep south off the Kataragama-Colombo Road, set amidst large trees on a two-acre block. It is the one and only home for the blind elderly in the whole of the country, with a recent initiative not being that successful, and has been honoured with the Award for the Best Elders’ Home in the Southern Province over and over again.

Among the elderly are siblings and sin-

Toothless the smile is, but the face is serene. Agnes Nandawathi is not just the 1st to have been enrolled at the Sarana Home but she is also more than 100 years old.

She is quick at smiling repartee – “den nam ekasiya gananak, seeya panala evarie.”

Born in Kollupitiya, more than a century ago, Agnes had been enrolled at the Ratmalana School for the Blind as a tiny gle people, who have either been born blind or like 67-year-old Ratnalatha Gajaweera had not been blind all her life, only after glaucoma struck her down or lost their sight after surgery resulted in “as narak vuna”.

We have accompanied a benefactor who lives in the area and he is greeted warmly by them, recognizing him by his voice.

It is after they have bid goodbye to the family of three, mother, father and daughter, who have come from Ambalantota in a trishaw bearing alms -- their breakfast -that they chat with us. two-year- old. Both skilled and intelligent, in her prime she had been adept at “nool dala thaniyenma sariyak viyanne” (thread the loom and weave a saree single-handedly).

The early days of the Sarana Home, she recalls with alacrity. It was October 15, 1986, World White Cane Day that she came here, registered as the first member.

In those early days, she would wake up at midnight to open the karamaya (tap) of the tank and patiently bide her time until it filled up to close the tap and go back to bed, for they would get water only for a few hours each night. She was not scared of the dark for her whole life has been spent in darkness.

There are no regrets, for Agnes is thankful that she has led a productive life and now in the twilight years she is content.

The Sarana Home is now more than 30 years old, begun in 1986 by the Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped.

“This is the one and only home for the blind elderly,” says Project Manager Gamage Gunadasa Senanayake who himself is blind. His wife too is blind and they had been living at Seeduwa making a living by weaving chairs and cloth.

The livewire, of course, behind the smooth-running of the Sarana Home is Project Assistant Dharmalatha Karandana who seems to be everywhere all the time.

Almost all the people in the Sarana Home have been living independently when they were young, earning their livelihood through weaving cloth or singing, basically for their supper. Some women have been confined to their homes because of their impairment, but now they are free, says Dharmalatha, the only sighted person here.

It was a different life that Dharmalatha envisaged when she wed in 1989 and settled down to start a family in her village in Ratnapura. However, life had different plans for her. Her new husband was dead in a motorcycle accident just one year into