World's first human life respecting association

Edward ARAMBAWELA

The world's first human life respecting association will be set up in Sri Lanka on July 25 Saturday at the Sri Lanka Medical Association Conference room when Prof. Colvin Goonaratna, Emeritus Professor of Physiology of the Colombo Medical Faculty finalises the constitution of the new association, Sri Lanka Association for the Welfare of Centenarians and respecting human life.

The meeting will be confined to the initial group who joined with Prof. Goonaratna in the centenarian study program carried out in Sri Lanka in 2002 in association with the Daily News.

The study group was able to find out the second oldest living centenarian in the world in Sri Lanka, 114 years old O. T. Engonona living in a shanty in Unawatuna, Galle.

The study group also named vanda orchid for the centenarians at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens in 2003, and named it vanda 100 centenaria.

This is the first time a plant has been named to honour the centenarians in the world.