National Civilian Bravery Awards 2012:

Civilian bravery to be honoured

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

The Foundation for Civilian Bravery will hold the National Civilian Bravery Awards 2012 and the National Students Bravery Awards on August 16 under the patronage of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof Gamini Samaranayake at BMICH.

According to Foundation for Civilian Bravery Founder and Chairman Kasun P Chandraratne, this is the 19th National Civilian Bravery Awards ceremony. Students are honoured this year for the third time.

A female student saving her aunt who had fallen into a swimming pool, students carrying their school mates to safety from a wasp attack on their way back home from school, an incident where a Buddhist priest dived into deep water of a tank to save six persons who were drowning, saving lives at Mount Lavinia sea, three young persons who saved two persons drowning in rough seas and a student studying in grade five who closed the unattended gate of a rail crossing to allow the train to pass safely avoiding a collision with a bus carrying 40 staff members returning from a garment factory, are incidents which will be honoured at the forthcoming ceremony.

The Foundation for Civilian Bravery, formed in 1993, recognizes civilians who voluntarily risk their lives while saving or attempting to save others from peril. Believing that civilian bravery knows no ethnic, social or religious barrier, the foundation selects its awardees among ordinary citizens whose only qualification for recognition is their readiness to risk their own lives for others. This foundation is established by Act No 4 of 2009 of the Sri Lanka Parliament. Operations of the foundation are funded by local contributions.

The foundation holds an awards presentation ceremony annually. Honorees from islandwide are invited to Colombo to receive their awards.

The awards consist of the Budal Na Gold Medal and Silver Medals for Civilian Bravery and Certificates of Merit of Civilian Bravery.

The applicants who met the criteria for the awards were interviewed by a panel under the chairmanship of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya Director General Dr D S Wijesundara and selections were approved by the Executive Council of the Foundation.

The Foundation for Civilian Bravery requests all media institutions and public to assist them to find more persons who voluntarily risk their lives to save others.