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Dreams of a trip to museum come crashing down
View(s):By Aanya Wipulasena
For 14 year old Sachini Sewwandi, a student of Sumanajothi Maha Vidyalaya, Welimada, it was a dream come true when she learnt that she was coming to Colombo. There was added joy when her trip with fellow students included a visit to the National Museum. There were scores of other students who were not that lucky. Unlike her parents, they could not afford Rs. 2000 for the excursion.
 What should have been a happy outing ends in disaster for these poor students |
 Pushpakumari came as soon as possible to see her injured daughter |
 The staircase that collapsed |
 Museum director Dr. Saroja Wettasinghe speaks to one of the teachers who sustained injuries. Pix by Indika Handuwala and Susantha Liyanawatte |
Today, Sachini lies on a bed in the Badulla General hospital to which she was transferred from the Colombo National Hospital last Friday, with one of her legs in plaster. She was one of the 40 odd who were injured, mainly children between the ages of 13 and 16, when a century old stairway collapsed last Thursday (28).
On Thursday, the third day of their tour, the students arrived at the Museum around 3.20 in the afternoon. While climbing excitedly to the first floor to view the exhibits there the rickety old stairs gave way with some students crashing to the ground landing, along with the debris and others onto other students who were below.
The injured were rushed to the Colombo National hospital and 36 of them were immediately admitted. With tear-filled eyes Sachini watched parents and relatives of her friends, who were also being treated in hospital, gather around them while she had no visitors.
Her parents, like parents of many of the other students have been unable to make the visit to Colombo as they couldn’t afford the bus fare from their home town in Welimada to Colombo.
“I spoke to my mother twice and she is very upset. She wants to come and see me,” she said, when the Sunday Times visited the injured on Friday. The students, many from under-privileged families were excited about their three-day school trip, a part of the government school’s annual curriculum, even though they could barely afford the Rs. 2,000 for it. Some had paid Rs. 500 in advance promising to pay the rest in instalments.
“We got to know that our child was injured when they showed her on TV with an injured eye and many others badly injured. All I could think of was coming to see my daughter, seeing for myself that she was ok,” said J. M. Pushpakumari whose daughter, Mineshi Lakshika of 15 years, sustained serious injuries in the incident.
Pushpakumari who boarded the first bus she could get that night arrived in Colombo the following morning (29) with her nine-year-old son who will miss school until his sister recovers. “Almost all these children come from very poor families. Some of them couldn’t join their friends in this trip because their parents couldn’t afford to pay for the trip. There are parents who can’t even find money to come and see their children who are now in hospital,” Pushpakumari said.
W. A. Vijitha Jayantha (50) said his daughter was excited when the teachers organised this trip as this was her first visit to Colombo, like the rest of her friends. “Our children are innocent. They wanted to come and see this city because we can’t afford to bring them ourselves. If the authorities looked into the maintenance of the museum our children won’t be suffering in a hospital like this. They would have been going home with happy memories not broken dreams,” he said. Among the injured was a teacher. R. M. Mangalika, who was with her students when the staircase collapsed. She said she saw her son, who came along with her, getting buried under a thick layer of dust. She sustained a severe fracture to her leg, her son luckily escaping with minor injuries.
Ms. Mangalika said they organised the trip because it was on the school syllabus. They had found lodgings in two temples the previous two nights and were scheduled to get back home, that evening when the incident occurred. National Hospital spokesperson Pushpa de Zoysa, told the Sunday Times among the students who were admitted several had sustained spine injuries and hip dislocations.
Some of the students were transferred to the Badulla General Hospital on Friday, while the Museum has been closed indefinitely.
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