Healing through singing
Clad in white, the students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Sri Jayewardenepura University recently played a different role – instead of sticking to their daily routine of talking to patients and assisting in medical procedures as part of their clinical training, they went around the wards of the Colombo South Teaching Hospital, the Homagama Base Hospital, the Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital and the Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama, to sing Buddhist devotional songs in view of Poson.
This was part of the traditional Annual ‘Sadaha Gee’ ahead of Poson full moon day, organized by the faculty’s Buddhist Society.
As more than 200 singers accompanied by musicians on the organ, the guitar, the violin and percussion visited the wards, it was a heart-warming sight, for not only patients young and old but also doctors and ward staff, shared sheets of lyrics to sing together. For a brief moment in time, patients were able to forget their pain.
Numerous were the requests from the little patients in the paediatric wards for more and more songs, as they joined, clapping vigorously.
This little act of kindness was a way of giving something back to the patients who are very much a part of their learning process in becoming doctors.
Pix by Chinthaka Pitigalarachchi and Nivin Ananda