Brave and beautiful

What is it that causes one person to risk his life to save another? Is it human instinct, a deliberate choice or a conditioned response?

Whatever their driving force, all of them had one thing in common…they were all ordinary people who did extraordinary things. They all helped someone else to see the dawn of another day and in so doing helped their families and friends too.

Sekan Sathyamoorthi from Kandy was returning home from the hotel where he worked when he noticed a lot of smoke rising to the sky. Rushing to the scene, he found a two-storey building on fire, and a large gathering standing by watching.

Sathyamoorthi learned that the building was occupied by three families, one where the parents had left for work leaving their two children, Abdul Hakim (aged 4) and Hafsa (aged 3) at home. "The raging flames blocked the entrance to the room and I was told that the children would be burnt to death by the time and that there was no point going in."

However, not heeding these words, Sathyamoorthi decided to enter the building through the rear, breaking through a window and two doors with a hand axe. All the while he encountered huge flames. "I had to lie down and creep forward and then I found one of the children lying unconscious on the floor." He took the child to safety through the same way that he had entered the building.

While many would have been satisfied that they had at least saved one of the children, he was not. "Thoughts of the other child, who seemed to be around the same age as my own child at home, overpowered my fear of re-entry," he says. He then re-entered the building and found the other child also unconscious near the almirah. Without wasting another moment, he carried that child to safety too.

Sathyamoorthi won the Budal Na Gold Award at the National Civilian Bravery Awards 2006 organized by the Foundation for Civilian Bravery last Monday for his brave and selfless act.

The Foundation for Civilian Bravery, Sri Lanka, believes that 'the purpose of life is to ensure the continuity of life, and is dedicated to recognizing the selfless actions of those who save or attempt to save the lives of others', explains its President Kasun P. Chandraratne.

Speaking at the ceremony, foundation patron and one-time International Court of Justice vice president C.G. Weeramantry noted that the nobility of the human spirit was what reigned supreme in those life-defining moments. "These acts of nobility represent how high people will rise beyond the call of law or duty, willing to sacrifice their life even for someone they don't know."

Public recognition of outstanding instances serves a three-fold purpose, Judge Weeramantry said. "Firstly, it raises the moral strength and self-esteem of the community; secondly by highlighting such instances of heroism it propagates among all levels of the community from schoolchild upwards a respect for the higher values typified by such conduct; thirdly by giving recognition to outstanding performances of selfless service to others, it shows civil society's recognition and appreciation of such exemplary conduct."

The foundation fills a great need, where civil society has been lacking in recognition of acts of bravery in sharp contrast to the military tradition, which is quick to recognize it in the ranks of military personnel, he said.

The foundation which has proved to be a stimulus for the setting up of like organizations in other countries, has this year launched the award for civilian bravery in the Asian region and is hoping to launch the Global Award for civilian bravery in the near future.

As Australian High Commissioner and chief guest Dr. Greg French said, "society is not measured by its per capita GDP or industrial output, but rather by the value it puts on human life."

Such recognition of acts of valour reflects the raising of moral standards of society, celebrating a virtue from which stem all other virtues. The heroes for 2005 who were honoured last Monday had an interesting and different story to tell.

However, what ran like a thread through all their narrations was the human spirit which governed all their actions of bravery.

The day was April 2, 2005. Hearing that somebody had fallen into a well, Chandana Pushpa Kumara went to the scene and saw a woman struggling in the water. "I saw that she was getting weaker," he said and despite his mother's protests tied a rope to a hook and lowered himself into the well.

His presence of mind and the ability to think on his feet are evident in his act of bravery. While holding the rope with one hand, he took hold of the woman's hair, and holding the unconscious 70-year-old woman with his legs, he tied the rope onto one of her knees, using one hand. With others pulling the rope Pushpa Kumara raised the woman gradually. Pushpa Kumara's presence of mind helped to save the woman, who, it was later found, in a rash moment wanted to take her own life.

Another fascinating account was of a Police Narcotics Bureau constable who went beyond the call of duty. Sumith Jayalal Abeygoonawardane went to Padukka to inform his office that he would not be able to report to work due to the floods.

However, while he was in the town, he heard that one family had been marooned despite several attempts by villagers to save them. "I decided to try and when I reached them, all the children tried to jump on my back," he recalled. He first took a small girl to safety and not deterred by the force of the flowing water, repeated the exercise four times. He took them all to safety on his back, not a surprise given his robust stature and build. But his life-saving exercise did not stop there. Seeing a 60-year-old man hanging on to a jak tree, he swam a further 800m to reach him.

The other heroes honoured at the Civilian Bravery Awards were U. Kiribanda who saved two drowning women in raging flood waters in Pahalagama Oya; Anura Deshapriya who swam a great distance in the Kelani River to save the life of a youth; Priyantha Gunawardhene, an electrician who saved the life of a drowning man in the Polwatte Oya; A.V. Shanthasiri who helped save the lives of three drowning persons in the sea near the Mahamodara Bridge; a samanera monk, Ven. Yakalle Dhammissara Thera who struggled with an armed hunter and saved a deer.

The civilian bravery student award was won by Tharindra Sampath Nanayakkara and Nuwan Prabath. They saved the life of a drowning person when on duty at the gate of the Nuwarawewa Tank during the festive season.

The Gold Medal for Civilian Bravery for Asia was awarded to Gul Javid Butt who saved many people trapped under rubble following the October 8, 2005 earthquake that struck the Kashmir region.

The rescuers were of different races and religions to the rescued and the rescued were of tender age, middle age and one even in the winter of her life.

But these heroic people did not stop to think of such things. And thanks to them, we can all carry new hope in the goodness which springs in the human heart when it really counts.