T-Top wins special award in Italy

The Sunera Foundation won a special award at the Biennale of Theatre and Psychiatry in Padua, Italy, in recognition of the work they are doing with tsunami survivors through their tsunami theatre outreach project.

The Biennale is a bi-annual conference/theatre festival that brings together international experts on theatre and psychiatry. The Sunera Foundation was the only organization within the developing countries to be invited to attend this conference.

The tsunami theatre outreach project, also known as T-TOP, which began in September 2005, uses the performing arts to provide a therapeutic benefit to hundreds of children who were traumatized by the 2004 tsunami.

Scene from “The Last Two Minutes”

The Award - 'Premio Speciale Della Giuria' - which means 'Special Award From The Jury,' recognized Sunera's accomplishment at being able to use the context of Sri Lankan culture to raise greater awareness of non-psychiatric forms of mental illness including post-war trauma and stigmatization.

The invitation to the Biennale, in Italy, incidentally coincided with the T-TOP Project's first anniversary. The extensive experience which the Sunera Foundation has, in working with victims of the ethnic conflict, those both physically and mentally affected as well as internally displaced persons, has given Sunera the necessary background to reach out to the survivors of the tsunami using "Diversional Therapy" in the form of the performing and fine arts.

The Sunera Team, which travelled to Italy for the festival, consisted of six participants from the T-TOP Project, one participant from the regular programme accompanied by Chairperson - Ms. Sunethra Bandaranaike as well as with the Creative and Assistant Creative Directors for Sunera Foundation - Rohana Deva and Ramani Damayanthi.

The participants presented a brand new performance at the festival, entitled "The Last Two Minutes" conceived and directed by Rohana Deva and choreographed by Ramani Damayanthi.