A colorful evening celebrating a message of love, unity and brotherhood organized by the Sri-Lankan Expatriate Society Jeddah (SLESJ) took place at the Sri Lankan consulate recently. The official theme of the evening was “We are one, we are Sri-Lankans.”

Attending the event were a number of Sri Lankan dignitaries, including Dr. Adambawa Uthumalebbe, Kazi Neamul Bashir, Chairman of the Bangladesh International School Jeddah (BISJ), Abdul Kaium, Vice Principal of BISJ, Shahul Hameed, Chairman of Sri Lankan International School Jeddah (SLESJ), Majaziya Mubarak, Principal of SLESJ, and Dr. H. M. Rafeek, the President of SLESJ. Also in attendance were past presidents of SLESJ, Sri Lankan expatriates and their families.

The night was brimming with cultural entertainment that included Sri Lankan music and songs, dance , a drama presentation and other activities in Sinhalese, Tamil and English.

“SLESJ did a great job in arranging such an event and bringing the whole community together," said Dr. Uthumalebbe. "The Sri Lankan community should be under one umbrella. There should be no discrimination. We are citizens of the world. The whole world is our kith and kin and we should respect every religion and not see any difference between us. We must help each other and help hand to hand in developing our motherland,” said Dr. Uthumalebbe.

Dr. Rafeek explained that the event was aimed at spreading the message of unity as it is imperative that the community thrive without any regard to race, cast and religion, “In the Sri Lankan community, we have people of different religions but we all pray to one mighty Lord. We have tried to unite everyone through this cultural event, as we should respect each other’s religion and beliefs”.

The welcome speech was delivered by John Vinoth, Vice President of SLESJ, while the program was hosted by Flyle Cader, Secretary SLESJ, S. Rowland and Thimasha

Ranjan, Senior Deputy Prefect of SLESJ.