By Violet Li
Clyde North resident, former Sri Lanka chess champion, early childhood teacher, and mum Vineetha Wijesuriya has been nominated as Citizen of the Year in the Casey Community Awards 2024 for her dedicated and excellent community service.
An epitome of the best possible employment of multiple social identities, she runs weekend chess classes and free school chess sessions. She writes books to encourage children to connect with children and distributes them free through councils and family daycare workers online. She makes her own Sri Lanka women’s magazine Aalokaa and distributes issues free through physical and online channels. She volunteers at different festivals and shows when she’s free. If you count on all the little good things she’s done, the list will probably not be exhaustive.
“I am always doing a lot of community service. It’s in my blood,” Vineetha said.
There are always behind-the-scenes stories to tell when it comes to an immigrant devoting her heart and soul to her new home. Looking back, every detail of her life slotted into a narrative of hardships and harvests, struggles and rebirth, and frustration and serendipity.
Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in a family with two brothers and one sister, Vineetha lost her father to an accident at the age of 10. Her elder brother soon quit the university and shouldered the family responsibility to support his siblings’ education.
Luckily, all the young ones were good at studies. Inspired by her sister who learnt chess from the school and eventually was selected to compete in the tournament, Vineetha decided she should also give it a go.
And the rest, as they say, was history. Eleven Sri Lanka Chess Championships from 1989 to 2008, third place in the world varsity chess championship in Malaysia and representing Sri Lanka in 29 international chess events.
In 2009, Vineetha came to Australia with her husband – who had a master’s degree to pursue – and her 10-year-old son.
A doctor in Sri Lanka, she soon discovered she could not practise in Australia because of the language requirements for a medical degree. At least two years of onshore study were required, but the family could not afford the hefty tuition fee at that time.
Never a person to sulk, Vineetha quickly moved on to the silver lining behind the cloud. She joined a chess company called Chess Kids and became a coach in 20 Victorian schools. During the same period in the morning, she worked as an assistant librarian at the Resurrection Primary School in Keysborough.
It was the period when she got the free time to play all sorts of chess tournaments in and for Australia.
She won the Australian best female chess player award in the 2009 Australian Chess Championship. In 2012, she won the title again.
She represented Australia in chess championships and won two gold medals: the 2012 Asian Amateur Women’s Chess Championship and the 2014 Oceania Chess Championship in the women’s category.
After securing her Australian residence, the chess player aimed to transition back to a full-time job. To be able to do that, she needed a degree.
Education had been always Vineetha’s Plan B. She always believed education would take children further.
“Children are the power in the society. When they grow up with a good education level, they will become good citizens,” she said.
With a good deal of experience as a chess coach already, she forged ahead to complete Certificate III and a Diploma of Children’s Services. She then worked for five years at Monash Children’s Centre as an educator and student supporter. Another five years were spent at YMCA Clyde North. During Covid, she graduated with a four-year Bachelor of Education degree within three years at Swinburne University and became an early childhood teacher.
“It was not a very smooth life, but I think we met the right people,” Vineetha said, referring to her assistant librarian job at the Resurrection Primary School back in the day when she first set foot in Melbourne.
“When I sent my son to that school, the principal offered me a job because they knew my previous learning. They also gave my son a scholarship,” she recalled.
“We struggled and we worked hard to pay things. I once even delivered the Star’s papers.”
Vineetha and her family eventually settled in Casey in 2016 after a house purchase, rounding off their nomadic way of living, typical among newcomers. They moved from town to town over the years. Keysborough, Ballarat, Glen Waverly, and the end of the circle, Clyde North.
Thousands of kilometres from Sri Lanka, Vineetha still holds on to certain rituals from an early age: meditation.
She meditates for half an hour to one hour every day. She goes to the temples when she has spare time.
“Life is actually beautiful,” she said.
Vineetha won the La Trobe Community Award in 2020 and 2024.
She has also been nominated as Citizen of the Year in Casey in 2022.
