Former beauty queen and sports women nominated for IOC award
If one describes Caryll Tozer as a multifaceted woman it may be an understatement; indeed she is more than that. She is a former beauty queen and women’s rights champion. She is a National sports woman as well as a sports promoter. She is a mother, and a fitness fanatic who plays Basketball, Netball and tennis with players twenty years her junior. Also she has pioneered the cause of helping the under privileged.
She has led a life that is full, but, she still has many more chores to be completed.
That is why the NOCSL women’s wing decided to nominate Caryll for the International Olympic Committee’s 2019 IOC Women and Sport Awards list. In all there were six applicants and three were shortlisted. The women’s committee arrived at the final decision along with the input of NOCSL Secretary General Maxwell de Silva and now is awaiting the outcome of the exercise and see a person in the calibre of Caryll is recognized.
Initially on her 18th Birthday, the Olympic Movement opened a window of opportunity to her through the Olympic Youth Assemblage ’72 in the Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan. Taking that as a key, she has given back the Sri Lankan community opportunities to help the needy.
Her work with a group Citizens for a Secure Sri Lanka addressed the issues of violence against children. Working through the carnage post war period where the North of Sri Lanka was devastated; her contribution in its rehabilitation with another group ‘Citizens Initiative’ was very noteworthy. She has continued, on her
own, to build Wells and houses, for the needy, starting in the North. In 1986 she was crowned Mrs. Sri Lanka a title she used to found Women In Need along with a Canadian VSO.
An active sports women; in her younger days, she moved to sports administration as matter of duty. She served as a member of the National Sports Council in 2015 and played a prominent role in the development of Netball. She is the current vice president of the Western Province Netball Association. She also initiated a unique programme – By introducing a system to address gender equality by getting local lads to build a netball court for the girls on the promise of giving them a volleyball court, starting in a village south of Colombo. She continues to push in order to build Netball courts in various under-developed areas where only male dominant volleyball is the more established game.
Another mention worthy quality of her is her stance of gender equality, especially the action that she has taken to elevate and protect in quality of life of young females at village which goes to prove that she is indeed more than a multifaceted and multitalented person.
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