Ivan Corea established autism-related charities, service organisations such as the

Autism Awareness Campaign UK The Autism Awareness Campaign – United Kingdom was launched in 2000 by British parents and carers Ivan Corea and his wife Charika Corea in response to the autism diagnosis of their son, Charin. Objectives According to their website, Autism Aw ...

and

Autism Sunday Autism Sunday, also known as the International Day of Prayer for autism spectrum disorders, is an event observed annually on the second Sunday of February. History Autism Sunday was first held in 2002 during Autism Awareness Year in the United K ...

. He took a lead role in raising awareness about autism.

Education

Corea was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and educated at S Thomas’ Preparatory School Kollupitiya and S. Thomas' College Mt Lavinia. His classmates included

Uthum Herat Amal Uthum Herat (15 September 1957 - 23 October 2009) born in Colombo, Sri Lanka was Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. School education Uthum Herat received his e ...

, Suresh Thambipillai and

R. D. Gunaratne Dr Ranil Dion Guneratne (B.Sc. (Colombo), M.Sc., Ph.D. (Cornell), F.I.Chem.C) is a Sri Lankan chess player, chess administrator, chemist, scientist, academic and science administrator. Education Guneratne, like his grandfather E. B. Wikramanaya ...

. His family emigrated to United Kingdom, and he attended Chalfonts County Secondary School in Chalfont, St. Peter's Buckinghamshire and Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School in Croydon. He went on to attend colleges attached to Brunel University and Greenwich University.

Autism

Corea has received many awards for his work in autism, including the Charity Times Charity Personality of the Year Award, the Windrush Community Service Award, the BBC TV Community Award (runner-up), the ''Asian Woman Magazine'' Community Award, the Beacon Fellowship Highly Commended Award and the ''Daily Mail'' Unsung Heroes Award Certificate. He has been honoured as an'Autism Light,' honouring heroes who have campaigned for autism by a website in the United States of America He has a record of over 25 years of service as an educator and is a former Fellow of the

King's Fund The King's Fund is an independent think tank, which is involved with work relating to the health system in England. It organises conferences and other events. Since 1997, they have jointly funded a yearly award system with GlaxoSmithKline. Th ...

in London. He has advised Her Majesty's Government as a Consultant to the Ethnic Minorities Division of the Department of Work & Pensions and a Task force of Ministers.

Journalism

Corea's work includes contributions to the Third World Impact books, published in the United Kingdom, the Visible Minority Report, presented to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. In 1981 he was nominated for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Media Peace Prize in London.

London 2012 Ambassador

Corea was appointed an Olympic Ambassador by Lord Sebastian Coe in 2004 and was fully involved in persuading the public, particularly minority ethnic communities and disability communities in the United Kingdom, to back the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid.

Family

Corea and his wife Charika were inspired to initiate their autism awareness campaign by their son Charin, who is autistic. Corea is the son of

Vernon Corea Vernon Corea (11 September 1927 – 23 September 2002) was a pioneer radio broadcaster with 45 years of public service broadcasting both in Sri Lanka and the UK. He joined Radio Ceylon, South Asia's oldest radio station, in 1956 and later the Sr ...

, a well-known broadcaster who worked at

Radio Ceylon Radio Ceylon ( si, ලංකා ගුවන් විදුලි සේවය ''Lanka Guwan Viduli Sevaya'', ta, இலங்கை வானொலி, ''ilankai vanoli'') is a radio station based in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and the first ...

(SLBC), Radio Worldwide and the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

. He is the grandson of clergyman Ivan Corea who was Rural Dean of

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

, of the

Church of Ceylon The Church of Ceylon ( si, ලංකා සභාව) is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. It is an extra-provincial jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as its Metropolitan. It was established in 1845 with the appointment ...

and was Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Colombo, the nephew of Ambassador

Ernest Corea Ernest Corea (1932–11 May 2017) was a Sri Lankan journalist and a diplomat noted for his work to maintain a free and independent press and for negotiations involving Sri Lanka's development programs. Early life Corea was born in 1932 in Col ...

, who was his father's younger brother, and the great-grandson of Dr.

James Alfred Ernest Corea James Alfred Ernest Corea was a Sri Lankan public official. He was born in 1870. His father was Charles Edward Bandaranaike Corea who was a Proctor of the Supreme Court. His mother was Henrietta Seneviratne. J.A.E Corea's father died in 1872 w ...

. In 2016 the family moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

to follow a theology course.

References

Alumni of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) {{autism-stub