YMCA youth on the road campaigning for Water Rights

Muditha and Aruna together with Ravindra (event convener)

Right to water has been one of the main discussions of the ICY group since recently. Group of Civil Society activists gathered at the Fort Station - Colombo yesterday (28. Nov, 12) to sign a public petition to the government opposing the new water policies which is going to be implemented at the provincial council levels. New policies will limit the accessibility of poor frames to water as water will be priced. 
We believe that by doing this only the rich people and big companies will have access to water in the future specially for farming purposes and the situation of the poor farmers will be even worse.
Following the petition signing a leaflet campaign was started around 4 pm to educate the public on the situation. Five youth from the YMCA including four from the ICY group of the YMCA joined the campaign giving away leaflets to the public.

International Exposure for more ICYs from Pamunugama

Meeting with Asker Scouts

Three youth from the ICY group of the YMCA of Pamunugama visited Norway as a part of the ongoing exchange programme between ICY Oslo and the ICY group of Pamunugama. During their visit they had meetings and programmes together with the ICY group of Oslo and the YMCA YWCA Scout group of Asker.

Ranshani, Sudeepika and Niko were the youth who got this international exposure. During their visit they attended an International Seminar in Oslo on Economic and Environmental Justice. Further they had a meeting with the Y Global Director Mr. Fredrik Glad-Gjernes. There was a meeting with the Asker Scouts in Asker where Pamunugama youth educated Asker scouts on Pamunugama and its programmes. Pamunugama youth were hosted for several dinners at Asker.

We thank the ICY Oslo and Asker YMCA YWCA Scouts for hosting Pamyunugama youth and these kinds of programme helps a lot to enhance the capacity of youth in the YMCA.

Photos: askerspeiderne.no

Stop crimes against humanity in Gaza

We, the members of Internationally Committed Youth (ICY) group of the YMCA of Pamungama are shocked to read, hear and see the brutality in the attacks by the Israeli forces targeting Gaza strip this week. The Palestine issue which has been dragging on for more than 60 years  has taken its toll by way of massive destruction of life and property  where Palestine people are at the receiving end.

The ongoing air strikes by the Israel forces has only added more numbers to the destruction and  this time more children have lost their life. Military attacks are just one part of disturbing the lives of the Palestinians while the upcoming Israeli settlements in Palestinian lands is destroying the dignity of the Palestinians by displacing them on their own land.

We are surprised to observe the silent strategy of world leaders and of those who voice out and stand for human rights at this crucial hour. Therefore we call upon all the powerful  nations in the world to look at this situation from a human perspective.

We call upon all the people in Sri Lanka and elsewhere to protest against the inhuman treatment the Israel government has let loose upon the Palestine people by avoiding all economic dealings with Israel.

At this hour we share our heartfelt sympathy with the families of the air strike victims and all the people of Palestine and we pray for their freedom which is being deprived to them by Israel. We believe the divine  justice will be done unto the suffering people of Palestine at the end of the day and our hearts are with you at this difficult hour.

We as an organization based on Christian values we request all the Christians in the world to consider Palestinians as our own brothers and sisters and stand together with them in their difficult times as a way of showing our loyalty to God according to Romans 13:10: Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Internationally Committed Youth (ICY)

YMCA of Pamunugama - Sri Lanka

Pamunugama ICYs join with Moratuwa youth for environmental justice

As a follow-up action agreed at the ICY International Seminar, the youth of the YMCA of Moratuwa organized an evening gathering to educate more youth on environmental justice. Around 50 people gathered for the session and 10 youth from the YMCA of Pamunugama also joined the event.

Mr. Ravindran Kariyawasam who was a facilitator for the ICY International seminar facilitated the event. Youth were mainly educated on water right issues and the environmental issues due to mass scale deforestation for economic crops. Participants were further educated on the development plan for next 20 years which has done without any proper impact assessment.

YMCA of Pamunugama thanks the YMCA of Moratuwa for inviting and hosting the YMCA of Pamunugama youth at the programme and look forward to a continues partnership.

YMCA continues its efforts to take youth to the top

Programme group

YMCA of Pamunugama has launched number of youth events this year fulfilling the task of taking youth to the top as it is the theme for the 50^th anniversary celebrations of the National Council of the YMCAs of Sri Lanka. Latest of those events was the leadership training programme conducted for a 30 member group of students from the Kudapaduwa Sinhala Mixed School. Group was a divers group which included Christians, Buddhists and Muslims.

Students arrived at the YMCA in the morning on 13 November, 2012 and spent the day with the YMCA leaders at the YMCA of Pamungama. Leadership was discussed in different aspects using number of methodologies including discussions, group activities, games and case studies. Principal Mr. P.C.K Fernando and Ms. Hasalani from the staff accompanied the children for the programme.

Principal of the school shared his thoughts on the programme told the YMCA blog that
“Students of our school are very talented. But due to the background they live in, their mentality is backwards. I believe that this kind of trainings will train them to be more forward and eager to break their social barriers and become valuable citizens. We have a history of working with the YMCA. YMCA of Negombo has supported our school with providing library facilities, musical instruments and many other training programmes. With that relationship we came to the YMCA of Pamunugama to support us with a leadership training programme.

Michel (7th to the right)

Michel Shehani a student of the school also shared her view on the programme
I have attended a workshop organized for Sunday School students two years back. But it was full of speeches. This workshop is very much different. Mainly we have involved with many activities and we have leant through them. I am happy that I have learnt more about my school, our teachers and also about my fellow students through this workshop. I am a prefect of the school and the learning from this seminar will be very much helpful to perform my tasks as a prefect in the school.

It was a wonderful opportunity for us to come out of the school environment and to spend few hours looking back into our lives and the responsibilities which we carry with us in our lives as students. Resource persons who facilitated sessions in the programme are really good and they were very practical when they led their sessions. I like this seminar very much and recommend YMCA for any school for a programme of this nature.

ICY works for Environmental Justice

ICY group of the YMCA of Pamunugama together with the ICY group of Oslo organized an International Seminar on Environmental Justice. World is changing very fast disturbing the nature massively. People have started to see consequences of the changing nature. Specially the poor, and marginalized suffer mainly but the day that everyone irrespective of cast, country, power, wealth sufferers not far away. It has been visible in many instances lately. It is the youth who can change the world and the knowledge is what leads for action for  a change.

Opening ceremony

International Seminar was held from 26 - 29 October, 2012  at the Willys Safari Hotel at Wasgamuwa. Event was started with a small opening ceremony and the theme was introduced on the first day evening. On the second day, more discussion continued on the Environmental Justice issues. Later of the day there was a session on the responsibility of people as individuals and as groups for environmental justice. Number of issues related to the subject were discussed during the day and different methodologies were used for training the participants. There were small lectures, group activities, drama, songs and presentation among the activities of the event. Apart of those activities participants went on a exposure visit to a nearby village where they visited paddy filed which has effected from elephant-human conflict. During this exposure visit youth spoke to the villagers and  gathered first hand knowledge. Human elephant conflict, water rights, mining, deforestation for tourism and economic crops, use of chemical fertilizers for farming were among the main issues which were discussed. Following the dinner Norwegian ICY members had a presentation to introduce the Stop Poverty Campaign. This campaign was introduced by the YMCA YWCA Global (YMCA YWCA International arm in Norway).

Promoting nature through creativity

On the third day of the seminar group went on a Safari to Wasgamuwa Reservation. During the safari group stopped by the Mahaweli River for lunch. On the last day participants planned the follow-up activities and the youth from Moratuwa YMCA is in the process of organizing the first follow-up meeting on 17 November 2012. Mr. Lakpriya Nanayakkara (activist), Mr. Ravindra Kariyawasam (activist), Ms Wardani Karunaratne (environmental lawyer), Mr. Prasanna Peiris (activist) facilitated the activities of the seminar while several YMCA leaders (Aruna and Shelton) assisted with translation and other arrangements. There were youth from Matara, Moratuwa, Galle, YWCA and Pamunugama and Oslo attended the event. All the participants were awarded a cettificate for participation at the end of the seminar. 

Participants from Norway

Mr. Ravindra Kariyawasam facilitating a session

Norwegian participants introduced the Stop Poverty Campaign

During Safari

Exposure Visit

Photographs : Aruna Pathirage

Visit of ICY friends and Asker Scout from Norway

At the village in East

ICY Exchange Programme is an annual event of the ICY group of the YMCA of Pamunugama. YMCA Pamunugama jointly conduct this programme with the ICY group of Oslo with the financial support of the Norwegian Children and Youth Council (LNU). 

Four Norwegian youth including three girls representing ICY Oslo (Lisa-Marie, Mathilde, Ingvild) and a boy representing the YMCA YWCA Scout group of Asker (Stian) visited Sri Lanka from 22 October - 01 November, 2012. During their stay group visited and spent a day at a village in the Eastern Province where YMCA of Pamunugama has a programme center. Norwegian youth visited the YMCA cooperative farm and they got the opportunity to talk with the people of the village and to experience their day-today life.

On a tractor at the YMCA farm (Photo : Lisa-Marie)

From the farm youth continued their tour to Kandy where they visited the Dalada Maligawa which is a main tourist attraction. From their the group extended the tour to Wasgamuwa to join with other YMCA youth from Sri Lankan to attended the ICY International Seminar.

Before the departure the ICY group visited Colombo and met the National General Secretary of the National Council of the YMCAs of Sri Lanka (NCYSL) at the NCYSL office. Before the ICY Oslo group left they hosted a dinner for the YMCA of Pamunugama friends and had a evaluation meeting. It has been a great pleasure for the YMCA of Pamunugama to hosts visitors from partner groups and according to visitors, they were happy with what they have learn about Sri Lanka and the Environmental Justice which is the theme for the ICY programme for the year 2012.

Celebrating birthday far away from home(Photo : Lisa-Marie)