Covid - 19 Scouting from Home - Home Gardening

Tools and Seeds for Scouts

Initiating a home garden by scouts in their homes is the major activity of the one month "Scouting from Home" special project launched by the YMCA of Pamunugama together with YWCA YMCA Scouts of Asker. On 20 June morning, YMCA staff and Scout Leaders visited scouts at their homes to monitor how scouts have started to response to the Home Garden task. During the visit it was very promising to see the enthusiasm of the scouts as well as their family members. Scouts have started to prepare gardens to plan new seeds. 

On the same day in the afternoon 31 scouts gathered at the YMCA to collect seeds and tools they need for home garden work. Each scout received 5 packets of different seeds, hand fork and a trowel. YMCA Staff and Scout Leaders will monitor the progress weekly as well as follow-up the group via whats app. Isuru Nonis & Isuru peiris (Board Members), Aruna Nonis (Advisor), Dhanuka (Scout Master and YMCA staff participated the distribution event.

Used old galls bottles to prepare the planting area

Scouts were creative to fins space

5 Different types of seeds for scouts

Had to keep distance

Distribution

Covid - 19 Special Programme for YMCA Scouts

In order to face the challenges of Covid 19 to the Scout and Children's Programmes, YMCA of Pamunugama has initiated this special project. Under this new initiative,  a work guideline (manual) has been prepared for the scouts where they have to involve in six different activities through out a month. Some of the activities are to be continued and scheduled to be a part of the regular Children'S programme of the YMCA of Pamunugama. 

Under this one month work plan scouts are requested to complete following tasks and report back to their leaders.

• Home garden (min size 4m x 4m): Details are provided on how to set up a simple home garden in the booklet. Five types of seeds are provided and 2 additional fruit plants has to be added to the home garden.
• Be good at home: Help parents or do a kind act and make a note of it on the booklet. And also refer it to the scout law.
• Let’s get use to a healthy life by following good habits. (Write a poem, essay or make a painting)
• Life skill training: Make your own food at home and share with the family. Scouts has to make a note of what they have made and get comments from parents.
• Be creative and make something useful: It can be a handicraft, tool or anything that can be useful in day today life. Children has to describe how it is made and how it can be used.
• Asker / Pamunugama badge: This is for those who have not yet received the badge. Under this task scouts has to write a letter to Asker Scout friend and to make a written presentation on Norway.

At the end of the 1st month (starting from 18 June 2020) the progress will be evaluated and scouts will be appreciated and awarded. YWCA YMCA Scouts of Asker has agreed to be the partner and sponsor for this Project and also provided ideas and motivation from the beginning.

Project introduction gathering was held on 18 June, 2020 at the YMCA main hall with the participation of  30 scouts, Danuka Jayamanne (Scout Master) and YMCA staff.

A deep bond between two groups that extended beyond a relief programme.

The YMCA of Pamunugama has been working with the people of Gomarankadawala in the Eastern Province and Horowpothana in the North Central Province for about 15 years. During this period, YMCA was able to engage in various social activities and programmes in support education of children, agriculture programmes of farmers, as well as helping in disaster situations such as floods and droughts.

Ven. Welimavapatane Piyarathana Thero and Ven. Galkadawalawela Sumanasara Thero gave leadership to their people with their full involvement and guidance. In a way, it is a partnership between people in Pamunugama (South) , Gomarankadawala (East) and Horowpothana(North Central). The members of Pamunugama YMCA visited these areas while they to came to Pamunugama in several occasions .

As a gratitude to the services provided by the YMCA to the people in Gomarankadawela and Horowpothana, these Theros  came to Pamunugama YMCA last week  with a lorry load of rice for the Pamunugama YMCA COVID-19 Relief Programme.

During the war, Gomarankadawala was considered as border village. People in these areas lived with great fear and uncertainty due to the intermittent clashes. They underwent tremendous sufferings as they were not able to manage their daily farming and other livelihood activities etc. Pamunugama YMCA came forward to offer a wide range of relief programmes for the people who were terribly suffering from severe economic hardships and this partnership also gave both the communities the opportunity of participating in various human exchange programmes. It created a deep bond between two groups that extended beyond a relief programme.

අළුත් සහල් අරන් උදවුවට නැගෙනහිර සිට ආ නෑදෑයෝ.

වසර 15 ක පමණ සිට පමුණුගම තරුණ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සංගමය, නැගෙනහිර පලාතේ ගෝමරන්කඩවෙල පිහිටි මැදවච්චිය ග්‍රාමයේ සහ උතුරු මැද පලාතේ හොරොව්පොතාන ප්‍රදේශයේ ජනතාව සමග සුහදව කටයුතු කරමින් සිටී. මේ කාලය අතර තුර අධ්‍යාපනය, කෘෂිකර්මය වැනි ක්ෂේත්‍ර ඔස්සේ  මෙන්ම ගංවතුර සහ නියං වැනි ආපදා තත්ව හමුවේ විවිධ සමාජ මෙහෙවරයන්හී යෙදීමේ පමුණුගම තරුණ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සංගමයට අවස්තාව ලැබීම භාග්‍යයක් කොට සළකමු. ඒ සඳහා පූර්ණ මැදිහත්වීම සහ මගපෙන්වීම ලබාදුන්නේ, එම ප්‍රදේශවලට බෞද්ධ ජනතාවට නායකත්වය සපයන වැලිමුවපතානේ පියරතන ස්වාමින්වහන්සේ සහ ගල්කඩවෙල සුමනසාර ස්වාමින්වහන්සේ විසිනි.

උන්වහන්සේලාගේ මැදිහත්වීමෙන් සහ නායකත්වයෙන් ගෝමරන්කඩවෙල ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රජා මෙහෙවරක් ලෙස සංගමයේ කොවිඩ් 19 ආපදා ප්‍රතිචාර වැඩසටහන සඳහා සහල් පරිත්‍යාගයක් සමඟ මැයි මස 30 වන දින පමුණුගමට උන්වහන්සේලා වැඩම කරන ලදි. මේ අවස්තාව සඳහා පියරතන සහ සුමනසාර හිමිවරුන්ට අමතරව හොරොව්පොතාන පිරිවෙනේ පිරිවෙනාධිපති අළුවිහාරේ විමල රතන හිමි මෙන්ම හොරොව්පොතාන මධ්‍ය මහ විද්‍යාලයේ උප විදුහල්පති එම්. බී. එම්. ඩී. බන්ඩාර මහතාද සහභා විය.

මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ ගල්කඩවෙල සුමනසාර හිමි පවසා සිටියේ වසර ගනනාවක සිට විවිධ අවස්තා වලදී සමීපව කටයුතු කල පමුණුගම තරුණ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සංගමයේ මිතුරන් හට මේ මොහොතේ ප්‍රති උපකාරයක් මෙන්ම හිතවත්කම් අලුත් කර ගැනීමට මෙමෙ ගමන පැමිණි බවයි. සංගමය වෙනුවෙන් උන්වහන්සේලාට ස්තූතිය ඵලකරමින් අරුණ ශාන්ත නෝනිස් මහතා පවසා සිටියේ, මේ මොහොතේ සහල් යනු අප ප්‍රදේශයේ ජනතාවට නොමැති, නමුත් අත්‍යාවශ්‍යම දෙයක් ලෙසයි. එමෙන්ම මෙම අවස්තාවේ සංගම් ඉතිහාසයේ ඉතා වැදගත් දිනයක් මෙන්ම සිදුකර සත් ක්‍රියාව වෙනුවෙන් ස්තූතිවන්ත වන බව ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදි.

Covid 19 Disaster Response - 3rd Round of Dry Rations Distribution

YMCA of Pamunugama Covid 19 Disaster Response continued with another round of Dry Rations Distribution on 30 May, 2020. With the 3rd round of distribution, the number of families supported increased to 171.

For the 3rd Round of distributions, the beneficiaries were selected from the families of Makalause Dream School (YMCA School for Specially Abled). Distribution was held at the School premises with the participation of teachers, YMCA staff and 11 selected families.

Most of the students are from financially marginalized communities and the support with dry rations were highly appreciated by the family members and thank YMCA and donors (Y Global and YMCA YWCA Scouts of Bronnoysund) for continues involvement with the students and families even during difficult times.