With the support of Youth a beautiful crib was made at the YMCA. Maleesha, Hirusha and Shinesh who are senior scouts worked a full day to make it. After making the crib, children of YMCA went from home to home share the good news of the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ.
During the visit they sang carols and shared gifts with the children of families they visited.
With the support of a Christian Group from Australia (Help Orphans Now) YMCA distributed gift boxes to the the children of the Pamunugama Girls Home and the children who attend different YMCA programmes (Pre-School, Makalause Dream School, Scout Group).
Pre-school kids and the children with disabilities of Makalause Dream School received their gifts on 20 December. Scouts received their gifts at their year end gathering held on 23 December and the gifts for the girls home were distributed on 24the December.
This event brought a lot of joy to the children in Pamunugama as the boxes were filled with valuable and interesting gifts including clothing, stationery, toys and sanitory items. YMCA of Pamunugama extend its gratitude to Help Orphans Now for carrying this generous act annually.
Exhibition of handicrafts made by the students of Makalause Dream School "YMCA school for the children with disabilities" was held on 20, December 2022 at the school premises.
Children prepared for this exibition for last several months with the support of teachers and parents. This event was also an opportunity showcase the outcome of the knowledge provided through the livelihood training programme.
Danuka Jayamanne, Preesident of Pamunugama YMCA and the pries of Delathura Church graced the occasion as guests. Several villagers, members of Pamunugama YMCA, pre-school children visited the exhibition.
A group of young street musicians arrived in the island for a short visit from 15 - 18 December during their world tour. Three months prior, this group connected to the YMCA of Pamunugama and together with Negombo and Moratuwa YMCAs, 3 shows were organized covering 3 areas.
First show was held at Reality Plaza shopping Center Ja-Ela on 17 December 2022. Show went on for over 1 hour. There were an audience over 150 and many hundreds of customers who visited the shopping mall was able to witness this international musical experience. At the end of the show a lunch was hosted by the YMCA of Pamunugama for the Musical group and the core-group who supported the event.
Born to Win Institution, Headway School of Languages and Nikon Studio at Reality Plaza gave an immense support to cordinate the show at the venue. YMCA expresses it gratitude to all those who assisted the event, Musical and management group from Singapore and Mr. Lesli Karunaratne who has coordinated the visitors with YMCA.
Investiture ceremony of New Scouts was held on 10 December at the YMCA of Pamunugama. 15 Scouts of the YMCA Pamunugama gave oath as scouts and received their membership badges. 7 out of 15 new scouts were from the Makalause Dream School which is the YMCA of Pamunugama school for the children with disabilities.
Parents, scout leaders and staff of the YMCA attended the ceremony. YMCA wish all the new scouts a great scout life and looking forward to their company in upcoming scout activities.
Year End Concert of the YMCA of Pamunugama was held on 04 December 2022 at the YMCA Main Hall. Due to the prevailed crisis situation in the country, the concert was not held physically last year. Instead YMCA produced a YouTube video to present the skills of the children attending various programmes of the YMCA of Pamunugama.
Over 70 Children from YMCA Scouts Group, Pre-School, Dancing Class and Makalause Dream School performed number of acts, dances and ballet dance in front of a large crowd of over 500 invitees, parents an villagers. Rev Fr. Mahesh Krishn Fernando o Kepungoda St. Antony's Church and Mr. Jayathilake the Community Police Officer of Dungalpitiya Police Station attended as special guests of the event.
YMCA extend the gratitude to all who were present, parents, teachers who trained students and members who have helped in various means to make the event a successful and a memorable one.
Parents get-together and the evaluation meeting of the Makalause Dream School was held on 30 November, 2022. Programme held at Crabs Cove Restaurent was attended by 9 parents, 2 teachers and General Secretary.
During the programme, an evaluation on schools activities for the year 2022 was held. Number of learnings and areas to be improved was discussed. Based on the findings, the year 2023 will be planned. Programme was facilitated by Mr. Aruna Shantha Nonis, Chairman of the Makalause Dream Task Committee.
YMCA of Pamunugama together with The Born to Win Relationships extended the support to St.Mary's Model School to train their prefects at the Prefects Training Workshop held from 22 - 23 October at the School premises. There were 35 prefects were trained in the programme.
On an invitation received from the School, Mr. Dileepa Wanniarachchi of BTWR, Mr. Aruna Nonis and Ridma Fonseka from Pamunugama YMCA joined the programme as facilitators and led sessions through out the 1st day.
During the day, children attended number of activities where they experienced different aspects of leadership. Understanding leadership and qualities required to become a leader, priorities for a leader were among highlighted topics during the day. At the end of the day, there was a session on conducting a campfire and also a campfire where the prefects had the opportunity to entertained themselves as well as the staff and parents who attended.
Increasing prices of sanitary napkins, has become an added burden to the women in Sri Lanka among many other hardships they are going through at the moment . It is reported from many areas that this situation has also affected the education of girls. Due to the nature of the issue and cultural barriers in discussing openly, this has been neglected by many responsible parties. As a result, women's right to sanitation is severely compromised.
Under this situation, Young Men's Christian Association of Pamunugama started a program to provide reusable sanitary napkin sets to 95 school age students in collaboration and sponsorship of Sct. George Gilderne (Fellowship of Adult Scouts) in Denmark.
Along with this distribution, girls in school age as well as their parents are also educated on menstrual hygiene related issues and the importance of maintaining a good child-parent relationship.
The first phase of this was held on the 8th of October 2022 at the Janavaboda Kendraya in Negombo. Nearly 50 mothers and girls and parents participated in this program representing the Women's Groups associated to the Janavaboda Kendraya. 6 representatives YMCA and the Chief Executive Officer of Janavaboda Kendra also participated in this program. Second phase of the distribution and the awareness was held at the YMCA of Pamunugama for 15 girls and their parents attached to various YMCA programmes. Mrs. Himalsha Chamodi of the YMCA of Pamunugama joined as the resource person to raise awareness on both events. 46 sets of sanitory pads are distributed so far. We extend a special thank to Ms. Gitte Staehr for coordinating this kind and timely action.
Children's Day is one of the main calendar events of the YMCA of Pamunugama. With the leadership of Youth Club, day camp was organized to mark this special day on 01 October 2022.
55 children representing the Scout Group, School for Children with Disabilities, Dancing Group attended the event while10 leaders from the Youth Club gave leadership to different activities at the event.
Number of games, group activities and adventure activities were organized during the day to entertain the participants on this special day dedicated for children. Activities during the morning session was held at the YMCA and the evening activities were held at the Sarakkuwa Beach.
Kite Festival is an Annual Event organized by the YMCA of Pamunugama during the kiting season in Pamunugama area. This year the Festival was held at Kepungoda Beach on 18 September 2022 with a participation over colorful 100 kites. There was also a crowd over 500 gathered to fly and to see kites at the beach.
Youth of the YMCA of Pamunugama organized the event with the theme "We All Fly in the Same Sky". It was an event for the people in the area to enjoy and to relaxed among all the hardships that people are going through at the moment due to economic crisis.
Best three kites received cash prices of Rs 15,000/=, Rs 10,000/= and Rs 5,000/= respectively and five more kites received Rs 1,000/= each as complimentary gifts. Winners also received a certificate. YMCA of Pamunugama extend a special thank to the Police Station of Dungalpitiya for their cooperation in organizing the event and their support in selecting winners. We also thank Mr. Martin Knoerich and friends from Munich for their support to present cash prices to winners.
YMCAs of Moratuwa, Pamunugama and Negombo jointly organized a Youth Camp from 26 - 28 August at the Lee Dasanayake Scout Training Center. Prior to the physical programma an online preparatory programme was held on 24 August with the registered participants.
There were 42 young people representing the 3 YMCAs attended the event and it was a rare opportunity for young people after a couple of years. Covid 19 pandemic from 2020 and lately the economic and political crisis situation in Sri Lanka have not created opportunities for such gatherings.
Activities of the camp were designed to raise awareness on the YMCA and to redefine the mission of the YMCA in the current context while safeguarding its identities and Christian values. There were discussions to understand the current crisis context in Sri Lanka. Participants have listed a number of justice and youth related issues as well as activities that young people could take up the leadership in responding those issues.
Participants also spent time in getting to know each other through activities and dialogues on different topics resulting a good relationship among the participants of 3 YMCAs. Special session on Music and Young people held to encourage young people to use art in a meaningful manner in YMCA work and in their lives. There was an introduction session to the game Kubb and participants had fun playing it.
Participants have agreed to discuss the decisions taken at the Camp in their respective youth club meetings and to update other groups at a Zoom meeting to be held within 2 weeks to evaluate the progress.
YMCA Afternoon School Programme started to provides educational support to students who had only 3 days a week of school until 12 August 2022 due to ongoing economic crisis in the country.
There are volunteer teachers on every afternoon on week days and Saturdays mornings in the YMCA providing assistance with different subjects.
Depending on the developments in the educational sector the future of the afternoon school will be decided by the YMCA leadership.
Community Kitchen Project is a new initiative of Pamunugama YMCA together with the YMCA YWCA Scouts of Asker in Norway and Munich YMCA. With the economic crisis in Sri Lanka it is reported that the nutrition levels of the children in Sri Lanka are deteriorating.
Responding the the situation YMCA launched this project to provide children with a balanced meal on every Saturday at the YMCA premises.
Lunch has been provided for 7 weeks so far on every Saturdays since 9th of July and will be continued for 3 months under the initial stage. Proximately 45 - 50 meals are prepared every week and parents of the YMCA children members give their fullest support to prepare meals as volunteers.
In order to continue the long term activities for Disability Inclusion a document comprise of concerns and agreements were declared by the National Collective for Disability Inclusion (NCFDI) at an event held on 06 July via zoom. Over 30 members representing the National Collective For Disability Inclusion and social activists attended the event.
YMCA of Pamunugama organized a home gardening training programme for the scouts of the YMCA of Pamunugama on 02 July, 2022 at the YMCA of Pamunugama premises. This was organized as an extention of the Model Farm Project of the YMCA of Pamunugama which was started early 2022 to response to the current economic crisis.
Children were educated through a presentation and a practical session at the YMCA model farm by Mr Susil Prasantha who is an agriculture advisor.
30 scouts attended the event and as a follow-up YMCA have made arrangements to distribute a set of plants among the participants to encourage them to start their own home gardens.
The third
phase of the global dialogue organized by the Pamunugama Young Christian
Association was held on Friday, June 10 on Zoom. This time the discussion
focused on the current economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka.
The discussion was
attended by about 25 people representing several countries. The keynote address
was delivered by Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Member of Parliament. The
participants comments andquestions were then presented and she responded to them
as well.
During the program,
discussions were held on the economic downturn in the country, political
instability and its implications, as well as the measures to be taken to
overcome the current situation.
Under
the Project of Inclusion of People with Disabilities of the YMCA of Pamunugama together with the Sri Lanka Welfare Society of the Blind, several programs were
organized on television and radio stations to educate the public.
There were 3 episodes of "Paradise" Radio Programme were aired on 6th, 13th and 20th June on Rajarata Sevaya. Meanwhile a radio interview on disability inclusion was aired on Lakhanda Radio Station on 12 June 2022. "Antony Mama" a morning radio show on Seth FM on Disability Inclusion was aired on 21 June. (Antony mama is an adult funny character comes to the morning show and deliver a special message to the public on every Saturday morning).
Also, a 15 minutes talk show with the Independent Television Network aired on 7 June which was a great opportunity for the National Collective For Disability Inclusion to expose its activities to a widet public.
During these radio and television programmes, the issues of the people with disabilities and their human rights problems and solution to overcome the issues through inclusion were discussed. Representatives of the National Collective for Disability Inclusion attended the discussions.
Please visit YMCA of Pamunugama Youtube page to watch all the above programmes.
YMCA family in the world celebrated its 178th Founders day on 06 June 2022. To mark this special moment YMCA Scouts had a 2 day Camp at the YMCA premises from 4 - 6 June 2022.
33 Scouts from YMCA of Pamunugama and Makalause Dream School (School for students with disabilities) attended the event. During the camp scouts learnt scout skills as a part of their training. Campfire, games, bible studies were among the other activities held during the camp.
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