Guides and Scouts equipped with First Aid

Scouts and Guides are the once who never turns back when they see someone in need. To help others and to act they need skills and knowledge. YMCA of Pamunugama organized a first Aid Training for Girl guides at Pamunugama YMCA and for the Scouts at Wattala Programme Centre on 11 Sunday, December, 2011 at the YMCA of Pamunugama. 16 Guides, 5 scouts and 3 leaders (to assist) attended the event and the training was facilitated by Mr. Lalith De Silva a well experienced trainer from the St. John First Aid.

Basic knowledge was given to participants on how to treat patients with various injuries and illnesses including, bleeding, unconsciousness, bruise and etc.

Participants were very enthusiastic to learn and enjoyed a lot the way of teaching of Mr. Lalith De Silva who was very friendly with participants. Mr. Lalith agreed to help Pamunugama YMCA with further trainings on First Aid in the future.

Pre-School kids celebrates Christmas Early

Kids of the Pre-School at Pamunugama YMCA had their Christmas Concert on Sunday 04 December, 2011 at the YMCA Hall. This is an annual event where Pre-School kids gets the opportunity to show their talents in-front of the parents and relatives.

16 Kids at Pamunugama YMCA Pre-school has been practicing for this event for last 3 months together with two of their teachers and delivered their talents colorfully on the stage. around 150 people gathered to witness this colorful event.

Event was full of dances to various music and there were two invited events from all students. End was marked with a drama which commemorated the Birth of Christ at Bethlehem. Following the concert kids started their Christmas vacation.

Girl Guides doing well at Pamunugama

Pamunugama YMCA has the privilege to say that we are the first Girl Guide troop in the YMCA Sri Lanka. Number of guides in the troop have been increased into 17 by today. Lately they involved with number of activities in and outside the YMCA premises. 
on 1 September, 2011 guides joined a beach expedition tour. Idea of the event was to bring guides closer to the environmental and study the nature which eventually make them nature lovers. They marched on the beach looking for life in the seashore.
On 23 November, 2011 guides were led by the Girl Guides Leader Taniya with a cooking session. They made pasta and curry at the YMCA premises. 
Meanwhile Guides are planning for a busy month in December with number of activities including a First Aid Training, visit to a temple, day camp and Christmas gathering.

Arms-giving to commemorate members

According to the Catholic tradition people arrange arms-givings to commemorate the loved-once who has passed away. Following the same tradition Pamunugama YMCA organized an arms-giving to commemorate the members who has passed away after serving the YMCA movement during their lifetime. 
Current members collect dry-rations and offered to two deserving families in the village and prayed for the members who has passed away. Ms. Jasintha Peiris one of the long standing members delivered a speach appreciating the great contributions  made by the past members.

Food Security and Economic Justice

Youth of the YMCA together the ICY group organized a two day awareness building programme on food security and economic justice. Programmes was held at Pamunugama YMCA on 12 - 13 November 2011 with the participation of 15 youth from Pamunugama, Wattala, Moratuwa and Negombo YMCAs. During the programme it was discussed the important of maintaining our own home gardens at homes and preserving the traditional agree-cultural systems in order to save the farmers from multinational chemical and fertilizer companies.Group was inform the harmfulness of using chemicals and non-organic farming for the long run and the sustainability of farming sector. Mr. Sion de Silva participated the programme as the resource person.

In the evening youth joined the World Week of Prayer Reflection Meeting held at Pamunugama YMCA. Theme of the reflection was "Voice to speak out". Mr. Derek goCy intern from Kenya led a session on youth issues in Africa during the reflection.

Discussion on fisheries port at Kepungoda

One of the main agreements at the end of previous ICY seminar was to follow up the issue regarding a fisheries harbor built in the Kepungoda (village in the Pamunugama peninsula) area. The project was started in 2009 with the involvement of several politicians in the area and the parish priest at that time. Now the work has been completed at the expense of millions of money with no result. Entire project is a vain effort as there are a lot of technical mishaps in building the harbor. Now the harbor has become a gem mine for thieves as the have started stealing the sand for construction work.
ICY group invited a selected group of people in the area for a initial discussion to raise the awareness among the ICYs on the issue. After a long discussion  it was understood that there has been no any proper feasibility test has been done and the project has been carried out with no proper guidance from specialists. Now the challenge is to find a way forward and prevent further environmental issues and making sure that the sand is protected from thieves.
It was decided that we need to keep the fishermen alert on the issue and making the community aware on the issue through a wider process of awareness.