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.