voice of silence 16th issue 2013
DESCRIPTION
YMCA of Pamunugama Official E-NewsletterTRANSCRIPT
Sister Newsletter of Nihanda—35 years of existence
Issue 16 01 October, 2013 Publication of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Pamunugama
Youth came up with the Beragala Declaration at the end of the “Youth Participation for a Just
World” ICY Seminar held in August 15—18, 2013. Read more: pg 03
Published by: The Young Men’s Christian Association of Pamunugama Suruwela Rd, Seththappaduwa, Pamunugama Sri Lanka
“The Voice of Silence” (Nihada) is the official news-
letter of the YMCA of Pamunugama. This has been
published occasionally to mark some special events
of the YMCA or happenings in the YMCA operational
area.
The YMCA of Pamunugama has been involved in
many different activities in Pamunugama area and
when it is necessary YMCA goes beyond its bounda-
ries and conduct activities (Eg; community empow-
erment project in Gomarankadawala- Eastern prov-
ince and scholarship programmes around the coun-
try)
The need and necessity of sharing information
among the YMCA members, its partners and
stakeholders was discussed by the Board of
Directors of YMCA and decided to continue
publishing the Voice of Silence as an e-mail
version. This would help us to reach a larger
crowd.
This issue of the Voice of Silence brings you
information and news about different
programmes that are being implemented by the
YMCA.
The Voice of Silence wishes to discuss any issue
which affects the YMCA and its members in fu-
ture and to create a platform for a constructive
dialogue in the YMCA circle and outside.
We invite all our readers to send their feedback
to the articles, news items and photos of this is-
sue.
Editor: Ridma
Pg 02
24 Children of YMCA Children's Club, Girl
Guides Group and Scout Group went on a Sa-
fari trip to the Wilpattu National Park on 30th
June, 2013. It has been a annual custom to or-
ganize a trip and this year it was planned in a
way to give a novel experience to the children.
Children with 5 leaders left from Pamunugama
around 2 am by a rented bus and arrived at the
Wilpattu National Park gate around 6 am in the
morning. Group entered the park by 2 safari
cabs which were reserved in advance.
Children were very lucky to have a good
weather and to see the animals on the tour.
Hardest to see in Wilpattu is the leopard which
was visible for the children few yards away
from the cabs in bushes. There were many ani-
mals including fox, wild pig, eagles, dear and
many other kinds. It was a little scary with the
elephants met on the way out of the park.
Other highlights of the park were the palace of
Kuweni and the horse point where the
landscape was special.
By the Horse point in in Wilpattu
Off Road brought a lot of fun
Weekly Children’s Club Meetings on every Saturdays give children the opportunity to work
together in different activities including, educational, sports, cultural and social.
Pg 03
"Youth Participation for a Just World" was the theme
for this year's Thirst for Peace ICY International
Seminar 2013. The seminar was organized by the
YMCA of Pamunugama in partnership with ICY
Oslo, Norway and conducted up in mountains in
Beragala and attended by 26 youth from Pamunu-
gama, Matara, Moratuwa and Oslo.
It was a well
designed pro-
gramme with
different ses-
sions on ‘Just
World’ and
‘Youth Partici-
pation’ in creat-
ing a just world.
Three ICY members (Helena, Karoline and Elisa-
beth) conducted a session emphasizing the need for a
common action to make a just world with the action
by the international community. They also presented
the activities carried out by the Y Global- Norway
related to a project identified as "Stop Poverty".
As a result of the inputs and learning of the seminar ,
the group came to a
common understand-
ing to work for a just
world. The members
of the group signed a
declaration and com-
mitted themselves to
work for a just world.
It was named as the “Beralaga Declaration”.
Statement by the youth members of the Oslo
and Sri Lanka YMCA ICY groups who
met at a seminar under the theme "Youth
Participation for a Just World" at the
"World's End Lodge", Beragala, Sri
Lanka from 15 - 18 August wish to state -
• People of the society are made to suffer
due to injustice prevailing at all levels -
politically, socially and economically;
• At the same time, these realities are
forcefully hidden from the minds of the
people so that the exploiters are able to
continue with their own agendas;
• Therefore it is very necessary to create an
awareness for us and others to under-
stand the real situations that control our
life locally, nationally and internation-
ally;
In responding to the issues we analysed, we
agree to plan out strategies in educating and
mobilizing ourselves and others and carry on
activities that will help reducing the injustice
placed upon our shoulders in accordance with
our capabilities and capacities.
In agreement of the above, we place our sig-
natures below and commit ourselves for such
objectives.
Signed by; 26 participants, on 18 Aug,2013
Signing of the Declaration by participants
Pg 04
The Dialogue Circle is the
new programme intervention
of the Youth Club of the Pa-
munugama YMCA where the
members come together and
discuss about a subject and
issue that affects the lives of
people. The last Dialogue Cir-
cle was conducted on 05th
September, 2013 at YMCA
library and discussed about the
13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri
Lanka.
Different ideas and opinions were expressed on
the 13th Amendment and youth shared their
openion while listening to different perspec-
tives on the 13th Amendment which mainly
main aspects of
the 13th amend-
ment have not
been practiced
due to various
reasons. With
the Provincial
Council Elec-
tion in the North
held 21st Sep-
tember we hope
that this would be a much debated subject in
the political arena of Sri Lanka. The follow-
ing topics were discussed at the previous dia-
logue circles:
Political Situation in Sri Lanka - 19 May, 13
Evolution of song in Sri Lanka - 11 July, 13
YMCAs around the world celebrate 06th of June
as its founder’s day. This is the birthday of Sir
George Williams who founded YMCA in 1844.
It has been a tradition of the YMCA of Pamunu-
gama to organize and conduct various events to
mark this special day.
Car Wash Parallel to YMCA
Founder’s day, the
youth members of the
YMCA of Pamunu-
gama organized a
Fundraising event to
support its youth ac-
tivities on 02 June, 2013 at Seththappaduwa
(Close to the YMCA). This was organized for the
second time and youth were able to raise around
Rs 10,000 rupees during the day by washing ve-
hicles in the area that were running on the road.
Flag Day Second event of celebrations was held on 09
June, 2013 where the youth and children were
going around the village selling YMCA flags and
distributing leaflets about the YMCA. 1st Flag to the President: Shivankara
Pg 05
“Ape Sindu Patiya”(Our Songs Party) , the Annual Fundraising programme of Pamunugama YMCA was held on 14 Septem-ber, 2013 at the YMCA Interna-tional Hotel in Kurana. This year the “Ape Sindu Patiya” was organized to raise funds for Youth Programmes of the YMCA of Pamunugama. There were around 200 friends and well-wishers attending the event. YMCA of Pamunugama raised funds by selling song books, and meals at the event. It was a three hours programme with many entertainment and fun activities such as singing, dancing and raffle draw etc. YMCA is thankful to the people and institutions who supported this event with best wishes, ad-vertisements and banners. YMCA wishes to announce that Ape Sindu Patiya will be conducted next as well in the month of September.
We invite all our YMCA members and
friends to join hand with us and extent
your support and cooperation to make our
programmes and projects much more
meaningful to the community.
You may participate in our programme/
projects as a volunteer supporter or make
your financial contribution. Your contri-
bution will help us to expand our present
activities to a larger community.
For Further Information Contact:
YMCA of Pamunugama
Suruwela Road, Seththappaduwa, Pamunugama Sri Lanka Tel: 0094 31 222 65 71 E mail: [email protected] Blog: http://ymcaofpamunugama.blogspot.com/
Pg 06
The students of the
Sunnfjord Folk
High School in
Forde, Norway are
now in Sri Lanka
attending an ex-
change programme
mainly involve in playing Volleyball matches
and attending a training camp. 25 students of
the school with their coach and the leader visited
Pamunugama YMCA on 19 September, 2013.
During their visit they played two friendly
games with the
YMCA chil-
dren and
youth. We
thank Sunn-
fjord Folk
High School
for this visit
which really gave an international experience to
our youth and children.
32 youth from Taichung YMCA of Taiwan vis-
ited Pamunugama YMCA on 23 - 24 August,
2013. They were traveling around Sri Lanka and
conducting Children's
Programmes in 4 YMCAs
in Sri Lanka.
23rd evening ,Taichung
youth went on a boat trip
together with the Youth
of the YMCA of Pamunu-
gasma in the Negombo
lagoon. 24th they conducted a children's camp
for 50 children at the YMCA. The camp was
colorfully arranged by the Taichung youth with
number of activities such as, talent shows and
games etc. The children had a
great day and it was a great learn-
ing for the YMCA youth pro-
gramme leaders where they
learned some new activities in
camping .
We thank Mr. Kishan Gunawar-
dene, the President of NCY for
initiating this partnership with
Taichung YMCA.
Bronnoysund
is a small
town in Nor-
way. Pamunu-
gama YMCA
has been
working with
the Scout
group in Bronnoysund since 2001. There had
been many exchanges and visit between two
groups.
This year the YMCA - YWCA Bronnoysund
Scouts invited Pamunugama YMCA to attend an
International Friendship Camp held in Bronnoy-
sund. Around 100 scouts attended the camp in-
cluding 26 scouts from Sri Lanka from
Moratuwa, Jaffna and Pamunugama.
Two girl Guides (Nufla and Rashini) attended
the camp together with Ann Sudeepika (The
Girl Guide Leader of Pamunugama YMCA).
The Camp was held from 04th to 12th August and
they were in Norway
from 01st to 16th Au-
gust, 2013. During
their stay in Norway
they visited several
scout families and had
a great time. They also
visited a Zoo and vis-
ited Vega which is an island protected under the
UNESCO Heritage List.
Pg 07
Udara at "The Love 2 Live" Festival at
Prague Prague Festival is the
biggest Tensing Festival
in Europe and it is a life
time experience for any
youth to attend this
event. Ms. Udara Devmi
of Pamunugama YMCA
attended this huge
YMCA Festival to-
gether with two youth
from Sri Lanka.Our
President, Mr.
Shivankara Ranaweera also attended this event
before Devmi. “The Love 2 Live” Festival pro-
vided an unique opportunity for 10,000 young
people from across Europe and the world. They
celebrated life, culture, diversity and all that in-
spire of being a Youth.
Udara first stepped in to the YMCA in 2007 as a
student attending a Prefects Training Seminar
organized and conducted by YMCA. Since then
she showed a great interest on youth pro-
grammes in the YMCA. In 2012 she was se-
lected by the National Council of the YMCAs of
Sri Lanka to represent Sri Lanka as a Change
Agent which is a programme of the World
Council of the YMCAs to promote youth par-
ticipation in the YMCA world-wide.
Priyan in the YPP Exchange Mr. Priyan Pri-
yathilaka is a
youth member of
YMCA of Pa-
munugama and
presently attend-
ing the Young
Peace Performers
(YPP) Pro-
gramme. This is a
ten months pro-
gramme com-
menced in August
2013 and will be ending in April 2014. YPP
is a youth exchange programme organized
and conducted by the KFUM- KFUK Global
- Norway with their partners in Kenya, Pal-
estine and Sri Lanka. Through this signifi-
cant international exchange proramme
young people get the chance of travelling
and working for peace in different contexts.
Through this year’s YPP programme the
organizers are focusing on the Conflict
situation in Palestine. YPPs have started
their initial preparation in Jordan and cur-
rently in Kenya as they have to wait for visa
to enter Palestine. The final part of the pro-
gramme will be held in Norway starting
early 2014.
Come-share Extends support to 20 new
students through YMCA.
Come-Share Foundation has been a longstand-
ing partner of YMCA of Pamunugama. During
the past 8 years Come-Share Foundation has
supported over seventy students providing
scholarships and financial support for additional
classes. Further Come-Share has extended their
support for English and Computer courses and
other educational activities of the students.
Extra classes for students in the East
While providing individual scholarships Come
Share Foundation also provides financial sup-
port to conduct four extra classes in Horowpo-
thana( a village beyond Madawachchiya) Under
this initiative, Mathematics and English classes
are conducted in Medavachchiya Vidyalaya
while there are Science and Mathematics class
being conducted in Kivulekada Vidyalaya.
We thank Come-Share Foundation for their continues assistance to students and all the
support to the YMCA of Pamunugama.
Pg 08
Women have been paying a vital role in YMCA
of Pamunugama since its inception in 1974.
Two out of seven founder members of YMCA
Pamunugama are women and the “Senasuma
Death Donation Programme of the YMCA of
Pamunugama also have come a long way with
the great participation of women.
The latest women activity of the YMCA of Pa-
munugama is the Micro Credit Programme.
Eight women are provided with small loans of
Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 on 23rd May 2013 at
the YMCA of Pamunugama. Some of them are
having small groceries while others have self
employments of producing sweets and food.
The beneficiaries started savings with the
YMCA of Pamunugama three months before
and they started paying back their loans from
June, 2013.They will complete paying back
within ten months. Pamunugama YMCA Devel-
opment Committee is responsible for the project
and keeps a close look on the progress of the
beneficiaries.
The novel
“Maruthaya Nima
Viya” by Aruna
Shantha Nonis was
presented to the pub-
lic on 22 June at the
YMCA International
Centre – Katunay-
ake. The beloved mother of Aruna Shantha
Nonis received the first copy from her son, the
author and two copies were presented to Rt.
Rev. Maxwell Silva the Auxiliary Bishop of Co-
lombo Diocese and Francis Palihawadana a
teacher who has been guiding Aruna Shantha
Nonis from his school days.
“Maruthaya Nima Viya” is the love story
of Wasantha Bandara and Nisansala Jaya-
manne. Based on this love story Aruna Shantha
Nonis prepares a stage for a dialogue to see
through the human lamentation unheard during
the 30 years of wretched war.
He emphasise on the fate of the affected people
and the concern exhibited by the people and in-
stitutions in the
south who came
forward to pro-
vide relief. He
further sheds
light on certain
paths open before us in creating peace and rec-
onciliation in Sri Lanka drawing strength from
the South African example in the post-apartheid
era. This novel leads you in somewhat different
style through 430 pages.
“Maruthaya NimaViya” is another project of the
Peace and Reconciliation programme launched
by the Pamunugama Young Men’s Christian
Association.
During the ICY Seminar 2013 held in August
2013 in Beragala the contents of the novel was
taken for case studies to study and understand
the post war situation in Sri Lanka and also to
identify potential strategies to work towards
most wanted Restorative Justice Process in Sri
Lanka
Pamunugama YMCA thanks “Karibu Founda-
tion – Norway” for its generous contribution to
this project.
A Novel on the unheard suffering of 30 years of war in Sri Lanka….
Pg 09
The members of the YMCA Children’s Club
wanted to play volleyball at YMCA premises
and they just put up a net and lines and started
playing volleyball. Few days back two young
boys (Ruvinda and Shamal) approached me and
shared their interest of playing volleyball. One
of them is a member of the youth club and the
other one has attended the YMCA pre-school
many more years ago. Both of them have just
stepped into their twenties. Together with them
I inspected the ground and found that it is very
much below the standard to play volleyball for
teenagers and young adults. They said that they
can convert this around into a good volleyball
court.
They went back home and on the next
day they came with several youngsters
and started cleaning and preparing the
court. Major challenge was to stop ball
hitting the windows and going out of
YMCA premises. YMCA agreed to
buy them some used fishing net and
with their hard work they managed to make a
good wall around the court.
Now they are playing volleyball and the mem-
bers of the YMCA Children's Club also have a
place to spend their leisure time!
As we all know the volleyball is our (YMCA)
game. The YMCA introduced volleyball to the
world and also to Sri Lanka. We are now in a
process of forming YMCA volleyball team.
Most importantly this process has already
brought 12 new youth members and there are
many more to join.
Ridma Fonseka
General Secretary- YMCA of Pamunugama
We wish to emphasis the importance of the par-
ticipation of members in all activities in the
YMCA as we believe that YMCA is an organi-
zation of members. We are grateful to the foun-
der members of the YMCA of Pamunugama
who gave their time and resources to develop
the YMCA up to this level which is the only
established social service organization in Pa-
munugama area that serves people through dif-
ferent programmes. While recognizing the ne-
cessity and importance of having programmes
and events now we realize the value of having
our own resource mobilization programme to
raise and collect funds for YMCA programmes
and projects. In this connection we conducted
our Annual Fundraising event; “Ape Sindu Pati-
tya” on 14th September 2013. We are also a part
of the Resource Mobilization Training Pro-
gramme of the Asia & Pacific Alliance of
YMCAs (APAY)
and we thank Mr.
Charith De Silva-
Executive Secre-
tary of NCY – SL
for organizing
and conducting a
training workshop on Resource Mobilization on
18th – 19th Sept; 2013 where Jesssica Rawn
(Volunteer Consultant for Resource Mobiliza-
tion) and Ms Eloisa Borreo (Executive Secre-
tary of APAY) also attended.
Pamunugama YMCA is committed for a better
world for our people and and we invite all our
friends to join hand with us.
Shiwankara Ranaweera
President – YMCA of Pamunugama
Note from the General Secretary
Note from the President
Before Now