Voice of Silence 2013 17th Issue

8/13/2019 Voice of Silence 2013 17th Issue

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Sister Newsletter of Nihanda35 years of existenceIssue 17

27 November, 2013 Publication of the Young Mens Christian Association of Pamunugama

Published by: The Young Mens Christian Association of PamunugamaSuruwela Rd, Seththappaduwa, Pamunugama Sri Lanka

Editors Note:YMCA of Pamunugama very much appreci-ate your feedback on our previous Newslet-ter . As we are preparing for the Christmasprogrammes we are pleased to share with

you this edition of our Newsletter with our

new initiatives of empowering the commu-nities where the YMCA is operational espe-cially the youth and children. We also takethis opportunity to wish you all Happy

Christmas and a New Year.

Green Challenge is an event introduced by the

APAY. In Pamunugama a Green Challenge

Event was organized and conducted by the Chil-

dren s Club of Pamunugama YMCA under the

leadership of Ms. Udara Devmi, the APAY

Change Agent from Pamunugama YMCA.

The event was held on 26th October, 2013 where

the Children were first educated on the event and

on the importance of taking care of the environ-

ment. Then the children went to the beach and

started cleaning the beach by collecting plastics

and polythene garbage. Children were surprised

to see the amount of used plastics and polythene

scattered on the beach and they gave a commit-ment to educate their parents and friends not to

destroy the beach by throwing plaything and

plastic garbage in future.


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Pg 02

It was first proclaimed by the World Conference

for the Well-being of Children in 1925 and then

universally accepted in 1954 to declare an

"appropriate" day for children. The officially

recognized date of Children's Day varies from

country to country. In Sri Lanka, Children's Day

is celebrated on October 01st.

Pamunugama YMCA organized a gathering of

the members of YMCA Childrens Club on 05

October, 2013 at the YMCA premises to mark

and celebrate this special day.

Sixty girls and boys representing the Children's

Club, Girl Guides and Scouts as well as the Pre

School came

together for this

special event.

Day started

with a sharing

of few thoughts

on the hard-

ships that chil-

dren are facing in the world today and on

the importance of keeping a close eye and work-

ing with children providing them the

best environment to grow.

Then the children were divided into groups and

YMCA youth leaders conducted different activi-

ties and games giving children an opportunity to

work together and to enjoy the day. The Camp-

fire was the final event of the day and children

showed their talents by performing dances, dra-

mas and singing in-front of all the people gath-ered including fellow friends parents and youth

leaders.


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Pg 03

Pre-School usually starts preparing children for

the Annual Christmas Concert quite early as

they have to train the small kids for their per-

formances. Parents also have to prepare as there

will be a lot of expenses to make new clothes

and to hire different services for the concert.

In order to raise funds to cover the above ex-

penses, Pre-School organized a vegetable fair on

12 October, 2013 at Mother Marys Shrine at

Seththappaduwa, Pamunugama. Neighbors

came and supported the kids by purchasing

vegetables and the parents and the teachers

helped the children with selling at the fair.

Meanwhile the Childrens Club also organized

ar fair at the same place on Saturday 16 Novem-

ber. Children of the Childrens Club also will

perform several activities at the Concert along

with the pre-school kids.

These days children of the YMCA spend most

of their time preparing for their performances at

the concert.


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Pg 04

Students start learning English in the school

when they are at grade 3 (08 years of age). The

formal teaching of English in the school contin-

ues till they come to Ordinary Level (O/L) class

at grade 11(16 years of age). This means a stu-

dent gets the chance of learning English in the

school 09 years. Unfortunately, even after 09

years of learning many students are unable to

manage English as a language and communicatein English.

The reason for this great failure is that in Sri

Lanka, English is taught as a Subject but not as

a Language.Responding to the crucial need of

making youth familiar with English Language

Pamunugama YMCA starts its

Communicative English Programme on 09

November, 2013. This will be a course/

programme of four months where the students

(participants) will get a chance to practice

English as a Language while the learn the

basic grammar.. In addition to the weekly

two hours programme , there will be two

camps during these four months to give

more opportunities for the students to

practice English as a language.

YMCA of Pamunugama has been dream-

ing of starting such a programme for the

students in the area who are not affordableto pay big amount of money to the Spo-

ken English Training Institutions in the

country.

We thank the Come-Share-Foundation for spon-

soring this programme. Come-Share foundation

has been collaborating with the YMCA to pro-

vide number of scholarships to deserving stu-

dents and to conduct extra educational classes

for marginalized communities in various parts of

Sri Lanka.

Note from a Y youthWe went on a bike trip and ended up hiking in

Knuckle's Mountain range in Matele District from

2528 Oct, 2013. We are all friends who met in the

YMCA of Pamunugama and the motivation to do

this came from our YMCA background. It was a fan-

tastic trip where we got to live very close to the

mother nature and to understand each other. I highly

recommend this activity to youth in the YMCA to

develop our leadership skills as well as mental con-

centration and physical fitness. Such activities would

help us to build strong characters in our YMCA mis-

sion. Nico Johannes


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Pg 05

Youth Work can be defined as the informal social

and political education and empowerment of

young people within a matrix of care including

enhancing young peoples participation in issues

that affects their lives

It is the appropriate

time for the YMCA

to sit and assess its

involvement in youth

work as YMCA

proudly proclaims

and identifies as a

youth organization.

In the inception of theYMCA back in 1844,

its founder Sri

George Williams to-

gether with his fellow

workers took every

attempts to keep the

focus on youth when

they were designing

and implementing programmes/projects . Those

projects and programmes greatly empowered and

enhanced the young people and their participation

in the society they did live in. According to the

above given definition we can identify three major

elements that we have to consider for the empow-

erment and enhancement of young people.

They are the body, the mind and the spirit, which

are bases of YMCA work in any setup. It is essen-

tial have to equal attention to all these three ele-

ments and they help to develop or build a balanced

person. Taking into consideration the contempo-

rary social realities and increased theological un-

derstanding, YMCA expanded its focused areas tomuch beyond the concept of the body, the mind

and the spirit and looked and identified young

people with an open mind. Thus, we can suggest

youth work as follows:

The social and political education and partici-

pation of young people

The wellbeing of young people.

The social and political education and partici-

pation of young peopleIt is not usually forms of institution, but includes a

range of approaches, mostly developing learning

opportunities out of everyday experience, includ-

ing sports, leisure and social pursuits, but also

calling on more formal methods when appropriate.

This also refers to the fostering of critical thinking

in young people who are able to analyze their own

social and political context in order to be able toact on them including analyzing class, gender, re-

ligion and other iden-

tity-related dynam-

ics .

The wellbeing of

young people.

This includes atten-

tion to, and working

with young people,

their parents, guardi-ans and carers to un-

derstand, relate to and

make use of their

rights, promoting and

having concern for

young peoples wel-

fare, while extending

appropriate profes-

sional care.

The overall aim of youth work is to enhance the

life experience of young people and their contribu-

tion to the society as active, useful and valued citi-

zens. The Commonwealth Youth Programme Di-

ploma defines youth work as ..to empower young

people to play an assertive and constructive role in

the strengthening and regeneration of their com-

munities

Youth work involves relating to, and taking a

level of responsibility for, other peoples chil-

dren and the life direction of young people.

Therefore, it is fundamentally concerned and

primarily focused on care. However, this careneeds to be expressed in a suitably powerful

manner, which includes an appropriate level of

detachment; youth workers are not big broth-

ers/sisters neither are they friends (although

they might be friendly), nor is the youth work

role a parenting one. So, a professional detach-

ment needs to be developed in terms of care.Lets look at the Youth Work of the YMCA and

assess them!

ArunaShantha Nonis(This article is written based on the information given inthe Concept & Strategy Document of the Professional

Youth Work of Commonwealth YouthProgramme)


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Pg 06

YMCA of Pamunugama organized a training

programme for the 25 members of Life Agricul-

tural Project in Horowpothana. Beneficiaries

were educated on managing a home garden.

Further, they were given tips on how to pick dif-

ferent plants for their garden depending on the

season, and the soil and the need for nutrition.

Programme was conducted by Mr. Dhammika

who is the Government Agricultural Instructorin the Horowpothana area on 19 Noveber, 2013.

Further to the training and workshops conducted

on organic farming a set of equipment also pro-

vided to the members of the YMCA Life Agri-

culture Project Members in Horowpothana area.

Distribution was held on 20 November 2013 at

Horowpothana.

Rev Piyarathana Thero (Priest of Horowpo-

thana) who has been very helpful with imple-

menting the project also attended the event

along with 25 beneficiaries.


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Pg 07

Dear friends and YMCA members,

It is time to commit ourselves for children.

We are about to throw away old calendars at

work and home leaving space for new and fresh

looking once as the New year approaches.

Thanks to the generous support of the volun-

teers, well-wishers we were able to carry on

number of activities giving children the oppor-

tunity to develop themselves as responsible citi-

zens with leadership skills during this passing

year.

This is a time where we seek the support and

commitment of the YMCA members and well-

wishers in making our fresh looking childrens

programme calendar for the year 2014 a reality.

As we all know Christmas is the time of sharing

the joy and happiness with others by giving

gifts. This years your Christmas gift to some-

one who deserved a gift could be the innocent

children who attend YMCA Pamunugama chil-

drens programmes.

YMCA of Pamunugama Resource Mobilization

Group will approach you during the month of

December with more details,

and concrete plans seeking

your contribution/gift to-

wards our childrens pro-

grammes for the year 2014.

As the Christmas wind

knocks our door, I wish you

peace and happiness.

Shivankara Ranaweera

Dear friends,

Today the word volunteer-

ism is being very much

misused. Most of the peo-

ple when they have anyaffiliation to a NGO or any

kinds of movement call

themselves volunteers

without knowing the mean-

ing of the world volunteer-

ism.

Volunteerism is something each and every hu-

man being does in different scales. Concern on

others leads to acts of volunteerism and There is

no expect for any financial or physical gain in

any act of volunteerism. Volunteerism in SriLanka is decreasing. Today the education sys-

tem in Sri Lanka do not develop concerned and

sensitive citizens. It is only focused on the race

to achieve grades. And the open market econ-

omy has vastly taken over the sensitiveness of

the people. Information is the most important

tool to make people ready to act voluntarily for

a change towards better. Media and the informa-tion sources are blocked by force or either they

have put sanctions by themselves to maintain

the market economy. There are so many areas

where things have to be changed.

To do this change, people must be prepared and

the information sharing and awareness building

is the most important way to promote volunteer-

ism. We as YMCA it is important to keep in

mind that YMCA is one of the best places

which we could use to mobilize youth to be-

come volunteer by passing information andknowledge through our activities and action in a

dynamic and attractive manner.

Ridma Fonseka

Note from the President!

Note from the General Secretary Volunteerism

We invite all our YMCA members and friends to

join hand with us and extent your support and

cooperation to make our programmes and pro-

jects much more meaningful to the community.

You may participate in our programme/projects

as a volunteer supporter or make your financialcontribution. Your contribution will help us to

expand our present activities to a larger

community.

For Further Information Contact:

YMCA of Pamunugama

Suruwela Road, Seththappaduwa,PamunugamaSri Lanka

Tel: 0094 31 222 65 71E mail: [email protected]: http://ymcaofpamunugama.blogspot.com/

Documents

Voice of Silence 2013 17th Issue