Challenge for youth to create one society - PM
 

by Maharagama special correspondent, Wehelle Piyathilake

"The divided Sri Lankan society in religious, ethnic, languages, caste, rich and poor, education and politics should be re-united into one Sri Lankan society. This challenge should be taken by the youth generation to create one society, that is Sri Lankan society."

So said Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse at the Silver Jubilee of the National Youth Awards Authority of Sri Lanka affiliated to the Duke of Edinburgh International Awards Program recently held at the BMICH, Colombo.

The Prime Minister said youth are the backbone of a country. The future leaders and the rulers of the country should be trained in all aspects to take up the global challenges in the present world.

He said the curriculum education is sufficient for a good citizen. The school population should be given a training in extra activities such as sports, aesthetic knowledge, social service and collective work, only bookworms cannot build a good country.

The Prime Minister said children should be given opportunities to engage in scouting, guiding, Red Cross activities, National Youth Awards programs, which are internationally recognised.

He said these programs transform the young generation of the country to be worthy citizens. It is very important today to have programs like this for better management of leisure hours of youth and for their personality development.

The Prime Minister said, today it is very necessary to have a disciplined, educated and spiritually cultured youth generation to be absorbed in the development process of the country.

The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Jeevan Kumaratunga said, forty per cent of the population of the country is the youth. 14 per cent of the population is the elders. The youth were not given their share in society. He said the only government institution to look after the needs and the problems of the youth is the National Youth Services Council.

The directress of the Asia-Pacifica region of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Awards Program Miss Sue Walker said.

I am glad to have come here with the best wishes of the International Awards Program for the silver jubilee of the National Youth Awards Authority of Sri Lanka. The worthy youth program had expanded to 101 countries. It has become very popular among the younger generation. The Chairman of the NYAA Upali Jayawardane made the welcome speech and the vote of thanks was proposed by Saman Amarasinghe, a member of the NYAA.

To mark the silver jubilee festival 1,500 youth from all the districts were awarded with bronze and silver awards. Out of this, 1,000 awardees were from CLF (Sri Lanka) organisation.