Lankan 'peace ambassadors' for children's convention

The Bridge Club Sri Lanka held a lecture for students of Weera Puranappu College, Moratuwa, who were affected by the tsunami disaster at the college grounds last Friday.

Every year the eight students who obtained the best results for the year 5 scholarship exam get the opportunity to take part in the annual Asian Pacific Children's Convention in Fukuoka, Japan. These participants automatically get to be members of the Bridge Club Sri Lanka, which is the Sri Lankan branch of the Bridge Club Japan which holds the above convention. Bridge Club Sri Lanka was established in 1998 and has 145 members at present.

Each year two of the former participants are given the opportunity to take part in the above convention as Peace Ambassadors and they automatically become the president and vice-president of the club for that year.

This year Kasun Gunasekara (President), a year 11 student of Royal College, Colombo 7 and Rashmi Wijekoon (Vice-President), a year 11 student of Vishaka Vidyalaya, Colombo will take part in this year's convention along with the eight other participants. They were the organizers of the above lecture which was conducted by Mr. A.S. Balasuriya, former chief project officer of National Institute of Education, Maharagama.

The main objective of the lecture was to help the tsunami affected children to overcome this disaster and get some motivation to achieve their future goals.

Ms. Kumari Pirisyala, the deputy director of school affairs of Education Ministry was present. Books and stationery were distributed among some 150 tsunami affected children. Mr. D.B. Peramuna, the principal of Weera Puranappu College, Moratuwa expressed his gratitude for holding such events to help such children.