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Tuesday, 16 August 2011

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Taking patriotism to new heights


A project by the participants

Change should start with you. Change on behalf of your country. You can talk about change to others only if it starts with you. These are her beliefs and the message she tries to infuse in welcoming individuals to Sri Lanka’s ‘family of 20 million people’.


President Mahinda Rajapaksa giving away prizes to the winners at the event recently held at Temple Trees

Janaki Kuruppu giving away prizes to the winners, Minister Prof GL Peiris was also present

Youth is Mother Sri Lanka Trust’s main target group
Participants lighting the oil lamp

Taking the idea of patriotism to new levels Strategy and Perceptions Management Unit Director at the Presidential Secretariat Janaki Kuruppu launched the Mother Sri Lanka Trust, a non profit charitable organisation, in 2009. The movement which works towards making Sri Lanka a better place for all, embodies the vision of instilling the idea that we are one nation. It inspires positive thinking and positive change among Sri Lankans.

Though the Mother Sri Lanka Trust is for all Sri Lankans coming from all walks of life and all ages, one of its main target groups is the youth.

“It is difficult to change the attitude of adults. It is a bigger investment when you work with youth because they are the future of the country. It was a novel idea and we wondered if the project would actually take off. We had questions of whether we would have enough funds and volunteers to support us,” Janaki opined.


Janaki Kuruppu.
Picture by Saman Sri Wedage

Mother Sri Lanka’s groundbreaking project is Apen Ratata - Rata Nagumata (What can I do for my country and how can I give back to my country?). It is all about presenting the students’ ideas through a presentation. The theme was ‘What can we as children give back for nation building’. Kuruppu said that they had not been sure about how the children would respond to this aspect when they launched the programme. The East had just been liberated and the North was facing the last stages of conflict. Later the Mother Sri Lanka team were even able to take the competition to Jaffna.

End of turmoil

“Life was back to normal in the area. What was really encouraging is the students’ enthusiasm despite going through three decades of turmoil. There was so much hope. They believe that there is a future for them in this country. These ideas were incorporated into a creation. The concept had to come from the children. The script is composed by them and they used whatever resources they had for the presentation,” she explained adding that a show of fancy costumes was not what they had in mind but it was the ideas and their passion towards the topic which earned points. The project got a lot of backing from the Education Ministry. Two thousand six hundred schools participated in the programme from nine provinces.

The competition was conducted in three categories: Sinhala, English and Tamil medium.

The first part of the competition was at division level. Later the winners entered the zonal level competition which was followed by the provincial level event. Finally only those who topped the provinces entered the all island finals. Forty-two schools made it to the finals. Madukotan Arawa Vidyalaya, Badulla, emerged winner in the Sinhala medium, Althea International School, Colombo, in the English medium and Mallakham Maha Vidyalaya, Jaffna, in the Tamil medium.

“Though urban schools took part in the competition the rural schools topped the list. Their sentiments were deep rooted. They were keen on the project and in turn we were motivated by listening to their ideas,” Janaki said.

Working on the buzz created by the competition Janaki and team set up Mother Sri Lanka Clubs in each school. The students formed a committee and implemented some of the proposals that they had raised in the competition. The principal of each school overlooked their work along with a teacher. “Some schools took on simple assignments like working on time or keeping the school clean. Other schools took on bigger exercises from launching a mini hydro plant for their computer lab to cultivating fruits and vegetables in the school compound.

Message

“The message behind these assignments is not to wait for someone else to come and fix your problems but to take matters into your hands,” Janaki expressed adding that most people have dependency syndrome. They wait for the government or authorities to take action.

“It is best to implement something by yourself. Find your solution if it is within your limit. Play your part and gather those around you. Then the assignment will snowball into a mass scale project. In one play the children showed a scene of a tap which had broken on the roadside. People were walking past commenting on the matter and blaming the Water Board for not arriving their quickly.

Suggestions

One child suggested that money should be collected to fix the tap. Their action saved a natural resource because water belongs to the whole world and there is only a small amount of drinking water available in the world,” she said.

The next step of the programme is to collect feedback about the school projects and select the best among them. Reports about the schools’ undertakings are being entertained and they are hoping to gather all the data by the end of the year.

“More than charity work this is about taking responsibility and making a difference. Students will continue with the patriotic and social welfare work while improving creativity and logical thinking. It is a continuing process because the children will showcase their projects and spread the message to others. What we really want is to plant a seed in the youth’s mind to think about their country in whatever they take up,” she stressed.Turning a new leaf on the work triggered off by Mother Sri Lanka Janaki gathered business leaders and professionals to spread patriotism as ambassadors of Mother Sri Lanka.

“We have been going into the grass roots of the matter by addressing the children, parents and teachers. We did not address the top segment of our society.

They embody a reputation and are opinion leaders. The amount of change that they can bring is very big because they have many links while running companies in society. They also have international connections.

We got them aboard for image building, especially in the context of the Darusman Report and Channel 4 reports to proactively spread the message. It will have to be independent Sri Lankans who will have to take on this mission because some groups tend to label the government’s counter arguments as biased.

No country is without problems and no conflict is perfect. If you believe in our country and love our country spread the true story of our country,” she urged.

Mother Sri Lanka will be launching their latest programmeDenuwara Mithuro (Friends of two cities), a joint project with the Education Ministry, uniting children from all over the island to take part in five to seven day camps.

This way they become familiar with each other’s traditions, cultures and values. The main focus is on reconciliation through positive thinking and how to succeed in life’s major roles.

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