Taking patriotism to new heights
Ruwini JAYAWARDANA
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 |
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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. |