A Binding PROMISE

Ishara Jayawardane

A monk donating blood. Pictures by Chaminda Niroshana

NiroThe Blood Donation Campaign

Two Guides at the campaign

Two Guides at the campaign

“I promise on my honour to do my best: To do my duty, to my Religion and Country, To help other people at all times, and To live by the Guide Law,” - Girl Guides Promise

Their promise is binding and a promise not easily broken. When they enter into this movement they shoulder a tremendous responsibility. They stand by each other, a sisterhood, formed by love and friendship. They are on a journey that will test them like no other trial before. And their bonds with each other will help them keep their promise to religion and country. This is a challenge and they will take up this challenge because they are the Girl Guides.

Several sections

“We started guiding in Girls High School Kandy.Kandy was the first place we started Girl Guiding. We are 96 years old now. We celebrated our 96th birthday on March 21. It was celebrated here as well as in Kandy. At the same time we are hoping to start the butterflies. It is a little company where children under seven years are taken for this pack. We have many branches all over the country . There are several sections : Disabled children, Senior Guides, Guides, little friends,” said Guide Captain, Premiers own Guide Company(3rd Colombo),Indra Ambawatte.

The Motto for Girl Guides is to ‘Be prepared.’ Our vision is to bring up the children in the correct way and uphold the guide movement: Principles of the guides. The laws and as guides we take a promise. The Mission is for them to be good citizens of Sri Lanka. “The Girl Guides circuit is all over the country from Colombo to Jaffna. In every province we have Girl Guides. The Handicapped children are also there. School for the deaf and school for the blind, mentally retarded and physically handicapped - those institutes come under us. I did eight years of work with all those children.

Little friends are from seven to 12 years. Guides are from 12 to 17. Then they go up to Senior Guides. Then there is leadership training. There are the commissioner leaders, Deputy Chief Commissioner and Chief Commissioner, but now all heads of department are called Directors. Last week they had the opening of the butterflies. They are little girls who are joining our association. They will have a programme on their own to do. Little Friends have many activities; they go on camps and various activities are taken over. Guides for instance I have my camps which I run for the year for all the children and it is compulsory because they need to get their camp badge. The highest award for a Guide is Presidents award and the Senior Guide’s highest award is Prime Ministers award. And then they go for training they do the leaders training.” Ambawatte further added.

Achievements

The Girl Guides Associations in school are very active. “Mine is an open company here where I have children who have joined Little Friends here at headquarters. I have 13 schools under me and I have 28 children with me from various schools. All these schools in Sri Lanka come under the chief commissioner. Now they have started Girls Scouts which we do not join at all. Guides are Guides we want to keep our guides.When we are invited we do go for Jamborees but we do not join the Girl Scouts.”

Ambawatte also touched on some of the achievements of the Association in the past few decades. “One of our former chief commissioners, Sita Rajasuriya of Sri Lanka Girl Guide Association, was the first chairman of the Asia Pacific Region. I was also once a representative at the world Conference. But now we as elders are stepping down, everything is being promoted to the younger crowd. So many delegations from Sri Lanka have gone to so many world conferences, every third year - The World Association for Girl Guides and Girl scouts. Girl Guides Sri Lanka sends their resumes to the world body, and they choose the delegate from here.”

The Girl Guides are also actively involved in a lot of project work in Sri Lanka. We had a lot of aid from foreign countries. “At Bulathsinghala village we did a big project with the girls building the toilets along with the help of the locals. UNICEF gave us the grant. We had our training center in Mawanella. The village sister donated the land where we built the training center. We have our main training center at Kadawatha. So we have a training for various departments such as for Little Friends, Senior Guides and Guides Lieutenant. We also worked with women sent for rehabilitation. We sent a guide company to this place and gave them Girl Guides training, including the matron. She did a marvelous job and they have gone back in to the society.”

Blood donation campaign

Ambawatte also spoke about the first blood donation campaign done by Ambawatte’s 3rd Colombo guides company last September. “We spoke to the doctors, went to the blood bank, and got hold of all the people, we had posters done by the children and they did all the advertising all that is there on record. We had it at Bandaranaike school Borella. There was a priest looking after school activities. We had 180 odd people giving blood. It was a very successful one. Doctors came and the nurses came, everyone was tested. The guide parents gave blood. The doctor was saying: ‘ why don’t you organise something like this again.’We went to Bandaranaike school at Borella at Gotami road and we started the campaign there.

The people in the area the taxi drivers and bus drivers all came and took part in the blood donation.Our children, all young girls under the age of 18, went on to the road to tell people to donate blood. Once the girls are in uniform they know how to behave. So people were very happy with these girls going on to the roads to ask people to donate blood.We started at 9.15am and ended at 3.30pm because the doctor said we have to stop!

In return we gave the donors a parcel of powdered milk and sugar- every person was given a packet to take home. Tea and lunch was provided for all the donors. “And in the end we gave 10,000 rupees donation for the school. It was a very poor school. There were lots of people who gave us donations - we sent out a letter to people known to us requesting some funds. So we gave 10,000 rupees to do up the library.”

“We take children on camps, camp is compulsory - three nights, and last year I had two guides receiving their Presidents guide award. So before they are 18 years they have to complete everything. From the time I started, I think 25 guides have got their President’s award so that is an accomplishment for me. We have a religious ceremony where all my children participate, we go to Gangaramaya temple and clean the temple.

I have a lot to say about my own company and the handicapped children I work with, because I take about 120 handicapped children on camp for four days. We find the money, we get the donations. The Sri Lanka Girls Guides Association gets a grant from the government and abroad. We get funding not only from the World Association but from other donors such as UNICEF or WHO. All other departments have to find their own way.

My own company 3rd Colombo is funded by no one but me.

Ambawatte was also the commissioner for the section of the Handicapped and Disabled children. She was occupied with that section for eight long years “I have been there for 32 years as the Guide Captain, a single captain of the guide company. That is an achievement on my part.

Before being a captain I was a Little Friend, they were called Brownies earlier, I was a Brownie, I was a Guide, Senior Guide, Lieutenant, a Guider and then we take our warrants as Guide Commissioners. I joined the association at the age of seven plus.”