The Ethics Promoting Campaign
"Walking together"
100 days. 1,000 activities. 10,000 children.

The Children’s Camps conducted under the Ethics Promotion Campaign;

Wallawaya	11 to 13 January 2008
Ratnapura	1 to 3 February 2008
Trincomalee	8 to 10 February 2008

The previous Children’s Camps conducted



The GNRC Sri Lanka Team believes that the “Sarvodaya” concept is the best approach for Sri Lanka in promoting ethics among children. The whole concept is vast area of different target and vulnerable groups, below is a short description of Sarvodaya;

The Lanka Jatika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya (Sarvodaya) is Sri Lanka’s largest and most broadly embedded people’s organisation, with a network covering: 15,000 villages, 345 divisional units, 34 district offices; 10 specialist Development Education Institutes; over 100,000 youth mobilised for peace building under Shantisena; the country’s largest micro-credit organization with a cumulative loan portfolio of over US$1million (through SEEDS, Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Services); a major welfare service organisation serving over 1,000 orphaned and destitute children, underage mothers and elders (Sarvodaya Suwa Setha); and 4,335 pre-schools serving over 98,000 children.

Sarvodaya’s total budget exceeds USD 5 million with 1,500 full-time employees. When combined with numerous volunteer workers, this yields a full time equivalent of approximately 200,000, which places Sarvodaya on a par with the entire plantation sector in Sri Lanka.

Sarvodaya is an organisation developed around a set of coherent philosophical tenets drawn from Buddhism and Gandhian thought; it has been operational for almost 50 years. It has been described as an international role model by international bodies. Its founder and charismatic leader, Dr A.T. Ariyaratne, whose visionary contributions have been recognised in multiple countries, continues to provide ideological and inspirational leadership to the organisation while the day-to-day operations are in the hands of a new generation, receptive to modern forms of management that are compatible with the overall vision of this volunteer-based peoples’ organisation.

For more information about Sarvodaya please visit http://www.sarvodaya.org/

Under “Sarvodaya” we have different groups working at the village level. Some of them can be listed as below;

“Singithi Haula”
This is a group of children age between 8 and 15, working at the village level. Most of their activities are based on Sports and Recreation, Aesthetic Activities, Support Services, etc. the group is being supported by the Sarvodaya District Centers based around the country.

“Yovun Haula”
This is a group of children age between 16 and 21, working at the village level. Most of their activities are based on Educational Support Services, Sports and Recreation, Aesthetic Activities, Other Support Services, Cultural Exchanges, etc. the group is being supported by the Sarvodaya District Centers and also by the Sarvodaya Headquarters based projects and programmes.

“Mau Haula”
This is a group for Mothers at village levels. Most of their activities are based on Nutrition Programmes, Home Gardening Programmes, Micro Management Programmes, etc. Their activities are overseen and looked after by the Sarvodaya District Centers.

Like wise there are many other groups for different target groups working in the same village. For GNRC as you can understand that the “Singithi Haula” is the best group we can approach, as there is an existing frame work where once we conduct a programme, we can monitor, evaluate, give feedback instantly, see changes happening fast and most importantly the children have a way to get back to us in their own out-reach programmes.

The GNRC Sri Lanka Team also believes that conducting one-off programmes cannot give a sustainable message and anticipate change to happen instantly, for which we believe that an intense resident two to three day camp is the best way of doing what we want.

The recently concluded Children’s Camp is the best example for this. The camp was concluded on Sunday the 13 January and the Team returned to Colombo. On Monday (it was a holiday for schools declared by the Government due to security constrains) all four members of the Team received calls stating that the children have met on Monday and they wanted to organize a similar one day programme for their peers by themselves. The results we got were promising.


Email us on n.muthaliph@gnrc.net for more information on the GNRC activities in Sri Lanka