The GNRC Sri Lanka Team organized their third Children’s Camp at the Trincomalee Sarvodaya District Centre (Eastern Province) from the 08 to the 10 February with the participation of sixty five kids representing nine villages of the Trincomalee District.

As Trincomalee is a major war torn area in Sri Lanka, it’s extremely especial the meeting of twenty each kids from three different communities; Muslims, Tamils and Sinhalese. The other speciality was that the Sarvodaya District Centre was next to a Trincomalee Naval Camp, and there was live firing in the near by sea at the time of inaugural session on the 08th evening.

It was quite a big question mark for the participants as they may have started to wonder what we were planning to do. We later realize their thoughts while streaming through the photographs captured by our GNRC Team members.

Similar to the previous children’s camps held in Wallawaya and Ratnapura, the life tree exercise gave them a insight to their own lives and also made them comfortable being safe with in each other as every one of them were open and honest and understanding the other person by getting in to their shoes, but also this was quite a huge experience for the GNRC Team as when they started sharing their real life experience of the war and feelings of fear of loosing their own parents, community and friends.

The whole group was also taken to a Hindu Temple near by for a religious observance.

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The GNRC Sri Lanka Team organized their second Children’s Camp in Pathakada, Ratnapura (Sabaragamuwa Province) from the 1 to the 3 February with the participation of fifty kids representing fifteen villages of the Ratnapura District. The camp was held at the “Pathakada Bikku Trainging Centre” in Ratnapura.

Similar to the previous children’s camp in Wallawaya, the life tree exercise gave them a insight to their own lives and also made them comfortable being safe with in each other as every one of them were open and honest and understanding the other person by getting in to their shoes.

As the words “respect”, “responsibility”, “empathy” and “reconciliation” were the key words for the camp and once the GNRC Team brought the kids to a level where they started understanding what each word mean, they started to build on from the point we stopped and they simply went forward by adding more value to it. They depicted what they grasped when they acted out small skits and role plays. The kids them selves realized that every person should have those qualities in order for this world to be a peaceful and unique place, thereby making it, a place where everyone would love to live in.

The Cultural night was done in a bit of grand scale, coordinated by the children them selves was very well organized, its a fact that they learnt a lot from each other.

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below is an short article written by an organizer;

“Children walked hurriedly towards the prayer venue at 7.15 a.m. on a cold January morning at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. As, I followed this impressive gathering of children I overheard a girl whispering gently to her friend 'Do you know this was the day Gandhiji was shot dead? After a few seconds the friend replied 'yes, I do and we are here to pay Anjali to him! The day long observance started with a children-led Inter-faith prayer where over 750 children participated. What followed was a moving day-long tribute to not only the Mahatma but to the values he treasured 'Truth' & Non-violence', which he lived everyday & grounded all his constructive work upon.”

“True to their commitment the People of Coimbatore came in large numbers on 30th January to participate in the events organized under three sections, namely, Samarpanam, Gandhi Stops and Anjali.”

20 institutions hosted over 5000 citizens of Coimbatore, coordinated by Shanti Ashram and the Young Indians. On the morning of January 30th people assembled on the banks of the Noyyal River and started the city-wide 60th Memorial Day observance which culminated in the evening with an Anjali, by renowned dancers, musicians & artists.

The Principals from different schools in Nepal participated (all together there were 135 participants) in this programme on the 25 & 26 January 2008 held at the Bhaktapur District, Nepal. All together Nineteen Schools have taken part from Improve the Mind or Character of Somebody (EDIFY) Private Schools’ Organization Nepal, in the programme. It was very interesting that all the participants were young teachers. All the teachers contributed a lot in every session like; self-management, interaction, ethical games, songs, yoga, meditation.

There was a workshop on “self management tools”. It was based on interaction for example: as a teacher how to have a good relationship with the students, parents and the administration (and as human beings with all people). The teachers came up with good ideas. Every one collectively came up with the idea that “we should have a good foundation of well understanding and reliability among the people. In this way, we discussed on other ethical values”. There was power point presentation on the basic ethical values by Dr. C. M. Yogi. We organized some games, yoga class & singing song based on ethical values.

Programme outcomes: There was a discussion on “YADI YASTO BHAYO BHANE” (Imagine if something happens like this). All teachers actively took part in this interaction. This discussion dealt with various real life situations problems in the administration, teaching, behavior of teachers, students, ethics of teachers and so on. At the end we organized a teacher’s commitment to develop high self esteem for being a teacher. Every one together came up with an oath, in which ethical values of teacher was stated.

The GNRC Sri Lanka Team organized their inaugural Children’s Camp in Wallawaya, Monaragala (Uva Province) from the 11 to the 13 January with the participation of sixty-six kids representing thirteen villages of the Monaragala District. The camp was held in a temple named “Waliyaya Pirivena” in Monaragala.

The Children gathered on the 11th (Friday) after school at the temple and had the inaugural session around 6.00 p.m. in the evening where they had a couple of ice breakers and a short introduction to the camp. Surely the camp became the most happiest times of their entire life, as they always wanted to be playful, enjoy and learn at the same time.

The programme of the camp itself was completely different from the traditional programmes that you would have ever gone through. The GNRC Team always tried to emphasized, what does the simple words like “respect”, “responsibility”, “empathy” and “reconciliation” affects our lives.

“respect”, “responsibility”, “empathy” and “reconciliation” are just four simple words we always use in our schools, communities and also we always hear and see the use of these words in the newspapers and in the media every day, but did we ever understand what it meant and what a difference it can make? When the kids started to talk about these four words and then shared their own stories. When they kept on building up on every ones’ thoughts they realized that simply what those meant and the power of those words.

The kids realized that every person should have those qualities in order for this world to be a peaceful and unique place, thereby making it, a place where everyone would love to live in.

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To have a look at the photos please click here
For more information please email us at n.muthaliph@gnrc.net