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Voice of Silence.

Editors Note
Dear Friends,
This edition of the Voice of Silence comes to you
as a special edition for the YMCA Founders Day
Celebration 2015.
Today the organizations like YMCAs are struggling due to various issues due to funding, less volunteerism and wrong priorities. Therefore this is
the best time to reflect on the work of Sir George
Williams and the roots of the YMCA where he
dedicated his time and life with an innovative
methodology in the context he lived in London in
1840s for the betterment of the society.
YMCA is a movement came-up to response the
need of the marginalized community, but today the
YMCA is becoming a place which response and
fulfill the needs of privileged. Everything counts
on money and the words, deficit and turn-over of
the YMCA have become more important than impact and outcomes of the YMCA activities.

Conflicts, unjust, disasters and problems are all

over the world and thousands are dying, displaced
and suffer. YMCAs are all over these places. Being
a world-wide movement, it is fair to say that our
involvement is far less than our potential. There is
no one else to be blamed other-than our selves who
lead this movement in various capacities.
In the context it is a uphill task to swim upstream
in responding to above mention difficult situations.
News we bring to you with
this are some of the attempts to
do so in the YMCA of
Pamunugama.
We wish all you the courage
and braveness that George
William had to be innovative
on this very special day we
celebrate his life.
Ridma

Pamunugama Children bring the message of peace to homes!

On 23.12.2014 the children of Pamunugama
YMCA visited houses in the village with carrols.
They were singing carrols on the road as well as
door steps of the houses in the surrounding.
During home visits children performed the birth
of Jesus Christ while the others were singing carols standing around the holy family. Santa claus
who joined the team did not forgot to bring gi)s
to the children of the houses they visited.

Voice of Silence.

Founders Day Celebrations 2015

YMCA of Pamunugama is organizing a series of programmes

during the month of
June to mark the
YMCA Founders Day
2015 which falls on
every 06th day of
June.
Kick-o event was
held today (06 June,
2015). Childrens Club
members had a Road
Cleaning Shramadana.
Children of the YMCA
gave their volunteer
service to clean the
way that leads to the YMCA from the main road.
Following are Among other events organized during the month of June to make the Founders day .
Kubb Tournament

Voice of Silence.

Pre School Kids, Guides, Scouts

and Children's Club on stage!
Children and teenagers attached to the YMCA had their
Annual Cultural Concert on 07 December, 2014. There
were around 50 kids took part in the show where they
have performed number of dances, dramas and carol singing.

this wonderful concert as a result of hard work by the

Pre School teachers with the support of parents and
children's club.

Children of the pre School performed several dancing acts and

drama while the members of the
Girl Guides Group and the Scout
Group also staged several dances, drama and a carol singing.
Rev Father Cloud Wanasinghe,
Shivankara Ranaweera, President of Pamunugama YMCA, Simon and Vindis (Scouts from
Bronnoy Scout Group) and several other Board Members attended
the event as guests while around
three hundred people came to
witnessed the event. YMCA of
Pamunugama were able to bring

Voice of Silence.

Scouts and Guides make the day happy....

a)er praying together to God for providing the

daily bread and for the opportunity given to spend
the
day
together
with
the
YMCA.
Following the lunch, group sang songs and had a
few indoor games and then watched PK (A Bollywood Movie). Last event of the day was a tournament of Kubb which was newly introduced to Sri
Lanka by the YMCA of Pamunugama. Before the
group dismissed, the had a short verbal evalua=on
where most of the kids shared posi=ve thoughts
on the day.
On 10 May, 2015 the Guides and the Scouts had a
day camp in the Pamunugama YMCA premises. 19
Guides and Scouts came to the YMCA in the morning a)er a8ending the Sunday Service to spend
the day together with their scouts and guide
friends.
Day's work started with preparing lunch in three
patrols (Penguin, Eagle and Pasbara). They made
rice, dall curry and a sausage devil in
three groups. Then they all enjoyed the lunch
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Voice of Silence.

New Year Festival 2015

YMCA of Pamunugama organized a

New Year Fes=val at the YMCA of
Pamunugama grounds on 01 May
2015. Around 250 children and adult
from the village as well as several
YMCA friends from outsta=ons also
a8ended the event.
Event started with welcoming the
guests Mr. Randima and Rev. Sister
Nilanka by the Pre-School kids. A)er
raising the Na=onal ag by Mr. Randima the New Year Games started.
Number of tradi=onal New Year
Games were taken place under dierent age categories and number of fun and tradi=onal games were conducted for adults and

youth. Kana Mu@ Gesima, Placing the eye to the

Elephant, Ko8a Pora (Pillow Wrestling), Carrying
Lemon on Spoon, Bag Race, Gessing the number of seeds in the
Papaya, Filling the water bo8le
were among some of the
games.
Objec=ve of organizing the event
was to bring all the villages together and to make build good
rela=onships among them. YMCA
of Pamunugama thank all the
friends, youth and wellwishes who contributed in various means to make the event a
success.
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Voice of Silence.

Visit from Asker YMCA/YWCA Scouts

Asker YMCA YWCA Scout Group visited Pamunugama YMCA for a short
visit from 22 - 24 May, 2015.
During this visit Mr. Rolf discussed
on the ongoing partnership and
support that he provides to
Pamunugama YMCA as well as on
poten=al partnerships to be developed in the future.

Asker YMCA has been a long standing friend/

partner of the YMCA of Pamunugama over a
period of decade. Rolf Falchenberg a leader of

Further he met scouts and guides of

Pamunugama YMCA and spend
some =me with his friends in
Pamunugama area. We thank Mr.
Falchenberg for visi=ng Pamunugama and his
kind concern for the development of the
YMCA of Pamunugama.

Map Reading Session for Scouts and Guides

Santosa Founda=on which is a like-minded organiza=on that work to reduce poverty in the area.
There they had to learn about the ac=vi=es of the
Santosa Founda=on.
Both groups reached the des=na=ons successfully and returned to the YMCA by
noon. Then they had a presenta=on on their visit
and shared their experiences on map reading
which was a new thing for most of the kids.

On 15.05.2015 Scouts and Guides of the

YMCA of Pamunugama had a map reading session at the Children's Club
mee=ng. Then they were given the task
to follow a map and to meet a person.
Des=na=on for the rst Group was Mr.
Ananda Ranaweera's house (Member of
the YMCA). During this visit they had to
learn about the history of Pamunugama
area and to learn the stories behind the
names of the villages in the Pamunugama
peninsula from Mr. Ranaweera.
Des=na=on for the second group was
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Voice of Silence.

Pamunugama YMCA Easter Celebration 2015

Members of the YMCA including guides, scouts,

adult leaders on 30 March, 2015 gathered at the
YMCA main hall to meditate, and share the message of Easter. Today the YMCA members
prayed together, sang hymns and listen to a
preach delivered by Rev Fr. Samidu Pathum
on the Easter and the Challengers for Chris=an in celebra=ng the Easter in today's context.

ing with it as it is the most important feast in

the Chris=an Calender.

Event started with an introduc=on to the

Easter by Ridma and then the group prayed
several tradi=onal Easter prayers and sang
hymns together. At the end Rev Fr. Samidu
Pathum delivered a meaningful preach
where he emphasized on Chris=an responsibility in iden=fying what Easter really is
and the importance of celebra=on and liv-

Voice of Silence.

Kubb for the first time in Sri Lanka

Kubb is a recrea=onal game mainly popular

in Scandinavian countries, US and few other
places. YMCA of Pamunugama introduced
this game to the Children's Club members.
Most probably this is the rst =me this game
was
played
in
Sri
Lanka.
Children loved this fantas=c game and they
were so eager to learn it and to play it. Chil-

dren of Pamunugama will con=nue to play

this game and YMCA would like to spread
this game among other YMCAs as well as
interested groups. This is not only for kids.
It works very well woth adults too..
We thank Mr. Eric of US Kubb Chanpionship
and Mr. Jason Larson of JP's Backyard
Games of US for helping us to get the Kubb
set.

Voice of Silence.

Distribution of stationeries among flood affected Life

Agriculture Project Members
Then YMCA representa=ves had a shat
about future project ac=vi=es and visited
home gardens and the destroyed paddy elds belong to these 25 families due to
heavy oods during the end of 2014.
Among all nancial dicul=es, the project
members hosted a wonderful village lunch
for the YMCA representa=ves and appreciated the eort of the YMCA for keeping the
promise by arranging sta=oneries.

Four Pamunugama YMCA representa=ves visited

Horowpothana on 01 February, 2015 to meet with
the Life Agriculture Project Members. There are 25
families involved with this project.
Responding to a request made by the project members Pamunugama YMCA arranged a distribu=on of
sta=oneries for the school children of these 25 families during this visit. Each family received a set of
books valued around Rs 1,000/=.

Mini-Shramadana
On 04 May, 2015 Board Members of the YMCA of Pamunugama volunteered to x few electrical problems and to pain the YMCA gate. Thank you for dedica=ng a holiday for the YMCA.

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Voice of Silence.

YPPs in Pamunugama

member (Young Peace Performers) YPP group

have arrived in Pamunugama on 17th December,
2014. During their visit to Pamunugama they involved with various ac=vi=es in Pamunugama =ll
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December,
2014.
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As they arrived, the group was welcomed by the

young board members at Green Banks with a introduc=on session and a welcome dinner.
Work Camp
On 18th morning they involved with a Work Camp
where they supported a family in Pamunugama to
build a part of their house. All these events were
organized by the YMCA of Pamunugama and variouse ac=vi=es with Children and Youth were
scheduled for their stay.

Tree Planng Programme

To mark the visit of the YPPs to Pamunugama a
tree plan=ng programme was organized on 18th
December,
2014
with
the par=cipa=on of the
YPPs,
children
and
youth
of
Pamunugama
YMCA.
Programme
started with
plan=ng a palm tree named as YPP. Then the YPPs
together with local members planted several trees
in the YMCA premises.At the beginning of the programme It was men=oned that the YMCA is one of
the best place to talk about on environment as we
are sca8ered all over the world from grass-root
levels to the top interna=onal levels.
Following the tree planta=on programme held in
the YMCA on 18th the YPPs went to the Beach
with the children of Pamunugama.
Cnt..
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Voice of Silence.

YPPs in Pamunugama Cnt...

Fishing
On 19th the YPPs arrived at the YMCA in the
morning from their accommoda=on. Then they
went to the beach again to join the shermen to
drag nets from the sea. YPPs learnt how the shermen in Pamunugama make their living with lot of
dicul=es.
Visit to Children's Home
On the same day evening they went to visit a Children's Home in Pamunugama. Their they performed a show for kids. Pamunugama YMCA have
arranged gi)s to all the children living in the Children's Home as YMCA does it every year.
Volleyball
Following the visit to the Children's Home group
came back to Pamuugama and had fun a8ending
friendly volleyball tournament among the YPPs
and the local youth and children.
Day was ended with a BBQ dinner where both

Pamunugama youth and YPPs enjoyed the evening.

Day with Children's Club/Scouts and Guides
On 20th the YPPs came back to the YMCA and
atended the Children's Club mee=ng. A)er the
mee=ng the YPPs performed a show which addresses various jus=ce issues such as gender, environment, corrup=on. Following the show Guides
of Pamungama performed two dances for the
YPPs.
Last day
Youth of Pamunugama joined the YPPs for a short
session on Subject to Ci=zen (S2C) concept before
they ended up with short evalua=on discussion
where the YPPs shared their thoughts on the stay.
According to some of the YPPs they were impressed with the programme provided by the
YMCA of Pamunugama and some said that they
were amazed by the way young people involved in
higher ranks in the YMCA of Pamunugama.

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Voice of Silence.

Port City and its negative impact

We the Pamunugama YMCA situated in the coastal
belt just north of Colombo (where the Port City is
under construc=on) are very much concerned on
the nega=ve impact that port city could bring to
our area. Sea-erosion which could create a lot of
problems to shermen and those who live by the
coast seems the main thread among many other
social and environmental impacts. According to
the experts the project was started without any
proper environmental impact assessment. We also
concerned and very worried over the geopoli=cal
dynamics behind this project as Chinese invasion
on the land (port city) will create a lot of sensi=ve
and complicated geopoli=cal scenario where Sri
Lanka is going to trapped between powerful na=ons.
On

Pamunugama organized a discussion to educate

the villagers on this regard at the YMCA main hall.
Mr. Ravindra Kariyawasam (Environmentalist) and
Mr. Aruna (Fishermen ac=vist leader) a8ended the
discussion as resource persons. There were
around 15 villagers a8ended the event and YMCA
of Pamunugama will con=nue the educa=onal process together with those who attended the event on
Saturday.

Saturday 21st March, 2015 YMCA of

Right to Information Act - By Dr. Rohan Edirisinghe

Jus=ce and Peace Commi8ee of the Na=onal
Council of the YMCAs of Sri Lanka together with
the Na=onal YWCA of Sri Lanka jointly organized a
workshop on the Right To Informa=on (RTI) Act at
the YWCA Head Oce at Kolpe8y.

Group of around 25 YMCA and YWCA sta and

members a8ended the event. Ridma and Nico
from Pamunugama YMCA also attended the workshop.

Workshop was conducted by well-known social

ac=vist Dr. Rohan Edirishinghe. Dr. Edirisinghe expressing his views he shared on the back ground of
the bill, pressure on Sri Lanka for such a bill, key
elements of a progressive RTI bill, Challenges in
working out the bill in the Sri Lankan poli=cal contest and the main elements of the bill which has
already been dra)ed.

YMCA of Pamunugama
Suruwela Road, Seththappaduwa,

Pamunugama
Sri Lanka

Tel: 0094 31 222 65 71

E mail: pamunugama_icy@yahoo.com
Blog: http://ymcaofpamunugama.blogspot.com/
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