 |
||||
| All
Island Girl Guide Camp It is important to note that Guides from Jaffna, Mannar and Vavuniya participated in the camp. They even came in their own bus. The Guides were grouped into 21 sub camps and the usual activities in a camp took place with the camp rising at 5.30am and the silence whistle being blown at 10.30pm. One of the most important fun activities was the Sports Festival held on August 24th and 25th at the camp. It was organised by the ‘Dreams + Teams’ leadership programme. This programme teaches leadership through sport and is sponsored by The British Council. The co-sponsors were Nestle Lanka Ltd. The Guides were put into five teams – purple, pink, orange, blue and red. The children of the Dreams + Teams group organised a few games. They designed two games on their own namely, the obstacle and crab game. In addition, there was an exhibition netball match between Sirimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya and Visakha Vidyalaya. The Guides were trained by the Netball Association. A karate display was held as well. They were trained by the Karate Association. The girls proudly said, “We learnt these skills in a matter of days!” Rope balancing, commando crawl, confidence tree, monkey ladder, tyre ladder, rifle shooting, netball shooting, football kicking, cycling, drawing, music/singing, dancing/miming, bowling, batting and the camp fire item were the 15 Fun Skills and challenges. As the name suggests, these challenges are achieved through fun. Once the skills are completed they are marked on a challenge card and an all island achievement badge is awarded. They are all given an equal opportunity while completing the challenges. Out of the 750 campers around 10% of them will be awarded the fun skills achievement badge. The base of these events is aesthetic and physical training. All skills are done individually, apart from the camp fire, which was held on August 26th. The Guides were assisted by the Kudaoya Army Camp for the Fun Skills activities. The camp was rather quiet on the 25th morning as most of the Guides had gone on field trips. But those who had returned were practising the march past, in the hot and humid weather. This did not seem to discourage them in any way! Nearly 400 Guides participated in the march past, trained by the Sri Lanka Army. A few others were doing their cooking duties. Everyone had their duties set aside. The five duties in each camp were health, cooking, mess group, wood & water and camp. The morning of August 25th was set aside for field trips and the Guides from Jaffna, Mannar and Vavuniya visited Kataragama. The others visited historical sites like Buduruwagala. They also visited the Dematamal Vihara and the Palwatte Sugar Corporation. The Guides had the assistance of the Welawaya police, the Uva Province Education Department, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Welawaya Pradeshiya Lekam Office, the Pelwatta Sugar Corporation, the Ceylon Electricity Board (Bandarawela) and the Ceylon Transport Board (Welawaya Depot). The Medical Officer of Health, Wellawaya even set aside a few beds in hospital for them. First Aid was provided by the Saukyadana movement. Speaking to Samantha Wijekoon, Division Commissioner, she said being a Guide means one has to “feel, care, love and respect each other” and their motto is “Be Prepared”. The Guides certainly were prepared for anything and they certainly carry out the duties of love, care and respect. |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
