Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

The path of interaction
By Tharangani Perera
The Interact movement is the single-most powerful school-based organisation in Sri Lanka, which brings many prospects of leadership, service and friendship to its members across the nation. Unfortunately though, life as a member of an Interact Club isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs. Serving the underprivileged, fostering leadership and bringing together students from all racial and scholastic backgrounds since its establishment, the movement has surprisingly been seen to build up a notorious reputation as an unbridled student organisation.

In view of this, the committee of the Interact District 3220 took upon itself the responsibility of eradicating this common misconception. A few weeks ago Enlight was introduced to educate the school authorities and other relevant parties about the Interact movement.

The objective of this project was to create an opportunity for school authorities to voice their opinions regarding the Interact movement through an open forum. By openly addressing common misconceptions concerning the role of the movement, the District Committee hoped to resolve the numerous issues faced by the school authorities with regard to their respective Interact Clubs.

“It is amazing to witness how young teenagers change hundreds of lives of the less fortunate through Interact,” said District Interact Represen-tative Int. PP Shammi Weerasinghe at Enlight. “The Interact movement has planted a sense of social responsibility in the minds of its members, who strive to make this country a better place to live, through various projects,” he added.
The participants were addressed by the New Generations Committee Advisor, Mr. Mangala Gunawardena, Int. PP Shammi Weerasinghe and the District Directress Int. PP Azara Jaleel, before moving onto a presentation that represented the role of Interact through a series of service projects. The programme then led to the open forum discussion, directed by a panel of five distinguished personnel, who represented the school authorities’ the Rotary, Rotaract and Interact movements.

Many problem areas were discussed by the participants, including interaction between girls and boys, the lack of staff advisors to guide the interactors and having little control over their respective interact clubs. “Many schools face the problem of having no control over the proceedings of an Interact Club,” said Principal of Gateway College Colombo, Mr. R. I. T. Alles. “The Interact Club is the only school-based organisation, of which the administration is handled by external authorities. Therefore, many principals find it difficult to follow and endorse the actions of the movement,” he added. He went on to explain how the school authorities suffer from the lack of qualified and dedicated staff advisors, who can be appointed to direct the students in their activities.

Rtn. Asgi Akbarally, the District Interact Committee Chairman, who was representing the Rotary movement on the panel, expressed his enthusiasm to help school authorities with these problem areas. “The Interactors will be advised on avoiding conflict of interest with the school administration, in order for the school authorities to be comfortable with the current hierarchy of the interact movement,” he said. He further stated that staff advisors could be trained by Rotary personnel upon an official request issued by the school’s administration.

“Personally, I see Interactors to be the ambassadors of schools,” said Leonard Alwis, the founder of the Interact Club and past principal of Trinity College, Kandy, adding that the movement serves as an opportunity for students to reveal their skills in an international environment. “The Interact Club has been misunderstood by many. But these are our girls and boys, who are striving to make a difference in their society by serving. They deserve our support and encouragement, and they in turn hold a great responsibility as young leaders of this country,” he further stated.

Top