Conscious consumerism for sustainable future!

New initiatives, busy lives….1/4 of the year is gone…planning work and conducting them is easier than making reports and writing blogs J But how can I forget all our supporters who would love to read this blog and get updated about our activities. So it’s my duty to report you too.

ECO-V did not celebrate it's 13th B’day on the 7^th of February the way we usually celebrate in Colombo. I was in Anuradhapura in North central province conducting a 2 day youth training programme for Sevalanka Foundation. It was very much of fun to work with the youngsters who are learning more about organic farming. My duty was to make them understanding about what Mother earth is and how we can make our contributions to make her happy as Green Leaders.

Youth during kitchen gardening

Experiencing Nature an activity

End of February was another busy week with the National exhibition “Deyata Kirula”. We were having an educational stall for a week at the exhibition under the National Nutritional Secretariat of Presidential Secretariat of Sri Lanka. We did not talk about Nature Conservation directly but it was all about “Conscious Consumerism”. Since we started “Consumer Voice of Sri Lanka” group as a result of the International Training from Consumer Association of Penang, Malaysia last year, we have been working on consumer issues too. I have been delivering more presentations at different audiences on Food safety issues with the support from National Nutritional Secretariat of Sri Lanka for last few months. Therefore, we were invited to deliver the same message at Deyata Kirula exhibition too. It was very positively taken by many visitors and all the volunteers at the stall lost their voices at the end of the exhibition due to too much of talking. E numbers or artificial food additive was the most popular topic at stall other than BPA, and sugar levels of food and drinks.

Volunteers talking to visitors about food additives 

Toshani explaining to kid and her family

Kanchana, Sandya and Toshani at stall

Newly trained volunteer Sandya explaining

I am invited to more Radio programmes on this issue as I am working more on Natural and Organic food for sustainable development. So there are more people calling and asking for more information and for more awareness presentations at local level which is encouraging but finding time and covering cost is the most challenging issue for a voluntary organistaion like us L. Well…..anyway ECO-V mission is to create more awareness to have a behavioral change among people to make them more environmental friendly citizens. So we are on our way…..

Good Market Saturday is also started now. We have a full time stall at Thursday Good Market but not on Saturday. But we initiated a new programme called "Nature Youth" at Saturday Market to train more youth as Green leaders and make them more aware on organic products and sustainable life style along with personal development towards a Green leadership. The opening of Saturday Good market was done by Mrs. Anoma Rajapaksha (wife of Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksha teh defence Secretary of Sri Lanka who really admires sustainability). We had a media Briefing on Good Market objectives and I was invited to take part to talk about "Nature Youth" Initiative too. 

Mrs. Anoma Rajapaksha (in blue) at Good Market

Mrs Rajapaksha talking to vendor, Achala and Kanchana watching

Kanchana at Press briefing 

I went to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to participate in a alumni seminar on Climate Change adaptation and mitigation. This was organised my Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute where I got my initial training on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in year 2011. It was very nice to meet peers in the field who are doing very important work in their regions. 

Kanchana addressing the forum 

Alumni group from SMHI in Cambodia