Mihimadale Hithathiyo…KSMA training Programme

The second part of KSMA training named as “Mihimadale Hithathiyo” was successfully conducted in September 2009. With the success of the 1st part of the training held in May 2009 we all were having so much of confidence for the second part. Out of 20 youth participated in the 1st part 17 were present at the second part. Three have started jobs and one joined with the Sri Lanka army and they could not make it for this time.


It was held at the same venue-Bandaragama Sarvodaya training centre which has most wonderful environment for this kind of training. Lecture theatre was facing to the Bolgoda lake where the trainees had their field excursion on the second day of the training. This was one of the most exiting experience for most of the trainees as it was their first hand experience in educational trip on a boat. Local environmental friendly boats were hired from the fishermen and three fishermen from the area participated in the trip. According to them we were the first team who got their help for environmental activity in their life time even though many tourist hotel are situated in the vicinity of the Bogoda lake.

Prof. Sarath Kotagama, Professor of Environmental science from University of Colombo, Mr. Samantha Gunasekara chief custom officer in Sri Lanka customs and Nanda Kumara (ECO-V member) participated as resources persons. Listening to Prof. Kotagama and Mr Samantha for their inspiring and most important lectures were eye opening event for most of the young participants who have never been exposed to this kind of training before.
Nanda conducted very interesting sessions of Yoga exercises early in the mornings and life saving tips that one should know as a field worker. Both were highly appreciated by the participants. Environmental meditation session conducted early in the morning by kanchana was also admired as at 1st part of the training and this time they wanted to learn it properly to teach other youngsters. Harsha added most of his learning from trainings at Jersey International Training centre and from Conservation Leadership programme which immensely helped to make this training worthwhile.

Poster making competition and other activities like environment and music, environment and culture, religion, history were the sessions they showed a great enthusiasm. Cultural show held at the end of the training gave them the opportunity to perform in front of an audience and that was the second time for such a performance for some of the trainees. The first experience was our first training session in May. A certificate and few awards were awarded for the most outstanding trainee and for the most attractive poster. The evaluation tests conducted at the beginning of the training and at the end of the training showed us the level of change that they have made personally. All the trainees with out any hesitation admitted that the training itself made a huge change personally and it helped them to perform effectively as a team.

No body wanted to leave on the last day but it was the happy end of the Kate Stoke Memorial Award training programme that we organized for CLP award we won in 2008. Everybody didn’t forget to thank Kate-the never seen beautiful lady and the trustees of the KSMA award for giving them the opportunity to learn about Mother Earth.

NGO leaders’ met the environmental Minister

A work shop for environmental leaders in Colombo and Gamapaha district was held at the Central environmental Authority (CEA) on the 14^th of September. All registered NGO’s under CEA in these 2 districts were invited by the director General Pasan Gunasena where main objective was to discuss about future involvements of NGOs and problems they faced when involved in environmental conservation in Sri Lanka.

Hon Minister Mr. Patali Champika Ranawaka addressed the gathering with an eye opening presentation on 4 global crisis such as Economical crisis, Fuel crisis, Food crisis and Water crisis. He also explained the way forward as Sri Lakans and our responsibilities as a Nation to overcome these crises.

After the meeting we got an opportunity to express our views. Kanchana and Harsha participated in this workshop.

After 2 months of silence!

Dear all,

We could not write anything on the blog for past two months. That does not mean that we didn’t do any thing important. Our busy lives at work and personal commitments were main reasons to be away from you all. Thushara is still working with Internally Displaced People in the North for their rehabilitation activities and I tried to continue all the work with the help of my ECO-V team and kids also needed my attention more than before as their 3^rd term at school has started.

I am going to post few activities for the months of August and September 2009.

Roteracts GO GREEN campaign

I had the chance of visiting to Padaviya area where we have been carrying out research few years back and had the first glimpse of normalcy returning to villages after recent completion of humanitarian operations. We are hoping to go back to that area soon to start our unfinished work.

First Saturday of August I had the chance of giving my message of environmental consciousness to group of youngsters who have decided to commit them selves to be the advocates of serving the mother earth from the anticipating disasters. It was the occasion of my friend Farhah Markan Marker’s induction ceremony as the president of Colombo Mid City Roteract club and she wanted me to be the guest of honor. I met Farah few years back during my expedition with the youth group in India participating in “Youth Yathra” along Yamuna river. We shared common believes and values during the “Yathra” and she wanted me to share my vision with her members at this occasion as she also believes that youth of the world can make a difference in this world taking the leadership in any sphere. I highlighted the importance of individuals’ responsibility in conservation of environment and it was well received by the audience of youth at the ceremony. Roteracters wanted to continue their campaign to go green with ECO-V and promised to have join projects with us in the future. Miss Sri Lanka 2009 and Mr Sri Lanka were also invited as guests of the occasion.

ECO-V wishes Farah all the best for coming year and her crusade to Go Green with the Roterators.

Kanchana is back with Pelicans and Langurs!

I came back from Netherlands after a very successful 3 weeks training course at Wageningen International. It was very difficult to say good bye to training mates as all of them were so friendly and interactive. I think I learnt a lot from them and the course helped me to develop my teaching skills as a trainer and a facilitator. Two Dutch course coordinators; Esther and Ingrid were very helpful and have done a great job in sharpening my skills. I am sure every one who participated in the course was able to get the maximum use of the training. Sri Lankan way of Greeting “Ayubowan” (May all living beings live long) was accepted by everybody as the best way of greeting and all the time we were using that. David my friend from Ghana (see the photo, me and David saying Ayubowan together) particularly wanted to use it for his teaching.

The most interesting thing was meeting one of my good friends after 10 years . Tahir Shawl whom I met at the International training Centre in Jersey Zoo, UK (Durrell) in 1999 was also there in this training and it was a nice surprise (See the photo, me and Tahir). We could not stop talking about our training at Durrell 10 years ago and all our training mates were surprised to hear that we have met long time ago. Tahir is working as a wildlife park warden in Jammu & Kashmir area. I can remember my good friend Robyn Dalzen from CLP programme has mentioned in one of her emails that she was told “The world is very big, but all the nice and interesting people know each other.” So I also agree with that. All good and enthusiastic people in the conservation world seem to be end up meeting again and again and the bond among them is so strong. There are lot to share with each other and I am sure we can make a difference if we keep working as a real nice big family. So my dear 42 training mates, Esther and Ingrid you are so important to me and I miss you all! (See the photo me with Lakshmi the training assistant, Esther and Ingrid). Thanks to Netherlands fellowship Programme for sponsoring me to attend the training.

Soon after I came back I had to start working with the “Kalu Wandura” (Leaf langur) Project. Dr. Rudran who was in Sri Lanka just before I went to Netherlands has given many instructions to the team. We were waiting for him to come to Sri Lanka as the team had never met him before. So it was good to have him here and get his advice to improve the quality of the study. Harsha my colleague has done a great job as an overall coordinator to ECO-V in absence of me.

Kanchana in Netherlands

I found a time to write something about our work in the middle of a training of trainers of wetland Management (TOT) in Wageningen, Netherlands. I came here on the 7th of June and will be getting this training until 27th of this month. This is going to be a very useful training for me as well as for ECO-V as we are currently working on Pelican’s habitats in Sri Lanka. We started on protecting Spot-billed pelican habitats after our work on distribution of Spot-billed Pelicans within Sri Lanka .We realized that their habitats; fresh water man made tanks are in real trouble mainly due to siltation and aquatic alien invasive species. Many fishermen in the freshwater tank habitats are complaining about not taking any actions for this habitat degradation and according to our experience its not that they are not aware of what is happening but they are not stakeholders among the responsible authorities. So ECO-V decided to bridge them and do what ever we can do to protect the pelican habitat for both human and for wildlife. Therefore this TOT will be very useful for our future programmes in getting into new areas that we were not working on.

There are 43 participants from 28 countries. All are mid carrier managers of NGOs and government agencies in their respective countries with more experience in wetland management field. I came here with a help of the fellowship provided by the Netherlands Embassy. There are 39 fellowships given this time out of 300 applicants. So it was a great opportunity to get real experience in wetland management in Netherlands a country which has more wetlands with different level of stakeholder partnerships.

Good Bye Mark! Thank you!

Mark went back after 10 weeks of his stay here and we are missing his friendly support we got throughout his stay. Mark said that he learnt a lot while staying here and it was very helpful for him to acquire more training skills as he conducted many training sessions for various groups like University of Colombo, National Zoo, Field Ornithology group (FOGSL), Young Zoologists Association (YZA), Jetwing Hotels and Girithale Wildlife Training centre and of course my team at ECO-V. We believe that his whole stay with us at our home not only helped ECO-V but for many other government and non governmental organizations and tourism sector as well. This is one good example that our volunteers welcome programme will benefit to many stakeholders in Sri Lanka even in future. Week after Mark went Kanchana went to Netherlands for a fellowship from Netherlands Embassy. She will be trained as a trainer (TOT) of Wetland Management for 3 weeks in Netherlands.

New Blog For Mihimadale Hithathiyo Training Programme

The Kate Stokes Memorial Award Training Programme:- Mihimadale Hithathiyo (Friends of Mother Earth) now has its own blog!

Follow the link (by clicking on the title above) to see many photos from the first part of the training, information about Kate, and the award, and a blog post from Mark Chappell, showing his take on the weekend.

In future, all updates of news, photos and videos that relate to the training programme will be uploaded to the new blog.

Enjoy reading!