Kelani Nadee Yatra

Kelani River just before Kithulgala

At Kosgama

Lots of ground work has been done by now thanks to Sujeewa Thalangama who helped me earlier for Sri Pada Cleaning campaign and Pelican Awareness campaign at Beire Lake. Its very encouraging seeing young energy of Sajith Peris who joined with us to have first visit along the planned route and providing us with lot of information and introducing us to many important people. Big thank goes to Dulshan ECO-V’s IT specialist who has been working very hard to put our ideas into graphic to design to make the KNY logo and the blog site. 

view of Castlereagh reservoir

So the blog site is up as http://kelaninadeeyathra.wordpress.com/

I am also trying to reconnect with many people that I couldn’t keep in touch personally when I was away from the country for a year. So it is always very nice to meet them and get their involvement too. All are very exited about this new project. So far we had 3 visits up and down checking the route (145km long) parallel to the river on the road. Sujeeva went again on his own spending few days meeting many people and getting their views and support. Many are telling us the need of a project like this and its very encouraging to see their enthusiasm.We are amazed to see the amount of water it carries and thrilled about the beauty of the natural habitats along the river specially at the beginning of the river.
Thanks to many friends (those who knew about our previous work) we had in print and electronic media the news about calling applications before 25^th June is done. Thanks to Sunday Observer as they have written a detailed article about the project. http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2011/06/05/new40.asp We are getting applications now from youth. Still meeting some potential sponsors which is the hard and time consuming part of the journey. It’s ok as that also help us to meet many interesting people and make new contacts.

Well exactly 2 more months to begin our journey along the river….

Vesak – the most important religious festival for Buddhists

We celebrated the most important religious festival for Buddhists in Sri Lanka on 15^th and 16^th of May. Vesak which is for Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death is the most colorful festival that celebrated by Sri Lankan Buddhists.

We had a huge enthusiasm to do something to celebrate this festival in our area. Neighbours in our area got together weeks before the festival .They decided to decorate the lane and let the kids participate in community activities. We decorated the street with Buddhist flags and then on Vesak day we lighted lanterns and hung them on bamboo trees that we planted (cut shoots were planted on ground just for few days to hang the lanterns). The kids who come for ECO-V kids programs enjoyed these decorations and learnt about the festival too. The beauty of the event was participation of Christian neighbours who participated enthusiastically at the event by giving us bamboo trees and lighting the lanterns on Vesak day. Isn’t this a wonderful event which shows social cohesion?

Last child in the woods -Fun for kids through Nature at ECO-V (Thiresi Lama Hamuwa)

Thiresi Lama Hamuwa is the newly formed group for kids under age of 15 by ECO-V. This was a dream coming true for me as I have been planning to start an educational session for kids who were associated with ECO-V. I designed a separate environmental educational package for them with my new experience gained by working with children in Australia. After two months of my return, I am happy that I was able to start it. As a trial, I organized the New Year celebration for kids and also Vesak activities in April and May. Now we have a well formed group of kids in our neighborhood who are learning about Nature every week on Sundays while having fun.

After reading the book “Last child in the woods by Richard Louv”, I was determined to do something for our kids to prevent them going away from nature. I know my two kids were growing up with nature from childhood. But I noticed most of their friends did not have the same freedom and knowledge on their surroundings. Most of the parents today are scared about sending their kids to outdoor as they are scared about them getting hurt, getting allergies, or for losing time for homework (studies) and simply just because parents were not aware of the advantages of children being with nature closely. About two years ago my two boys were the only kids who were playing outside on the dusty road and among the bushes in our neighborhood. Since I started few activities for the kids others have also followed. Today with the confidence they have and after seeing the advantages of knowing about nature most of the parents around send their kids to learn about nature at ECO-V.

A big thank goes to Westgarth Mothers group in Melbourne (which Libby helped me to form and raised funds to help needy kids in Sri Lanka) who danated piles of second hand story books. I am using them to these kids now to teach them English. Last week they heard about the story..."The Rainbow fish".... and drew it and learnt about a garden bird too.

New Year in Australia and Sri Lanka

My family and Jim at Camp Eureka

Boingology, Warbuton,Melbourne.

In January 2011, we were able to see the way Melbourne celebrated the New Year. Fire works, greetings, laughs, smiles and happy faces of people wishing each other a “happy New Year!” That was a n interesting experience.  Also we could experience how some other Melbourne people celebrated New Year too. Thanks to Jim Crosthwaite, our dear friend (Co Founder of JCJ) in Melbourne,  we were invited  to spend few days at Camp Eureka ( http://campeureka.org.au/) . It was a great experience for our family to spend few days on camping especially on the first day of the year. It was something similar to Sri Lanka as camp environment reminded us Sinharaja  Kudawa camp. We enjoyed New Year there by watching the nature, visiting a Buddhist Temple in Warbuton and visiting places like Boingology. Boingology is a new concept of art done by using wood carvings and left over materials (http://www.boingabob.com/). I conducted early morning environmental meditation and we all enjoyed cooking together (I cooked Sri Lankan style lentils), late evening cultural event where we all got together and performed.

When we came back to Sri Lanka in March I became busy with my work again after a year. On top of that Sinhala Tamil New year was in April. As it is the most important cultural event for us I had to get ready as soon as I came back. Unfortunately it was not a very happy New year (April 14^th) for my family as we all had to attend my best friend’s (Thilini Herath) funeral. It was heart breaking and we postponed all our social commitments. We went to Matale where I lived during my schooling days with my friend Thilini.

Laughing competition

"Lime on spoon" race

Some how I had to overcome the shock and had to face the reality so I was convinced to organize New Year festival for the kids in our neighborhood. It was an event that I started two years ago.  20 kids from 10 houses in our neighborhood came to my house (ECO-V office too) and enjoyed the afternoon of 7^th May actively participating in the games and events that we organized to celebrate the Sinhala Tamil New year.  On the same day morning I had a meeting with some of the active members of ECO-V to discuss about 10^th Anniversary. Of course it was the first meeting since I came back to Sri Lanka. We also discussed about next project of ECO-V the Kelani Nadee Yatra (www.journeysforclimatejustice.org.au). All were very positive about it and promised to give their fullest support to make it successful.

An innovative way to offset your carbon foot print - Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ)

Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ) is a new way for everybody to offset their carbon foot prints. My stay in Melbourne for a year was very productive as I have a strong bond/link with them even I came back to Sri Lanka. Last year I met many interesting people, who love and care about Mother Earth. 

Victorian governor, me, Mrs De Kretser, Jim Crosthwaite

The most interesting habit of mine; talking to animals and trees helped me to meet Jim and his dog Mimi. When I met them on the road, I never thought that will lead to a strong bond between Melbourne and Sri Lanka. Jim Crosthwaite and Mimi became good friends of mine later on. Jim, Thushara and me shared many common ideas towards environmental issues during many discussions we had over Sri Lankan and Australian meals. Slowly we planted the seed of JCJ (www.journeysforclimatejustice.org.au) and many people helped us to water the seed. JCJ was born in December 2010. I thank all the people who joined with us for founding JCJ as an incorporated organization in Melbourne. The official launch of Journeys for Climate Justice took place at Department of Sustainability and Environment in Melbourne on the 2^nd of March with the Governor of Victoria David de Kretser as the chief guest.  

I met many like minded people during many presentations I have given at the Department of Sustainability and Environment, at different climate change action groups, at other environmental NGOs in Melbourne over last 10 months. I learnt many new concepts, sharing great ideas and on top of that I felt that we are not alone as ECO-V and there are many people who admire ECO-V mission. What we have achieved for past 10 yeas as a voluntary organization in Sri Lanka had many successful stories to share with these like minded people in Melbourne and today ECO-V is a partner organization with JCJ. The first Journey of JCJ will take place in Sri Lanka under ECO-V in coming August along Kaleni River and I will come back to you with more details in near future.

“Westgarth Mothers” Join with Eco Friendly Volunteers’ mission

Westhgarth Mothers Group (WMG) is a small group of parents at my kids school who have got together to help ECO-V’s annual help kids program. Helping around 50 kids to go to school every year by donating all the books and stationary was an annual program we ran under ECO-V. This was done with the help of “Friends of ECO-V” in Sri Lanka and abroad. Now WMG will be with us in the future projects. See our earlier blog (http://ecofriendlyvolunteers.blogspot.com/2009/02/eco-v-helps-children-to-go-to-school-in.html) on our work.

Libby and Me

During our stay in Melbourne for a year, we came across many great friends through the Westgarth Primary school in Northcote where our kids attend. Libby (whose daughter Labanya was with Nipuna at grade 1 last year) got the idea when I discussed the work I done so far with her and she suggested to have a fund raising event to help needy kids in Sri Lanka. She came up with this brilliant idea of having a Sri Lankan lunch for her friends as a fund raising event. It was such a fun event! We organized it on the 5th of February at Libby’s place. We expected at least 20 people but what a day! we got 28 adults and 25 kids!!! Parents helped us to cook a Sri Lankan meal while kids were playing happily. It reminded me arms giving in Sri Lanka as all helped us to prepare the meal. It was a learning experience for most of them as no body had experience in cooking Sri Lankan curries. I gave instructions to moms to cut the vegetables, anions and green chilies.Some happily rolled cutlets and wrapped them with bread crumbs. Some fathers fried papadam and cutlets and some arranged them on banana leaves…what a day…!! when everything was ready by 1.30 pm, all were exited about the food as they all loved the aromatic smell of spices.

 We ended up cooking rice, spicy chicken curry, parippu (dhal), mild cucumber curry, cabbage mallum, cutlets (Tuna balls), papadam, and avocado as a dessert. Libby and I explained the purpose of the event and we conducted a fun event distributing a questionnaire prepared about Sri Lanka. It was named as “Are you smarter than a grade 4? ” .
 Latter Buhusuru who is in grade 4 had to correct all the answers…surprisingly no body got all 5 questions correct. Most of them didn’t know about the way of greeting in Sri Lanka “Ayubowan” (meaning-may all living beings live long) but they all were able to name 3 popular cricketers in Sri Lanka!

 At the end of the day we were very happy and got enough money to run few more projects for the kids this year. It will be used to help needy kids when I go back to Sri Lanka next month. We also got many story books for the kids in Sri Lanka. What a wonderful day!! Thanks to Libby and her family who enthusiastically organized the event and I think it’s a long lasting bond between Westgarth Mothers and ECO-V.
Thank you for all who really had the warm hearts to donate towards this mission. Looking forward to keep you updated about our projects. Your friendship helped us to have a wonderful stay in Northcote! Thanks to Jemma (Libby's elder daughter) we have these photos and will try to arrange a slide show with more photos soon.

Diaspora Sri Lankans and Crystal waters - Queensland

Happy 10th Birthday  ECO-V!!!! - Thank you for all the members volunteers, and well wishes who have been supporting us to come this far!

We meet lot of Sri Lankans from all communities while we are here. Most of them want to do something for the country and they want to promote Sri Lanka and our rich heritage. There are quite a few who look at negatively about Sri Lanka and appreciate their life here. We don’t blame any one but they should not forget that most of them are sons and daughters of our country who have been educated with poor tax payers’ money. They can have their own vision but please do not criticize and compare. Try to pay your debt to the poor people who paid for your education. We need all brilliant people who have left the country if country has to develop.

Dimuthu and Niru

I met this amazing young couple Dimuthu and Niru who are trying to do something to promote our culture and heritage in Australia. We shared a common interest mainly love for your motherland and its heritage and eco friendly life style with minimum impact on mother earth. It does not matter where you reside or what you do. I am grateful to my new friends Dimuthu Dias-Mendis who is the founder of “Ariona” www.ariona.com.au and her husband Niru Mendis, who took the trouble to give me this great experience at Crystal Waters – A permaculture village (www.crystalwaters.org.au). Dimuthu is promoting our Auyrveda treatments at Crystal waters village while dedicating her time to Ariona to promote Sri Lanka.



Crystal waters



Free roaming Wallabies



“Crystal Waters” is in Brisbane, Queensland. It was such a wonderful place to live. I was lucky enough to spend a night at the village and visit around the village meeting some like minded people learning and sharing their experience. Over two hundred residents of all ages coming from many cultural backgrounds live on 85 private one acre plots. Two community plots are owned by a co-operative of residents containing buildings for community events and for the operation of businesses. Residents are engaged in a wide variety of social, cultural, environmental and spiritual activities.  Many homes are built from an interesting array of eco-friendly materials. Mud brick, pole- frame, rammed–earth, recycled and straw bale dwellings are found on the community. Most homes has the common features such as compost toilets (which reminded me our early days at village based life style), solar passive design and energy saving devices. The land is a sanctuary for wildlife. Meeting with free ranged wallabies and possums and eating home grown organic vegetables was wonderful experience .

 

community centre

 

Max and me

 I also got the opportunity to meet Max Lindegger whom I knew through Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka. He is the creator and Director of the Oceania/Asia secretariat of the Global Eco-village Network. He is a primary partner in the design and development of the Crystal Waters. Learning more about permaculture concept, sharing Sri Lankan experience (Max was very passionate about Sri Lanka and Sarvodaya) and looking at his bee keeping was a wonderful experience.
It an amazing experience to watch Rainbow lorikeets and Crimson Rosella that were sitting with us. They were trying to grab our cookies when we were chatting at Max and Trudies’s balcony facing the lovely landscape in their garden. I was always thinking about our village life style where people live with nature with a minimum impact on Nature. I think we had that life before the TV and other electronic devices invaded us. Can we go back to that life style again?? I think up to certain level we can if only you are ready for a behavioral change!

I thank Dimuthu and Niru for giving me this lovely experience!! May your all good dreams come true!