It is the last day of 2015. Wow.. 2015 has gone very fast but we are very happy at ECO-V as we managed to do so much of work. New developments, new partners, new projects….and many more experiences and achievements.

It’s 2.10 am of 31^st December now and I decided to write this blog. Personally for me the year 2015 was started in Bangladesh. I was with BGreen project in Dhaka as a representative of Journeys for Climate justice (JCJ http://www.journeysforclimatejustice.org.au/) in January this year. It was very nice to meet many youth who were trying to combat Climate Change by empowering youth Green leaders. Soon after Bangladesh I had to go to Chennai, India to meet very inspiring group of people who were at “Un-conference”.  That was my second experience of unconference after Boston in 2012. My first experience of an unconference was  as an Eisenhower fellow which I really liked the idea of having “space” for many people rather than limited people presenting their work at a usual conference. Chennai Unconference was named as Diversion and U-turns and it was a real eye opener for me to understand what we are trying to do with ECO-V. It was the write language for our work. Learning, discussing and understanding about un-learning, un-schooling and Eco-versity was very inspiring and helped me to define ECO-V work better than before. Thanks to Manish Jain, co founder of Swaraj University in Rajasthan, India  (https://www.facebook.com/swarajuniversity/) and Nat (https://www.facebook.com/nadarajah.manickam?fref=ts&ref=br_tf) and many others for sharing their stories of unique work in making change.

Some of the participants at Unconference at Chennai

Unconference participants

ECO-V is indeed is on its way towards so called Eco-versity education system with unconditional passion, love and care for Mother Nature.  It is high time for us to announce widely what we are trying to achieve through our work of practicing Deep Ecology, Permaculture, traditional knowledge and practices.  

Another eye opening event for me personally was Fukushima exposure visit. Thanks to ICE network (Interreligious Climate and ecology Network - https://www.facebook.com/groups/InterreligiousClimateandEcologyNetwork/?ref=br_tf)

I got the opportunity to be part of the small team who made this exposure visit to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant in April.  It was heart breaking yet made me understand how much damage could be done by man- made disasters. It was funny to say it’s a “man made” disaster as the main reason was a Tsunami hit on March 11^th 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant ) But the devastation still happening is not just the Tsunami. It was all about Nuclear power and people trying to get rid of radiation.  

Haunted villages in Fukushima

High radiation level even after 4 years

After the exposure visit in Fukushima we had the opportunity to see and learn about Eco temples in Japan who are trying to make a positive impact. It was a better ending in Japan with more positive learning and we all headed to South Korea for the 2^nd International conference of ICE Network. Again we had the opportunity to have another exposure visit to Nuclear power plant in South Korea where people are fighting to close it down.  Will they be successful??? Nobody knows?  ICE conference was all about many like-minded people who are trying to make a positive impact to protect Mother Nature through religious practices or rather with spirituality.

Meeting Yeb Sano (http://mashable.com/2014/12/04/yeb-sano-climate-talks-typhoon/) was another great memory I had from South Korea. I would define Yeb who has “power of 1” (the book written by Sharif Abdulah) who is making a change with individual commitment and courage. He was the key note speaker and was really touched when he said that he was going to walk 1000km to Paris at the end of the year. (By now we all are very happy as he did it).

Participating at Rome convergence was my 4^th International tour in 2015. “Una terra Una familia” – A world a family,  was the theme of Rome convergence organized by “Green Faith” and “Our voices”. I was so happy to be part of that huge family of spirituality with deferent faith and religious backgrounds Meeting my fellow Buddhists from USA, Vietnam, Nepal, India, South Korea, UK, Japan and some other countries and sharing wisdom with them was so inspiring. We all discussed and communicated one clear message, no matter which faith or spirituality you are into. It was “combatting Climate Change!!!!

Isn’t is fascinating?.

Meeting Yes Sano for the second time in Rome, taking part in the peaceful march while taking a message to Pope Francis and seeing him at St Peter’s Square, participating at mini pilgrimage around city of Rome wih Yeb Sano was highlights of the Roe visit.

With Yeb sano in Rome

At St Peter's square

As a result of Rome convergence, we managed to run our 3^rd journey in Sri Lanka in September. It was the “Kolamba Yathra 2015” (https://youtu.be/N8lwLhWiIVc)and was an interfaith journey for sustainability. This was the Sri Lankan journey to Yes Sano’s People’s pilgrimage took place from Rome to Paris in November (http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/06/09/faith-groups-in-peoples-pilgrimage-seek-climate-deal-boost-from-pope/). This was also aimed at initiating a conversation among different faith back grounds within Sri Lanka towards combatting Climate Change. Dr. Stephen Bygrave the CEO of Beyond Zero Emission (web) visited us to join with our 3^rd Journey which was targeted at  sustainability. Thanks to JCJ for organizing his visit to Sri Lanka and it added great value to Kolamba Yathra. Also this helped us to work jointly with Federation of Environmental Organizations, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Business and Biodiversity forum.

Kolamba Yathra 2015

Some of youth during journey

Contributing towards translating the Buddhist statement on Climate Change, sharing  the video report of Kolamab Yathra for Paris Convergence, were some of our contributions for Global movement towards combatting climate change. UNDP Sri Lanka was highlighted ECO-V‘s contribution towards Environmental conservation through volunteerism on their 60^th anniversary. We were one of the partners of celebrating International Volunteer Day of UNV Sri Lanka where we initiated and announced our support towards Sustainable Development goals.

Oh…well…there are many more events which are coming into my mind that we conducted within 2015. Our contribution towards creating awareness on Consumer issues, spreading awareness on  Climate change and ecology at Good Market on every Saturday, Developing Eco Garden and getting the Organic certification for its products and slowly developing it as a Eco education center, Initiation scientific research on Eurasian Otters (Lutra lutra) in Sri Lanka with the support of Wild Otter India and Conservation Leadership Programme (web) were some of other achievements. Oh…I almost forgot…winning the awards for Environmental Impact” at Annual award ceremony of Good Market was a great appreciation we got for our commitment and passion in serving Mother Nature.

During field research of Otters in Sri Lanka

ECO-V has a new office in Colombo. Thanks to Good Market team for sharing their small but beautiful working space with us. We look forward to expand our services through our second station in Colombo city. We have a bigger programme ongoing and give us more hopes for 2016. That is Youth Yathra 2016 which is “Creating Green Leaders for sustainability and combatting Climate Change”. Thanks to US Embassy and American corner Kandy for providing us financial assistance for this programme where we are expanding our services to Jaffna for the first time in ECOV history, also to Matara and Kandy.  

Well…I am not going to say “thank you for anybody particularly as there are hundreds of names, organizations coming into my mind who helped us throughout our journey in 2015 but as I always say.. ”Thank you Mother Nature” who is giving us space to work, air to breath, food to eat and water to drink and many more services. ECO-V is always there to do our little help to give you a better life!.

Happy Butterflies at Eco Garden

Sumunduni Seneviratne the new ECO-V family member reports!!!!

05/11/2015 - The day I met with ECO-V team in Kandy

It’s all about change; even we want it, its bit of hard work, so obliviously heart says why you should take trouble? Ii is better to stay as it is and why you are taking a risk? Then I say to me… “Oh my heart stop being lazy It’s a huge world let me feel living”. I want to be part of Nature and to explore it more and find new knowledge. I’m going to say goodbye to this system, which is corrupting my inner peace.

07/11/2015

Relationships, even we divide them strong or weak, temporary or everlasting, I think there are no such things. We meet people as it is decided, so every one play their own role in life and some time the way they live affect on us but after all we depart. So It’s my leaving from here – my first job since 2014 after my graduation and feeling very happy to know that I was playing a very important role with them.  

08-09/11/2015

Preparation to leave home and getting ready to establish…. It is going to be busy 48 hours in travelling and settling down. Finding my own place on earth need much more sacrifice. Missing bellowed family again living alone is ok…even I’m going to try it at my best...

Started working with ECO-V family….This month at a new place with new duties. Started learning about Eurasian Otters.  I knew them but very little… Thanks to Hanna and Atul from Wild Otters India who gave us this training. Thank you so much for offering such wonderful insight to these little mystery creatures.

Otter team members off to field

During indoor training sessions for Otter Conservation

Second day was full of learning about Non Violent Communication (NVC) session by Shammi Nanda from India and Ramanusha from Sri Lanka. This made me easy on communication methods towards more effective communication when we do public programmes.   

Me, Gishani, Ramanusha, Tharindu and Shammi Nanda during NVC training

Me and Tharindu at a NVC conversation...Ramanusha watching us

So now my own programme at ECO-V is “Youth Yathra 2016 - Empowering Green Leaders for combating Climate Change”,  need more and more work, ok… hard work begins...But I look forward to that…

Ok then goodbye November 2015…Thank you November as it was a change making month in my life!

Kolamba yathra

I know its not fair to have such a long silence. Since we became active in face book (https://www.facebook.com/groups/119363511453200/) I rarely had time to write a blog. So today I am posting about our new yathra - Kolamba yathra 2015.

The logo designed by Dulshan who is our IT volunteer since 2003

Introduction

The Kolamba Yathra for Climate Change is the 3^rd Yathra of Eco Friendly Volunteers (ECO-V). Previously, ECO-V has conducted two other Climate Yathras: the KelaniNadee Yathra - a river journey for climate justice (2011), and Paapedi, a bicycle journey for climate justice (2013). The Kolamba Yathra takes place on 19^th September 2015, with support from Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ) Australia, Federation of Environmental Organizations (FEO), the Good Market, Foundation of Goodness and IUCN Sri Lanka.

The Kolamba Yathra: An Interfaith Journey for Sustainability is a one-day program with at least 100 youth of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds walking around the city of Colombo-- the commercial capital of Sri Lanka-- to create awareness on Climate Change.

The youth who are taking part in Yathras gain exposure to ‘green activities,’ serving as a gateway to personal and community behavioral change, while establishing groundwork and support for them to become ‘Green Youth Leaders.’ After participating in the Yathra, these engaged youthwill have an opportunity to conduct their own ‘green project’to combat climate changewithin their own communities, through the facilitation and support of ECO-V.

Objective

1.      The main objective of this Yathra is to raise awareness of climate change issues across the Colombo public, to engage religious and political leadership on climate change action, and most particularly to engage youth in modeling and action for eco-friendly, sustainable methods, climate change education and adaptation, mitigation and biodiversity restoration and conservation efforts.

2.      It is intended to support the global event, the “People’s Pilgrimage” which is gathering a global ‘critical mass’ of grassroots and spiritual leaders in an interlinked global ‘climate Yathra’ or pilgrimage, collecting climate stories, and gathering local voices and messaging to bring to the global leaders at the pinnacle inter-governmental climate talks, COP 21, in Paris this November and December2015. This is undertaken in concert with the Pan-Asian ICE Network, the African ‘We Have Faith’ climate caravan, and the Our Voices platform.

Methods and Strategies

ECO-V calls for youth participation through social media, print and electronic media and through various other environmental networks and their platforms.  100 youth at minimum, representing Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims, are expected to participate. All Yathrees (the youth who will walk in the Yathra) will visit a selected religious institute from above the mentioned religions during the Yathra day along a pre-planned route. They will discuss respective practices and perspectives (including their own) on climate change and sustainability.

Once the 100 youth Yathrees are selected, all will be briefed regarding the Kolamba Yathra route within Colombo city, along with the education and awareness-raising activities planned for the general public. From start to finish, the entire event will be environmentally friendly, and all youth will be trained on such eco-friendly organizing and eco-friendly lifestyles in general. Youth volunteers will make props, banners and other material for raising awareness before the date and will be thoroughly prepared for the event.

The Kolamba Yathra starts off at 9am on 19^th September from the Good Market Racecourse, and loops back around to the Good Market by 2pm. Participants will then prepare for a 4 pm public event open to all, featuring Dr. Stephen Bygrave, the CEO of the Australian Beyond Zero Emissions, several Sri Lankan governmental ministers, a diverse representation of Sri Lankan faith leaders, and children of the Colombo community. This public event will take place by the car park of the Colombo Racecourse where the Good Market open-air event is held.

We invite the Sri Lankan corporate sector, NGOs and INGOs, government and inter-governmental agencies to join with us in these collaborative efforts, through contributions of funds, in-kind donations, time,and energy and in-person participation in this Climate Yathra journey.  Climate change brings with it an urgent call to action, and we need everyone, from all walks of life, to come and join together in solidarity for climate justice.  Through education, outreach and action, we can strive to care for and protect all beings on this beautiful blue planet.

Expected and Planned Outcomes

1.      The walk (Yathra) will raise public awareness on climate change issues.

2.      Messaging will be broadcast Island-wide and globally through media.

3.      Enlisted social media will help to spread the message more broadly.

4.      A large photograph of the Kolamba Yathra participants, youth leaders, faith leaders, special guests and children of Colombo will be taken. This photo will include sign boards with key messages from Sri Lanka, to be taken at this occasion, to support and contribute towards Pan-Asian messaging at the COP 21 Climate Talks in Paris. 

5.      Youth who participate in the Yathra will learn more about Climate Change, and (inter-) faith-based actions towards sustainability and ecologicallyfriendly initiatives.

6.      Youth will work further with faith-based groups to strengthen and enhance their sustainability initiatives such as building eco-friendly religious institutions as a part of a community youth initiative (within 2 years).

7.      A video report and written report will communicate the Sri Lankan experience, concerns and messages regarding climate change, to be shared nationally, regionally and across global platforms.

Organizers and Partners

1.       Eco friendly Volunteers (ECO-V) http://www.eco-v.org/eco-v/

2.       Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ) Australia www.journeysforclimatejustice.org.au

3.       Federation of Environmental Organizations (FEO)www.feosl.org

4.       Good Market, Sri Lankahttp://www.goodmarket.lk/

5.       IUCN Sri Lankawww.iucn.org/srilanka/

6.       Sarvodaya Movement http://www.sarvodaya.org/

7.       Foundation of Goodness http://www.unconditionalcompassion.org/indexc.php

8.       Center for environmental Justice http://www.ejustice.lk/

9.       Global Eco-Village Network, Sri Lanka http://genoa.ecovillage.org/

10.    Undertaken with peripheral support and engagement from the ICE Networkhttp://inebnetwork.org/ice-network

11.    People’s Pilgrimagehttp://peoplespilgrimage.org/ and Our Voices http://ourvoices.net/ We Have Faithhttp://www.pacja.org/index.php/en/ -or- www.facebook.com-We.Have.Faith, and The Green Faith Network: www.greenfaith.org

Hmmmm..its time to write a blog perhaps just to pass the time. Also wise-use of the time I am spending inside airplane. I am at Kolkata airport Bangladesh, actually not even inside airport but sitting inside the plan for last 2 hours. I am not supposed to be here by now and should be having my lunch with my friend in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Wow….I started my journey today morning at 5am from Colombo after saying good bye to my family and wanted to reach Dhaka after 2hrs and 5o minutes. Got into Mihin Lanka and it is my first time experience with our own airline (other than Sri Lankan airline we have).  Exactly after 2 hrs and 40 minutes the pilot announced that due to the poor visibility at Dhaka we were diverting to Kolkata, India. So…still waiting and not sure whether the situation will get improved or not????

The best part of this journey is I am going to address a youth conference on Climate Change, organized by BGreen Movement( https://www.facebook.com/BGreenBanglades and http://www.theindependentbd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=200668:bgreen-conference-bangladeshi-youth-voices-and-visions-for-an-adaptive-future&catid=182:city-life&Itemid=220)  our partner organization in Bangladesh. Isn’t it interesting??? Going to address a climate change conference and stuck at a different airport due to unexpected weather condition!!!!

This is end of year 2014 and if I manage to attend the conference I will be back to Sri Lanka by next year. (5^th January 2015). I feel bad about not writing a blog for last 9  months. I blame on Face book. Since ECO-V become very active in face book I became lazy in writing long articles on our activities. Too bad!!! I know it’s not the excuse to stop writing blogs as it’s our duty to keep updated about our friends who are not friends on face book. So since I am stuck at airport and not knowing what will happen next, I thought this is the best time to look back to history…actually history of last 10 months.

ECO-V has been moving into conscious consumerism field more faster than we thought. It was just as I got initial training from Consumer Association in Penang, Malaysia in 2013 and became the president of Consumer Voice of Sri Lanka; the group was started by 21 participants from Sri Lanka. As I believe, Nature conservation is depending on consumerism of all resources on this Mother Earth. Unless we consume them with consciousness all the resources will be vanished so fast. So I thought it’s a good way to talk about nature conservation for normal consumer. That approach was a great success! I was invited to many platforms to deliver presentations and some of these platforms were not even in Nature conservation field. Such as Health Ministry of Sri Lanka and MAS holdings. So I ended up reaching  both goals of passing knowledge on Nature conservation and conscious consumerism! The second batch of Sri Lankans (another 20)got the same training from Penang and I accompanied them to Malaysia in September thanks to CAP Malaysia and Sevalanka Foundation Sri Lanka. So far we have done more than 50 awareness sessions on conscious consumerism towards environmental sustainability. We already passed these information to some school students too. 

Prefects of Royal College reading lables of food products

MAS holdings training session on consciouse consumerism

ECO-V involvement in Good Market with our innovative programme “Nature Kids” was very successful throughout the year 2014. Thanks to KSMA Award from Conservation leadership Programme we won, we conducted more than 40 programmes on every Thursdays and 5 holiday programmes. The other innovative programme for year 2014 was “Nature Friendly Birth day parties for Kids” We conducted 5 b’day parties on invitation. Its all about Nature conservation through conscious consumerism. One successful story about nature friendly B’day party was, one 10 year old girl who had her nature friendly B’day party was so inspired about it. When it was the time to make a presentation for Trinity college of speech and Drama Exam her presentation was all about her B’day party which was her real experience. The examiner who had come from London was so surprised to hear her (obviously she must had extraordinary presentation skills) got 100 out of 100marks and it was first time in history for her supervisor in Sri Lanka.

Tiara and her presentation about Nature Friendly B'day

during Nature kid programme

a kid holdng a milipede during a kids programme

Conducting few sessions for MAS Holdings - one of the main clothing factory in Sri Lanka was another achievement of ECO-V. We conducted 2 holiday programmes for kids of staff members and 2 day programmes on conscious consumerism with exhibitions were well received by staff members. Also I helped with initiating butterfly gardens at 5 factories they have.

Winning a small grant from US Embassy was helpful for us to establish and run a Nature center at Wariyapola which started in October 2014. It’s in the process still and too early to tell you whether its successful or not.

youth getting training about eco gradening

Establishing our Eco Garden at the ECO-V office was very satisfactory as it is a practical demonstration for home garden, Butterfly and Bee garden and Biodiversity garden. Since I spent lot of my personal time on it I am very happy as it is a learning experience for me. Now we have been using it as a living laboratory for teaching about connecting with Nature! We had 6 training programme since March. 15 university students, 8 village youths, 16 kids, 3 families  and 5 farmers have visited us at our Eco Garden to learning and get experience. In March we had recorded only 6 species of butterflies from the garden and by end of November our checklist was 59 species. We are in the progress of making wild plants and other insect checklists. This is a great example of understanding a little space given to Mother Nature will give back million dollars value of happiness and satisfaction in additions to fruits, vegetables, flowers  and herbs we are sharing in our neighborhood. With this experience I personally got involved in advising for establishing Butterfly Garden of Biodiversity park that the government that is establishing in our capital city, Sri Jayawardanepura-Kotte. It’s a voluntary involvement for myself where about 15 university students are preparing it.

products of Eco Garden

Our partnership  with united Nations Volunteers (UNV Sri Lanka) in their bike tour to celebrate the International volunteer day was very successful where 2 youth from Kelani Nadee yathra and Paapedi 2013 rode with them for 15 days. This was the programme we did instead of the International journey we were planning to be held at the beginning of 2015 with the help of Journeys for climate justice (http://journeysforclimatejustice.org.au/). We are happy about the decision we made not to have it next year due to changing political situation in the country so we are waiting till everything gets cool down again.

ECO-V logo as a partner of UNV cycle tour

We have planned a youth camp for early next year and hope again we can do something innovative, fun and productive with more learning. If you are willing to support that Village Earth USA is supporting us to raise fund via Global Giving so you also can contribute something even very small where that will help us to achieve our target (http://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/creating-25-youth-climate-leaders-in-sri-lanka/).

Oh…well they are announcing about our departure to Dhaka now…wow…after 3 hrs of our landing here in kolkata. Well I will post this when I get internet in Dhaka. It was a great experience after all sitting in a economy class at Mihin Lanka air plane without aches and pains but memorizing what we did in year 2014 while going through thousands of photographs in my computer! Thank you for those 3 hours! Hi again….now I am safely with my friend Fadia of Bgreen who is very busy with BGreen conference that our partner organization JCJ is also a sponsor. I am here as co-founder and vice chairman of JCJ to see how we can be widen our networks for future work. Thanks for CLP alumni programme who sponsored my travel to Bangladesh. All are helping us to make a difference in this Mother Earth. Thank you all for believing ECO-V and hope to see be with you in 2015 too. I wish you very best for year 2015! 

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

Thank you 2013.....we had a great year! with new initiatives and successful results!

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We had a great successful year in 2013. Paapedi 2013 the bicycle journey for Climate Justice was a very successful campaign we had for Climate Change mitigation and adaptation work. Also we got involved with Good Market (https://www.facebook.com/thegoodmarketcolombo) and started “Nature Kids” a very unique programme for kids to get connected with Mother Nature. 

Nature Talk before Nature Walk

During Nature walk

Some Nature kids with animal flags

 Also we started two educational stalls at Good Market under the kind sponsorship of Dilmah Conservation. One on Eco Education and the other on Conscious Consumerism.

Eco Stall 

Eco Stall and Consumer Voice Stall

Reading about food and health on consumer voice stall

Sugary drinks and conscious consumerism 

I personally completed two important training programmes. One on Consumerism (Consumer Association of Penang, Malaysia) and the other on Climate change leadership with former Vice president of USA Mr. Al Gore “Climate Change corps” in Istanbul, Turkey. Both programmes were very helpful for me to get more confidence and also loads of information was passed down to various working groups of ECO-V. I also attended a conference in Malaysia on “Interfaith Dialog for Peace and Sustainability” with the kind invitation from Seva Lanka (a NGO for social development work in Sri Lanka) as a Climate Change and sustainable living campaigner. It was great opportunity to participate at People's Forum of The 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo.  Also I was invited to be at prince Charle's B'day party held in Colombo during his CHOGM visit to Sri Lanka.  

In Istanbul

People's Forum, CHOGM 2013

We had many international volunteers who visited and helped us in our activities. ECO-V won a grant from Kate Stork memorial Awards, UK for our “Nature Kids” programme and it’s the second award from them we won. Thank you for KSMA Awards! We were able to continue our great work with kids at Good Market because of you. Then Nature Kids won the “Environmental Impact Award” of the annual award ceremony of Good Market! This is what we call ripple effect for positive change!! One start leads for something else…

Kanchana and Uvasara with Impact award at Good Market

Having our own training center is the long term plan for ECO-V and we have been working towards it always. Dhanushka from Udawalwa is One of our youth leaders we trained for last 5 years under various programmes (starting from friends of Pelicans, then KSMA youth trainee, kelani nade yathre and Paapedi 2013 yathree). After kelani Nadee yathra he decided to start a farm in his own land as a post journey project. We were thrilled and guided him to start a permaculture farm which we can develop as a training center eventually. The year 2013 was a successful year for him as he able to build a natural building, a toilet and basic accommodation facilities. Thanks to Journeys For Climate Justice in Melbourne who is our partner organization for both journeys we had who sent us International volunteers to work with his team and him were able to get exposure to more wider world. 

Dhanushka and team making compost

Dhanushka's team

Also I started a small permaculture plot very close to our office and trying to develop it as an educational center and make it more sustainable for ECO-V future work. Also we started selling extra vegetables (after sharing the harvest with neighbors and friends) at Good Market and willing to join with them under participatory Guarantee System (3^rd party organic certification).

Eco Garden of ECO-V

Harvest of Eco Garden

We started a very special programme for students at School for Deaf. It’s called talking through Nature which is still in progress. We managed to create a butterfly garden with all native plants and our volunteers did more shramadana work (sharing work) with these differently able children at school. I still remember their exited faces when they saw the first ever caterpillar reported on a herb that they planted.  

Volunteers involved in painting walls of Butterfly Garden area

Students and volunteers working together

We continue to teach about nature for them using this space. Our face book page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/119363511453200/) exceeded 2000 members which is very helpful to spread the messages of our work among volunteers and also helped us to raise funds for our work.

So thank you very much for all of you who were with us in 2013 and we very much hope that you will continue to stay with us in year 2014 in this journey. 

Positive change continues.... - an update about ECO-V activities

I feel really bad about not posting any thing on our blog since July. I don't know how I ignored it as usually we were good at updating our friends and well wishers. I am sure you will forgive us. Our silence does not mean that we were not working. I think its just the busy work schedule we had at ECO-V and only focused on working but not on reporting.

It’s almost the end of the year and now should get ready for coming year. As a duty I am going to update you all about what was going on with us at ECO-V for last few months.

Our two programmes on working with kids were progressing well for past 6 months.  Establishing the Butterfly garden at School for Deaf is very interesting and many volunteers and students and even staff members of the school are working with us on every Friday. We planted few plants and let the grass grow naturally so that few butterflies have started coming to the area. We have noticed 4 different species so far where there were none when we started. Can you remember it was a garbage dump when we started working there. Kids and volunteers are painting the wall around the garden area to make it more attractive. So we all are waiting until plants grow and start giving us flowers so that we will be able to see more and more butterflies in near future.  

Garbage dump at School for Deaf

Cleaning garbage by ECO-V volunteers

Cleaning by children of School for Deaf

Wall painting and flower bed preparation

ECO-V Volunteer Madhubhashini guiding kids to draw butterflies on wall

The best news is, our volunteer for this programme Ayomi Withanage who was contesting for Miss Sri Lanka for Miss earth 2013 became the winner of the title  "Miss Green Sri Lanka" just because of her work at Butterfly Garden at School for Deaf. She also was the 3rd runner up in Miss Sri Lanka 2013 for Miss Earth. So we all at ECO-V are very please about her success. She still continues supporting us whenever time permits.

Ayomi working in our programmes

kanchana and Ayomi  - "Miss Green"