TRADITIONAL FOLK GAMES FOR THE UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY

Ulapane Maha Vidyalaya, under the guidance of Women’s Development Centre (WDC), organized a festival of traditional folk games with the participation of 330 students at the school's premises. The festival of traditional folk games was organized on 1^st of October, 2012 celebrating Universal Children’s day. 

Ulapane Maha Vidyalaya was introduced to WDC by the department of Education as a problematic school that needed facilitation and guidance. Thus, WDC, with the support of the Shining Life Child Trust (SLCT),  started to play the role of a facilitator in upgrading the standard of the school through a variety of projects. The special education unit of Ulapane Maha Vidyalaya is also run by WDC. 

It is a known fact that due to the mechanization of the society, children of today have greater access to technology and they tend to focus more on computer games and video games rather than traditional forms of play. This has taken away their creativity, thinking capacity and has promoted selfishness, individuality and lack of collectivity.

Focusing on all these aspects, Women’s Development Centre guided Ulapane Maha Vidyalaya to encourage children to play traditional folk games throughout Universal Children’s Day. The event was successful as the children enjoyed it and learnt the importance of playing such games almost for the first time in their lives.

Most of the children were ignorant about these games at the beginning of the festival but under the instructions of the teachers, they got used to all the games within a short time period and enjoyed playing 10 traditional folk games including “Eluwan Kaama, Thachchu paneema, onchili waram”, etc.

The objectives behind encouraging the children to play these games were to teach them the importance of collective effort rather than individuality, the strength of working as a group, truthfulness, helping the fellow members in the times of threat, facing challenges in life, knowledge about traditional currency and traditional words.

Furthermore, it was identified by WDC that rather than talking about children only on Universal Children’s day, it is more important to teach them something practical, which they would remember throughout their lives. Therefore, playing traditional games, building relationships with each other was recognized by WDC as a significant aspect.

In addition, by making them engage in these traditional folk games, it was also expected to make them free from discrimination including gender bias, ethnic and age discrimination. In a time where children try to engage in violent games such as shooting, hitting, killing through video games, WDC identified the importance of introducing the traditional folk games for the community through which the relationships between adults were expected to be enriched through the intervention of children.

How to Relieve Stress from Your Life?

Everyone faces stress. Yet it is difficult to be defined.  Things that we see as threatening or harmful are called stressors and stress is stimulus, leading to a psychological  response, chronic circumstance can all be seen as stressors.

Another definition is, that stress is a person’s state in response to a stressor; for example, we can become stressed when having to give a performance in public, the response can involve both physiological and psychological factors and this response is called strain.

There are so many coping strategies such as,

1. Accept the realities of life
2. Avoid too many changes in our life at one time
3. Learn to relax
4. Give attention to others
5. Let go of prejudices and grudges
6. Be organized, yet flexible
7. Don’t try to change others
8. Communicate – it means talk out your stress
9. Learn to recognize job burnout
10. Find ways to release
11. Live one day at a time
12. Keep well
13. Keep exercising
14. Dieting
15. Laughing
16. Smoking reduction
17. Sleep well
18. Get help of support groups
19. Self-Employment
20. Drink a lot of water
21. Time management
22. Determine why the change is necessary
23. Get religious support
24. Plan your day
25. Involve in entertainment such as walking, cycling
26. Don’t take  too many responsibilities
27. Change your daily activities
28. Look at everything positively
29. Get involved in social work
30. Get used to live a normal life
31. Attend a counseling session
32. Use of imagination techniques and relaxation techniques

By Counseling unit, WDC

Women who Overcome Challenges

The WDC aims to improve the status of women by identifying the problems faced by them and assisting them in finding solutions. We also help to build the abilities of women by raising their awareness on various issues and assist them in improving their economic situations. 

WDC works with the STD/AIDS clinic in Kandy and conduct regular meetings with commercial sex workers who attend the clinic. We have identified that these women face diverse problems and need assistance to find solutions. In order to accomplish this we reach out to selected low income rural communities and visit women who are referred to us by the STD clinics. We specially concentrate on women who are already involved in the commercial sex trade and those who are vulnerable to it through abject poverty. We also incorporate women who work on the streets and motivate them to find alternate income.

The program also included awareness activities to men with whom these women associate. The awareness programs are conducted on preventive methods and medication provided at the HIV/AIDS clinic. We also encourage the women to share the knowledge they have gained with their partners and others.  These women are provided revolving funds to start up income generation projects. We are happy that those who have received these loans are successfully involved in IGPs and some have already quit the sex trade. We monitor their progress and encourage them in their enterprises by providing them additional loans if necessary. A revolving loan fund has been established from which they can obtain loans.

The training programs include gender awareness, leadership, ethics/values, counseling on prevention and leading a happy family life. We promote their involvement in religious activities and assist the children of these women to continue schooling so as to prevent them getting into the same trade. These women are encouraged to get involved in other community activities.

We have helped to form a ‘self help group’ where they meet to discuss their problems. They are also encouraged to bring others who are in this trade and educate them of safety precautions. The members subscribe to the group and request the WDC for special skills training programs.

WDC Takes Pride in Welcoming Leymah Gbowee to World Heritage City-Kandy

Women’s Development Centre (WDC) arranged a welcoming ceremony for Nobel Peace prizewinner (2011) Leymah Gbowee on her visit to the World Heritage city – Kandy. Leymah Gbowee  visited Kandy city on the 16^th of August, 2012 with other delegates including Abigail Disney, Nighat Khan, Elaine Martyn and Danielle Goldberg.

Leymah Gbowee is a peace activist and is responsible for the liberation of Liberia from its second civil war through women’s peace movement also known as ‘Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace’. She has received around 14 international awards for her work in peace building in Liberia. Her work in building peace in Liberia was turned into a documentary movie by Abigail Disney, which in a way contributed to the recognition of Leymah Gbowee worldwide.

It was indeed a great pleasure for all the staff members at WDC to welcome such a inspirational lady to Kandy city, Sri Lanka. Members of Women’s Development Centre going by both Sinhala and Hindu traditions warmly welcomed Leymah Gbowee and other delegates along with a small event organized within WDC premises itself.  

Leymah Gbowee also delivered a very meaningful and an inspirational speech during the function and she also mentioned that even though your work is recognized by a nobel prize or not, the most important thing is to contribute to the betterment of the society even if it is a really simple thing that you do.

Prevention is better than Cure

The health awareness programs conducted by WDC helps us to reach the community gaining their confidence to access our resources. On these occasions we meet various persons with diverse problems.

A woman (Janaki – pseudonym) was very attentive during the health awareness program and persistently asked questions related to STD. I realized that she had a problem, and my instincts were confirmed when she wanted to speak to me in private at the end of the lecture. 

“I am worried about my husband. He has been acting strange for the past few weeks. He works as an assistant in a witchcraft temple. Since of late, he as started sleeping in a separate room. He gets angry when I ask him why. Our children are big and they sleep in their own rooms. Their father’s behavior is a mystery to them too. But they never inquired anything from me” said Janaki.

“My husband has the light in his room in the night and my curiosity made me tiptoe to the room one night and what I saw through the slightly open door shocked me. A bottle of surgical spirits, cotton wool and a tube of medical cream was laid out on the table while he was dressing a wound in his genitals. He got angry when I burst into the room. He did not respond to my questions at first. I could not hold back my tears and begged him to tell me the problem. He then told me that he had sexual contact with a woman who visited the witchcraft temple and that he might have contracted the skin disease from her. I was very sad. He refused to seek treatment from hospital. What can I do to help him?” Janaki asked in a sad tone.

I advised Janaki to bring her husband to the STD clinic where we attend to such persons; she did not turn up on the given date. I sent her a P.C. with a reminder – not stating anything relevant to the matter. The next week she arrived with her husband but did not come to the clinic.

I discussed the issue with the STD specialist physician. We pretended that to be unaware of the case and called them in; he was examined and prescribed with appropriate treatment for gonorrhea and continued to attend the STD clinic daily. He still does not know me, but I gather information from the wife when she comes for treatment.

She said that they have regained their relationship and are happier now. A sense of fulfillment overwhelmed me adding strength to my future commitments.

By Daisy Ruwanpathirana

2009

WDC

The History of the Vocational Training Centre

The activities of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) of the Women’s Development Centre (WDC) was initially conducted in the Kandy district. CBR services are offered to the children in Kandy as well as from centres in the peripheries.  Children attending the centres are trained in daily living skills, speech, physiotherapy and basic vocational training.

The beginning of the  VTC center was interesting. We commenced the services in a small room at 327, Peradeniya road, Kandy. However, the need for a special location to conduct the activities was the immediate requirement. The CBR approached the Director of the Social Services in Kandy for assistance. The director was very cooperative and allocated the premises at “Sahana” Ampitiya for the purpose. In fact, he took an extra interest to put up two adjacent sections at the premises to maintain a hostel for differently-abled children attending the special education school (Mahinda School) in the vicinity.

This gave birth to the VTC at Ampitiya in 2001. Initially 24 children attended the centre and they were in the age group of 14/15 years. The centre mainly focused on children with hearing and mental impairments. Anyway it is our intention to address these children as with “Special Talents” than disabled.

Picket against Gender Based Violence & Child Abuse in Sri Lanka....

Women’s Development Centre has planned to organize islandwide pickets against Gender Based Violence and Child abuse. The first step towards it was taken in partnership with Matale Women’s forum. WDC with the support of Matale Women’s forum successfully organized a protest against gender based violence and child abuse in Rathtota, Matale. The main aim behind organizing this campaign was to direct the attention of the government on strengthening the laws on gender based violence and child abuse.

Recently, many child abuse cases and GBV cases were reported from all over the island and thus it was evident that there is a sudden increase in such issues. Furthermore, it was also identified that there are many reasons behind these problems such as poor family relationships, negligence of parents, migration of females in search of work, etc.

Therefore, the picket which was organized on the 7^th of August, 2012 aimed to attract the attention of both the responsible officers as well as the public towards these issues and to toughen the laws and other steps that could be taken against the people that engage in child abuses and violence against women.

Some demands of this picket can be mentioned as the following:

• Strengthening the legal system so that the defendants of such cases would be punished
• Requesting the public to not to nominate the politicians who have committed such crimes
• Creating an outcry to show the negative impact of gender based violence and child abuse and thereby to gain the attention of the public and the government towards these issues
• To make the parents aware of the repercussions of neglecting their own children

 

WDC would like to thank all the people who participated for this protest and made it a success.