Arts
S. Thomas’ Mount comes alive with 10th Unity Camp
View(s):Nearly 200 youth from 21 districts of Sri Lanka in the age group of 18-20 years gathered at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia for the 10th Unity Mission Trust (UMT), Unity Camp.
Building bridges: The organising team
The UMT initiated unity and integration efforts from May 2009 and this camp, held end April 2018 was on the Theme “Powering Lives; Building Unity and Peace”.
The unique model of the Trust is that young people from across the schools system are selected and invited to attend the flagship event of the Trust. The four-day Residential Camps held at various locations around Sri Lanka bring together these selected youth from across Sri Lanka.
At the camps the youth are mixed up and placed in groups that stay together for the duration of the camp. Friendships are formed and at the end of each camp, these youth, who initially could not even talk to each other due to language, cultural and geographic barriers, part with hugs and even tears.
Thereafter, most remain in contact. Once they leave school, they are encouraged to link up with the Regional Council of their residential area. This enables further bonding within the Region and the strengthening of inter – regional friendships.
Each Unity Camp follows a structure that provides each participant opportunities to build up their inner capabilities and for their talent to shine – be it at sports, drama, music, oratory, art and craft or through team based exercises and competitions.
Outstanding young leaders Chethana Liyanage, Nadee Dissanayake and Nuzlath Naheem as well as youth trainers Pulasthi Samaraweera and Dinuk de Silva Wijeyeratne also addressed the youth.
Tharuka Jayaratnam of S. Thomas’ College and J. Rumeshini from Mannar District were selected as the Best Campers and were the Winners of the Lakmali Nanayakkara Memorial Challenge Trophies.
The Best Group Leader Awards went to Wihanga Rashmika from Ratnapura and T. Ramya from Mannar District.
Special Leadership awards were given to Sashika Nimesh( Nuwara Eliya); Arani Cooray (Colombo); T. Yalarasi (Killinochchi); Nazmiya Mansoor (Galle) and Priyenha Elampiriyan ( Jaffna).
The UMT has now completed more than 70 large scale unity and integration projects and has nearly 10,000 youth leaders who have absorbed the messages of unity, integration and equality.
The thought rationale is that the bridges of friendship that have been built up, together with the further fostering of unity like a little seed that germinates, into a little shoot will grow into being a huge tree that makes a real difference.
Volunteers who wish to work with the Trust, can obtain more information from Facebook or the web.
Youth leaders with Nuzlath Naheem
Team work
The group leaders of Unity Camp 10