Making a change and starting young
Changing young hearts and minds
Their motto is simple: ‘I must change for my country to change’. By upholding the message that every one of us has the power to change our country for the better, the Mother Sri Lanka movement has made great strides in encouraging youth to become responsible citizens.
Founder and Chairperson of Mother Sri Lanka Dr. Janaki Kuruppu recalls the troubled times of the civil war that brought her out of the corporate sector to launch the volunteer organisation in January 2008.
“When Mother Sri Lanka started, the first objective was to make people think positive about the country. I started this in 2008, and my first day at the President’s office, there was a bomb blast (MP T. Maheswaran was assassinated on January 1)”.
“People were so negative, saying there’s no future in this country. And if nobody believes in a future for this country, then nobody believes we can come out of this. I went home and thought that we must start something to make people believe and think positive. So the movement was started as a communication programme to achieve that.”
The organisation’s passionate appeal for unity is clear in the name itself, which includes all three languages, and their tagline of ‘my family of 20 million people’.
But with the end of the war in 2009 came a change of heart, and the focus shifted to reconciliation.
“There were wounds to heal now,” she explains. “More people were waving flags and being patriotic, and people were thinking of coming back to Sri Lanka. So our journey became easier.”
They became one of the first organisations to work with the north and northeast schools soon after the war. By December 2009, they already had 485 schools involved in their programmes in Jaffna.
“In 2013, we figured that building responsible citizenship is more the need of the hour, and unity and reconciliation is part of that. Being united is a part of being a responsible citizen of our country.”
Dr. Janaki Kuruppu
That was how Project RUN now in its third phase, came to be. This competition consists of three core components: Responsible Citizenship, Unity and National Pride which prospective projects must address. It could be an issue they identify in their school or community, such as improving and maintaining a public facility, or working together with others of different ethnic groups or religions, or taking pride in aspects of their country through a research project.
Project RUN is conducted as a competition in over 2500 schools across all nine provinces, where provincial winners and all island winners are selected by a panel of judges made up of provincial level directors of the Ministry of Education and executive committee members of Mother Sri Lanka. The final event is the national awards ceremony to be held in Colombo in September.
The participants send in their proposals explaining how it fits into RUN. If chosen, they are given a year for implementation before periodic inspections to ensure sustainability.
Dr. Kuruppu believes that the importance of community involvement and responsible citizenship is best learned through practical experience, and that starting young gives them the best shot at successfully changing the hearts and minds of people.
“Just coming and standing in front of the stage to give a PowerPoint presentation gives them a different experience. This project makes them leaders and entrepreneurs, (by having) ‘sathi pola’ (weekly pola), selling cards, all kinds of ways they collect money to fund their project. They may have to get permission from the Pradeshiya Sabha and then they learn the system.”
This in turn gets the teachers, parents and members of the community involved, helping to spread their optimistic message.
“When we say something is done by school children, adults are a bit more caring,” she adds.
While they do rely on the generosity of donors and sponsors, MSL sells Lankan gifts and souvenirs as part of their livelihood development project. The items are made through self-employment projects and the profits go to run their programmes.
“We have about 32 people now, and this is their livelihood,” says Dr. Kuruppu. “They have a skill to make something, but they don’t know what the consumer wants. So we come in at that point, we understand consumer demand, and we design a product and they make it. When they bring us the stuff, we pay 100% upfront so they don’t have to wait for the money to come. ”
They stock a variety of items, all charmingly emblazoned with distinctly Sri Lankan designs and motifs. From the keychains bearing the national flag to the soft toy versions of the walikukula (jungle fowl), the national bird of Sri Lanka, the sense of national pride is apparent in every item.
Mother Sri Lanka is an entirely volunteer-based organisation, and constantly looking for new volunteers to help with their many projects. Visit www.mothersrilanka.lk to see how you can get involved with this worthy cause.