Sri Lanka Girl Guides launch latest badge in keeping with World Day Against Child Labour
From left - Shamalka Pumali, Kojee Kehara, Sanuji Punchiwedikkara, Zaakyia Ashraf.
Celebrating the World day against Child labour which falls on June 12, the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association (SLGGA) with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) released a Girl Guide badge against child labour. The event in keeping with the launch of the badge took place on June 14 at the United Nations Compound.
The badge against child labour was the fruitful product of the hard work put in by four leading girl guides, Sanuji Punchiwedikkara and Zaakiya Ashraf from Lyceum Wattala and Shamalka Piyumali and Kojee Kehara from Vihara Maha Devi Balika Vidyalaya Kiribathgoda.
These seventeen year olds have been working against child labour since 2017 after they were introduced to one another at a speech competition organised by the ILO. The girls had done intense research to come up with the syllabus of the badge. They had each come up with their own clauses for the syllabus and then proceeded to work out which ones were similar and which were to be omitted in order to have a cohesive syllabus.
A Girl Guide holds the new badge. Pix by Ishanka Sunimal
“We all came from the same zone, when we asked about our ideas (regarding child labour), all four of us had four different ideas, then we were able to come together and make one syllabus,’ shares Sanuji on the process.
Mostly by communicating through social media and meeting at their Guide headquarters were the girls able to work together on this project. Even the artwork for the badge was designed by the girls, Shamalka’s artwork was chosen out of the four to be used for the badge. Having come up with the badge only 2 weeks prior, the girls are quite proud that the badge will be earned by the future generations of girl guides to come as their term comes to an end.
“We can atleast reduce child labour by beginning from our own countries, ” summarised Zaakiya on the goals and objectives of the badge.
A song by the ILO against child labour which was released as the organisation celebrated 100 years and the World Day Against Child labour was also sung in English, Sinhala and Tamil. The song highlighted the ILO’s theme for the year which says that ‘Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams’.
Attending the event was ILO Country Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives Simrin Singh, President of the SLGGA Prof. Anoja Fernando, Assistant Chief Commissioner of the SLGGA Srima Perera, SLGGA Commissioner Sanjievani Buluthota, SLGGA Zonal Commissioner Colombo Kokila Arandara, SLGGA Provincial Development Officer Dimanthi Gunawardhana and other dignitaries.
