Youth active participants in community development-Berendina

Berendina Development Services (GTE) Ltd (BDS), in a bid to actively engage youth in the community development initiatives, joined hands with the British Council in Sri Lanka for a special project under the title - “Empowering and Engaging Youth in Local Government Initiatives (EEYLGI)”.
Through this project, youth were mobilized and actively involved as contributors in government programmes to address social issues faced by the community in the Nuwara Eliya District. Accordingly, youth were helped to identify the critical issues in their respective areas for which the government also had taken initiatives to address it. The selected youth came up with their own five small projects to address critical social issues and those projects were implemented successfully, BDS said in a media release.
 

BLUE FRAME - Inland Fishery (Fresh Water Fish Harvesting) Project (Annfield Estate)
In the Annfield Estate, child malnutrition was found as a critical issue as 30 per cent of children under five years are identified as underweight category and the 25 per cent of children are born with low weight at birth. Consumption of improper nutrition food was identified as one of the reasons for this prolonged issue in the community. To address this issue, youth initiated a project to increase the availability of nutritious food at local level which could be consumed freshly and at an affordable price. It was decided to build a freshwater pond in which fresh water fish can be released and harvested for consumption. The youth engaged in negotiation with the estate management and government officials to get the necessary resources. As a result, the estate management provided the necessary land to establish the pond and the DS Office provided a soft loan to purchase and stock the fingerlings and fish feed. Youth are now managing the pond and the first harvest was held in June 2020 with a catch of 60 kg of fish. This enabled the community to purchase nutritious food for their children. Further, the youth continue to engage in spreading the awareness among the community about the importance of consuming healthy and nutritious food and availability of fresh water fish in coming future.
 

AVALATHIKARAM - Time for Action (Kotiyagala Estate)
According to BDS, in the Kotiyagala Estate, youth found early marriages among the teenage girls and women and sexual abuses were very high due to the early school dropout and unaware of the social and sexual exploitation. In order to educate and safeguard them from being exploited, youth in the area initiated the project call “Avalathikaram”, partnering with relevant institutions such as Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. Several initiatives such as educating girls and women on sexual exploitation and harassment, sexually transmitted diseases, importance of education and rejoining the school etc were undertaken in this project initiative. As a result, it was noted that the interest has been increased among the teenage girls in rejoining the schools and to be vigilant on illicit affairs. Village level complaints and issues have been reduced considerably and the community is now well aware of the issues related to early marriage. The youth continue to make awareness programmes among the community as a follow up of the project.

MOTTU - Time to Bloom (Annfield Estate)
In the Annfield Estate, it was found that most teenagers of the estate are employed in other districts as domestic workers. As a result, they face a number of harassment and various sexual abuses. It was identified that the major contributor for domestic employment is early drop out from school. In order to address the early drop out issue and to motivate the children and youth to understand the importance of education and to continue their schooling, youth in the area have initiated the awareness programme by means of street drama and a short film to reach out to parents, children and teenagers. The short film which was created for awareness has won a national level award. The youth of the estate further partnered with ngos like LEADS to conduct awareness programes in the Badulla, Monaragala and Nuwara Eliya districts. There is a 13-members’ trained group to guide the school leavers on their career development. After the implementation of the initiative, 10 school leavers re-joined the school again and some others were linked with Berendina Employment Center (BEC) to undergo training on skills development.

DREAMY DESTINATION - Aberdeen Waterfall (Dehigasthena)
Aberdeen Waterfall is the 18th highest waterfall of the island. Bathing in the middle of the pool and swimming to the middle has caused many deaths in the past as swimmers were not aware of the depth which goes up to 60 feet. There weren’t any warning signs or board depicting this danger. Also, people of the village had the habit of dumping garbage in the adjoining areas of the waterfall.
In order to save lives of visitors to the waterfall and make them enjoy the nature without getting harmed, youth in the area formulated and implemented an initiative partnering with the District Secretariat office to put up a sign board cautioning about the death trap of the pool and to protect from accidental drowning. This action also created social cohesion among the Tamils and Sinhala as both communities got together and implemented the activity.

CROWN – Youth Drug Prevention Initiative (Dehigasthanna)
Drug abuse among the youth living in Dehigasthanna village is very high, at an alarming rate and it led the youth to dangerous situations and led them to be unproductive. There aren’t any recreational activities in the village which helped youth to get out of unwanted habits. To commence a productive entertainment for youth of the village, the youth community came up with the innovative idea of engaging the youth in sports activities.
As the response mechanism, they introduced several sports coaching activities such as chess, carom and gym at community centres to engage the youth in the evening hours and to create the interest in sports. As a result, youth are well motivated and utilising their time in engaging in sports activities and taking the initiative to introduce sport like Volleyball coaching and workout at gym. This initiative has resulted in a reduction of drug abuse considerably and now youth are engaged more in sports and recreation activities. To successfully implement the program, youth have created a network and partnership with DS Office, local government and non-profit organisations as well as with sports personalities.