SLYP delegates on a research mission...

by Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Two young delegates from the first ever sitting of the Sri Lanka Youth Parliament (SLYP) held at the BMICH in

2004, Sanka and Hiran went to Meemure, a very old village with a historical value, in search of a hidden side of the proud history of Sri Lanka as a part of Sanka's research on "Hela Asura Empire".

Sanka Abeywardana (22) represented Gampaha District at the SLYP and his area of action was Environmental Sustainable Development and Peace. SLYP delegates at the end of sittings were given the task of carrying out various projects relavant to their areas independently.

At present Sanka is involved in conducting awareness programs for sustainable development for youth activists in the country. He is also the Founder of Youth Forum, a knowledge sharing network in Sri Lanka.

Sanka got the opportunity to become the only representative from Sri Lanka to Global Young Green which is a network of young green activist around the world when he met its Asian representative at an international conference held at SLFI last year and as a result he participated at the Global Young Greens Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya early in mid January.

It was an action oriented, aiming to coordinate their work on important global issues and strengthen green politics internationally.

Hiran Kangaraarachchi represented Colombo district at the SLYP in the action group of youth empowerment. He is also a nature lover presently an undergraduate at the University of Kansas, USA.

It was at SLYP he realised that there is a huge wastage of young manpower due to high expectation of youth for white collar jobs without any skills. He observed a large number of youth just idling on the roads in his area and as such the country remains as a developing country for many years.

He believes that our youth should change their altitudes and mind set to overcome this situation. His experience of doing part time jobs in Kansas to find his food and lodging instead of the time he waited his parents to find him everything convinced that it is possible make this change of attitudes if handled properly.

The duo met after some time when Hiran came on a holiday in December and shared their experiences which made a valuable and interesting journey to Meemure. It began from Fort Railway station. It was a pleasure tour upto Kandy passing tunnels and then

 by bus upto Mahiyanganaya.

A hired van upto Hunnasgiriya and then a long walk through the deep jungle around knuckles. To their surprise a strange dog appeared just before they entered the jungle and led the way guiding them to the expected location. They walked despite pouring rain and freezing cold only with a thick coat and a torch light and some food.

The dog stopped when they entered a little village. They met Navaratne living in a small house who knew everything and who loved to maintain the village as it is without developing. "We are self sufficient. Some people come and try to ruin this natural beauty we don't want that", he said. His hospitality was wonderful.

Following day they walked through the jungle. Here are some pictures taken by them on the way. They returned with a plan to do the next stage next year.