The Children’s Goodness Cub

The Foundation of Goodness conducts 5 Children’s Goodness Clubs, by village; Seenigama, Rathgama, Udumulla, Akurala and Kahawa. The idea is to create a forum for the children who attend the FoG courses to get together and reflect on their behavior and its impact on the community, with the hope of helping them recognize their own power to be a locus of change and goodwill within society. With motivation to pass on the kindness that comes their way, united under the motto ‘Do Good, Be Good’ the CGC members are encouraged to look both inward and outward, making themselves better at the same time that they make the world a better place.

The CGC members have been very busy this year under the guidance of the Community Psycho-Social Unit who over-look their activities and three standout activities demonstrate how the CGC always remain aware of the wellbeing of their community, their environment and of themselves.

The Akurala and Kahawa CGC’s joined together to conduct an alms giving for the Madampagama Elders’ Home. The day was dedicated to visiting the elders, serving them a meal and spending sometime in discussion with them. These visits help the older generation feel less isolated and forgotten, giving them an interesting day to enjoy with the kids while it brings home to the children that they need to make time in their lives to respect and enjoy the company of their elders.

In Rathgama, the CGC was busy setting up their ‘Parisara Mithuro’ programme. Parisara Mithuro translates as ‘Friends of the Environment’, and the kids formed 5 groups and each group worked towards maintaining and reinventing their home garden, from introducing new and interesting methods of gardening to tending and protecting their existing crops.

The Community Psycho-social Unit who oversee all their activities make sure that special attention is paid to keeping the kids on the right track, and with this in mind they conducted a workshop about the proper and improper uses of communications and social media. They drove home the privacy issues and dangers of the internet and the need for caution and wisdom when using ones phone or social media forums such as facebook. In rural back grounds where most parents would themselves not be too aware of the pitfalls of social media use, it is important to mentor kids about how to safely use social media.

11th April 2014