At the end of January we had two visitors from Canada. Susan and Nat Tileston. They are professional photographers who are retired .They now run a project called “My story Photo project”. They came to ECO-V as volunteers and conducted a 6 day training workshop. We selected 10 youth including few Yathrees and it was very nice to see how ...
January was a busy month for ECO-V. We invited all the youth who participated in Kelani Nadee Yathra (KNY) for a two day residential work shop on Climate Change. 16 Yathrees out of 21 participated. Some Yathrees had University exams and two of them could not make it due to a private family function. It was very productive two ...
Its 2012, I was thinking about ECO-V and its activities for last year. What a year!! It was a different start and Different end in 2011. We were living in Melbourne and making plans for JCJ and its first journey “Kelani Nadee Yathra” which was a great success at the end of the year. Even before end of year we ...
Giving a presentation at Department of Sustainability and Environment I had a very successful official visit to Melbourne from 24th November to 4th December 2011. The purpose of the visit was to present the success of the river journey (Kelani Nadee Yatra) to Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ) . It was very nice to meet all the advisory board members ...
This is one of the best trainings I have ever followed - Climate Change mitigation and adaptation; sponsored by SIDA and conducted by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in Norrokoping, Sweden. When I recall the other trainings I have had during my carrier I can rate this on par with the training on endangered species management at Durrell, ...
September was a really busy month for me. Soon after I finished the final celebrations of Kelani Nadee yatra I went to London. It was on an invitation from Conservation leadership Programme (CLP) to give a presentation at a ceremony they have organized.With Catherine Isherwood It was a short but a very nice visit where I was able to ...
Invitees lighting oil lampKelani Nadee yatra..the journey along Kelani river is over…We had a grand final event on the 15th of September 2011. Thanks to Western province ministry of Environment for organizing such a wonderful final event for us. All the Yathrees (travelers) were felicitated by the ministry by giving a certificate and ...
All youth have gone back to their local areas. Still calling us and sharing their experience with us at ECO-V. Also they all are really looking forward to come back on the 15th to Colombo to celebrate the 12 day journey at the final event. We at ECO-V didn't have a break ...
Yesterday was our last day of this Journey for Climate Justice. We didn’t stop smiling and laughing for a second, but in the back of our minds there was also great sadness that this experience of our lifetime was about to come to an end.We made our way to the stunning International Training Centre of Vishua Niketan, where we were ...
Our good friend Jim Crosthwaite arrived yesterday, and will be travelling with us for the remainder of the Journey. Jim is the president and co-founder of Journeys for Climate Justice, and we thank him kindly for his generosity, support and determination to help this Journey come to fruition.We begun our last day in the field with a fascinating tour of ...
We woke at the beautiful riverside Salawa Scout Camp to meet our friends and supporters from the Colombo-district Scout Association. After singing the national anthem we jumped into our challenge for the morning: an Eco-Adventure course, comprising commando-style physical challenges, nature-based adventure courses and intellectually-stimulating environmental quizzes.After several fun-filled hours on the course, we took the chance to catch our ...
After receiving a blessing in the hilltop temple complex, we met our friends from Lanka Sportreizen Adventure Company who handed each of us a mountain bike. This was to be our eco-friendly transport for the day.We cycled to the beautiful estate of the well-respected Mapitigama family, who kindly invited us for breakfast. We then planted trees in the local area, ...
The spirits of the Yathrees were not dampened for a second today, despite torrential monsoon rains all morning. We are very impressed to see their persistent positive mentality on such a long journey.We continued our environmental training of the Yathrees this morning in our stunning rainforest. We also took the opportunity to study the water quality of the Kelani River, ...
We had an unforgettable morning rafting down the hair-raising rapids of the Kelani River, the Yathrees first experience of such an adventure. Between the wild rapids we took the time to marvel at our stunning rainforest setting, as interpreted by our naturalist guides.
Never have I ever had such an action-packed day in my entire life! Our legs are tired, our throats are soar from cheering on our friends, but our hearts are filled with an experience we will cherish for the rest of our lives. The idea of today was to “step outside of our comfort zone” and work as a team, ...
This morning we ventured onwards to Polpinya Temple, where Kanchana led us in an uplifting Green Leadership training program. We then sent the Yathrees off into the wild to get some inspiration, which they put to good use with some beautiful artwork.
Another day…another unforgettable experience! We watched the sun rise with a jog to the nearby temple, before jumping into a Yoga session with our good friend and yoga-guru Nande. Nande then led us in an environmental meditation session, which got our brains in tune for the day ahead.We then ventured onwards to the Canyon Hydro Power Station, where the resident ...
Another incredible day…its practically impossible to squeeze a day’s adventures into a single blog but I’ll give it a shot!We begun the day at dawn with some environmental meditation and nature awareness training. Our Yathrees are connecting deeply with the natural world around them, using their 5 senses to fully appreciate nature in all its forms.
