9 July 2021 07:23 am Views - 2505
The next virtual Butterfly event of the Girl Guides Movement, “Butterfly Chef” is scheduled for July 10.
Butterfly branch caters to the youngest age group of students aged 5 to 8 years. The Butterfly activities fall under the themes of LOOK, LEARN, LAUGH AND LOVE. The motto of the butterflies is “Be Happy”.
The Butterfly branch was established on March 21, 2013 at Girl’s High School, Kandy and at the Premier’s Own unit at Girl Guides headquarters in Colombo. The Chief Commissioner at the time was Mrs. Shantha Jayalath. The first Commissioner Butterfly was Ms. Yamuna Hettiarachchi who worked with commitment and dedication to introduce the Butterfly’s branch to all the provinces in the country. After a very successful term of office she handed over the responsibility of the branch to Mrs. Dilhani Happuarachchi who is working tirelessly to improve and develop the branch following the footsteps of her mentors.
The pandemic has restricted the children to their homes and physical activities have been curtailed. The Butterfly Branch rose to this challenge by reaching out to the members at home. Many events were organized using on- line platforms and it is no doubt that the Butterflies have enjoyed and benefitted from these activities immensely.
The first virtual activity was held on December 28, 2020, Christmas with a difference. The objective was to encourage the Butterflies of all faiths to respect all religions in line with the Butterfly theme “Learn”.
Friendship Day 2021 was organized on February 13 to teach them love and kindness through friendship. Road Safety and nature observation held from April 24 onwards was a programme geared towards building self-confidence and having fun with family and friends. On May 16, a ‘Handwork session’ was conducted in lieu of Ramadan to “Learn” the spiritual values of all religions with fun activities and a quiz time was organised with sister Guides from the Sabaragamuwa Province about Ramadan. All these virtual events which aimed to train the Butterfly to be a responsible citizen in her respective community drew in more butterflies from around the island in large numbers. The Girl Guide movement was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1917 by Ms. Jenny Calverly, a young missionary teacher from England. The movement has continued to empower girls and young women in the island for the past 104 years. The Association is structured under six branches namely the Butterfly branch, the Little Friends branch, the Girl Guides branch, Ranger branch, Differently- abled Guides and the Community Guides branch.