13 June 2023 12:20 am Views - 731
Of the four million student population in the country, only around 200,000 are members of the Scout and Girl Guide Associations
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Janaprith Fernando |
The Chief Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Scout Association Janaprith Fernando Attorney-at-Law stated that the Sri Lanka Scout Association for the first time in its 110 years of existence reached a membership of 100,000. He made this comment whilst addressing the 745 President’s Scouts who received their President’s Scout Award certificates at a ceremony held on June 02 at the Wayamba Provincial Council Auditorium, Kurunegala. He further stated that there were 93,639 members as of March 15, 2023 and that by the end of May, this number had risen to 100,000. Present at the occasion to distribute the certificates were the Governor of the North Western Province, Mr. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana and Senior Advisor to the President Mr. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. The Chief Commissioner expressed his gratitude to all Commissioners, Leaders and parents who contributed and worked tirelessly towards reaching this target of 100,000 in the four sections of the Sri Lanka Scout movement namely Singithi, Cubs, Scouts and Rovers.
He further went on to state that during a meeting with the Chief Scout, President Ranil Wickramasinghe has requested the SLSA officials to have a target to increase the membership to 200,000 by 2024 and assured the fullest support of the Government, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth Affairs for scouting.
The Chief Commissioner said that a Strategic Plan is being developed to achieve these numbers and to increase the quality of scouts and leaders. Of the four million student population in the country, he said that only around 200,000 are members of the Scout and Girl Guide Associations and that several thousands of parents and students are eagerly waiting to join the movement and benefit from same. He appealed to all the President’s Scouts present not to stop their scout activities after winning the President’s Award which is the highest they could receive as a scout, but to continue to serve our beloved, beautiful, scenic and blessed motherland, Sri Lanka by either supporting an existing Scout Group or start scout groups in schools and areas where there is a demand for scouting and emphasized that there was no better way to serve our motherland.
He said that we can all be proud that the membership of the Sri Lanka Scout Association which had dropped to 52,000 in 2021 due to the pandemic and closure of schools had now recorded the highest ever number of 100,000 and also the number of Scouts winning the President’s Award also had increased significantly. He quoted the Founder Lord Baden-Powell “We never fail when we try to do our duty, but we always fail when we neglect to do it”. He thanked the Chief Scout the President, the Governor of the North Western Province, The Senior Advisor to the President and all other officials for the cooperation extended. He congratulated and wished all the Awardees “a very successful future and best wishes on their future endeavours and requested their continuous support for the growth of scouting in Sri Lanka.