“අපි එනවා”

“අපි එනවා”

-අපි ගැන කතා කරන්න -

(Phase 01)

“Api Enawa” is an innovative project planned with the view of raising public awareness about Leoism and building the Leo image among the rural communities in Sri Lanka. This project will be carried out in few phases to cover different destinations.

The initiative was taken in a village situated in Maswila road, Bandaragama on 28^th of October 2017 from 9.30 a.m. onwards. This was named as “Api Enawa –Phase 01”.The dissemination about Leosim was done with the aid of a handbill descripting about Leoism and by gifting a plant to each household selected. Throughout the first phase of the project we were able to make a sound relationship with the villagers by spreading the positive vibe about Leoism to the community.

All the members were gathered to one place near Maswila Road early in the morning around 9.00 a.m and the committee split members to several groups .The  groups are sent  all over the village to precede with the project.

Firstly, we visited the household of Mr D.P Perera and initiated our project. With that initiative our Leos walked from door to door carrying guava plants with us. We had nice interactions with them and they were happy about our visit. With the help of them we planted each household with a guava plant to express our sincere gratitude for helping with this project.  While interacting with them we Leos were able to gain information about their households. For instance, the details regarding the name and age of a single resident in the household, number of members in each household etc. 

The project was carried out from 9.30 a.m to 5.30 p.m.,for around 08 hours and was winded up with refreshments provided by the households in the area. The kind support given by the residents and the refreshments given was appreciated by us at the end.Each household was
,§  Given a description about “who we are and why we are here”This was explained by our Leos by interacting with the residents. Any clarifications coming from them were answered by us. It was noted that for most of the residents this was new information.

§  Given a handbill stating the materials regarding Leoism
Most of the residents were delighted from the handbill and they carefully went through it.

§  Planted the garden of each household with a guava plant.
Equipment needed to plant the guava plant was provided by the households.

§  Obtained  information of the households visited from each resident
A document was maintained to gather information about the household visited. (Refer the annexures for further details)

Since we planned this as the first Betterment of Leoism and building the Leo image event for the year, we think that we were able to acknowledge and stand for a mass audience via participants and fellow university students. It was a memorable experience to the participants and the villagers where they enjoyed it to the fullest. Throughout the phase 01 of the project we were able to reach out around six hundred people with a lesser budget. The objective of raising public awareness about Leoism and building the Leo image was a huge success.

ආරෝග්‍යා 2017

“Arogya’17”

Health care and sanitation are always one of the major public health challenges for the rural communities in developing countries like Sri Lanka. In order to combat the rising incidence of diseases, Sri Lanka will need to enhance existing health infrastructure and effectively implement prevention programs.

Project “Arogya” organized by Leo club of University of Colombo for the second consecutive year was initiated with the intention of focusing on the lack of health facilities and medical resources in rural areas in Sri Lanka, and to uplift their standard of living.
This year this valuable healthcare project,Arogya’17 was held at Sri Bimbarama PunranaViharaya in Haputhalegama on 11^th of November. This mega service concluded benefiting for more than 750 beneficiaries in the Haputhalegama area, with the contribution of the Buddhist youth society of the village, doctors, nurses and the villagers.

First we contacted the Venerable thero of the Sri Bimbarama PuranaViharaya requesting about their state and how we could arrange this medical camp. In addition Leo Kasturi Rathnayake gave us important information about this village and the people.

We started this project by sending a request letter to Regional Director of Health Service, Badulla. We were able to get a huge support from Development Officers at A.G. Office at Diyathalawa, PHI, doctors and medical staff in Diyathalawa hospital, Grama-Seva officer, the Police to inform villagers about the medical camp. Also we went to the municipality to take canopies.The Buddhist youth society of Haputhalegema informed us that they will support us to achieve this valuable event.

With the information gathered by the doctors in Diyathalawa hospital, we selected the most suitable medical checkups and medical facilities that we should provide in this free medical camp. Selection was done mainly emphasizing the need to focus on non-communicable diseases. The free medical camp was organized to implement by conducting,

·         Eye clinic

·         Dental clinic

·         OPD clinic

·         Blood pressure and diabetes checkups

·         Kidney checkups

·         Height and weight calculation

·         Awareness programs

·         Distributing free medicine to patients

On the event day morning all the groundings were done before the project commenced. Placing the direction boards, mentioning the clinics, preparation of the registration table was done.

Registration table was arranged to get the number of participants who attended the project. All the villagers who came to the project were registered and they were provided with a form at the registration. The form included the details of the patient name, age, and the clinics they participate, their feedback. Four Leo members were assigned to head the registration table. The forms which were given to the patients were collected at the exit.
For each unit a Leo member was appointed to take records of the patients and the villagers were guided by the club members.

As the initial step of the opening ceremony lightening of the oil lamp was done with the participation of the chief guest and others. The event began by giving pansil by the Venerable thero to all villagers, club members, doctors and nurses and the members of Buddhist youth society of Haputhalegama.

After it Leo Tharindu Sandaruwan addressed the participants by emphasizing the objective of this medical camp. Additionally Leo NawodaShasika also addressed the audience and we distributed leaflets and a book about several diseases and important health tricks.
At the end of the opening ceremonya wheelchair was donated with the involvement of the Buddhist Youth Society.

Core activity of the project was to conduct the medical camp that was scheduled to execute with eye clinic, dental clinic, OPD clinic, blood pressure and diabetes checkups, kidney checkups, height and weight calculation, awareness programs, and distribution of medicine to the patients. 

Our registration table recorded that over 750 villagers have participated to the medical camp. Medical staff including 24 members have given their contribution in implementing the“Arogya’17” project.

1.      Eye clinic
As a part of our community project we organized a free eye checkup in the medical camp. Patients were treated from required treatments and medical advices by the oculist. About 200 participants were treated from the eye clinic.
Also on 19^th of November we arranged an eye lenses donation for the villagers as a part of the project.

2.  Dental clinic
A dental checkup was executed to encourage maintenance ofproper oral health of both children and adults as most of the villagers suffered from dental problems due to lack of good health habits. This clinic was supportive to detect dental problems that were left untreated, and unnoticed by patients and to give necessary treatments.Around 100 patients benefited from this clinic.

   3. OPD clinic
OPD was one of the most valuable clinics to patients to be examined and to get treatment as an outpatient before being admitted to the hospital at a later date as an inpatient.
OPD clinic provided patients with medical consultations and other allied services including exanimating the patients for any disease condition, diagnosing, providing medication to the patients. OPD clinic which was in the medical camp was done with the participation of about 550 patients.

4.  Blood pressure and diabetes checkups
As a measure of ensuring the importance of making people aware about their level of blood pressure and sugar level, this clinic was carried out aiming to provide citizens with medicine and awareness. Over 400 villagers participated for this clinic.

5.  Kidney checkups

It is observed that people in Sri Lanka irrespective of the age have kidney disease and most don’t know about it because early kidney disease can occur with no signs or symptoms. Kidney disease is a main health issue that threats human life. Therefore we arranged a separate clinic for kidney checkups with the intention of raising awareness on the prevention and timely diagnosis of kidney ailments. About 150 villagers benefited from this.

6.  Height and weight calculationChecking height and weight and calculating BMI to determine whether person is within a normal weight range for the height. Almost everyone participated to check their height and weight.

7.   Awareness programs

Health is important for all of us. Creating health awareness along with healthy habits can help people to take proper prevention against any health problem. Therefore, we the Leo club of University of Colombo has aimed to spread awareness about several disease prevention methods, helping the citizens to diagnose the symptoms as early as possible so that diseases can be reduced in early stages, prevent health risk and controlled in poor rural communities.

The awareness program was done highlighting the following areas,

Ø  Dengue

Ø  Diabetics

Ø  Good health habits

8.Distribution of leaflets and booklets

In order to give more awareness a leaflet designed by our Leo club, including good health habits and nutritious foods was distributed among the participants. Booklets about diagnosing health problems, how to maintain healthy life style, about dengue was also distributed among the patients.

Giving free medicine to the patients and donation of medicine

       There was a separate unit to issue free medicine to the patients as prescribed by the doctors. All the patients were given free medicine by the camp. At the end of the medical project Leo club of University of Colombo donated medicine to the Diyathalawa hospital for the usage of the villagers.

·         Providing refreshments to the participants

Refreshments were provided to the participants with the contribution of Buddhists Youth Society.

At the end of the program we were privileged to get blessings by the Venerable thero. Buddhist youth society of the temple arranged a vote of thanks and shared their true feelings about the project. A vote of thanks was given to our project chairman for the contribution they done for the success of this event.

The Free Medical Camp was really a great success to everyone who were connected with us as a team in all the possible ways. We, Leo club of University of Colombo are thankful to all the volunteers including doctors and the medical staff and everyone who took out their precious time to contribute to the success of this project.

Arogya’17 was completed magnificently with the participation of more than 750 people who came forward to benefit from this Free Medical Camp. Regular free medicine to patients were also provided at the camp. We really appreciate time and effort of every single person who contributed to us.

The event was concluded, and we left Bandarawela around 6.30pm.

Rang dey’17

Rang dey’17

Rang dey’17 is a holi festival which was organized by the Leo club of university of Colombo and this project can be recognized under the category of public Relation and publicity with the tag line of “Splashing the colorful feelings”. The main aim of this project is to enhance the collaboration among club members, other Leos and lions with a colorful experience to their lives and to increase the publicity of the club reaching large number of crowds with a huge media campaign including printed media, social media etc. This Indian festival was organized with the aim of making participants enchanted. Funny games and activities made the event more success.

As the first step of this project “Rang dey’17” a committee was appointed including 15 members and several meetings were conducted over the period of one month. Then we had a visit to the ground. Then we booked the ground through Sri Lanka Transport Board. Our next step was preparing sponsorship letters. Then our committee members went for a sponsorship hunt. Then we designed a special logo for the event with the support of IT committee of the Leo club of university of Colombo. Then we created a facebook event, flyers for our awareness program for Rang Dey’17.

Since it is necessary to cover the cost of the event in an effective way the committee decided to sell tickets for the people who wish to participate for the event. A larger proportion of tickets had been sold before the event and some of them were sold at the entrance of the ground. Since our main target was public relation the ticket price also was reduced to Rs. 200/- with the hope of attracting a large crowd. VIP tickets for Rs. 500/-were available as another strategy to cover the cost of event. This VIP package was included a water gun, food and beverages for the participant.

Then we gave the opportunity for our undergraduates to have their food stalls at the event in aid for the community development projects done by them. Indirectly we contributed towards those community development projects as well. They too help us to make the event success. Followings are some of fliers they made for us.

As our print media partners “Mawbima” newspaper and “Sunday Apple” newspaper helped us to reach the public. This newspaper advertisements reached the event for a large crowd.

The organizing committee with the chair person had a lot of preparations before the event. We selected shalika ground, Narahenpita as the venue of the event instead of the university ground with the expectation of attracting more crowds from the society as well.

Then within the whole event we had number of different games to add more colors to the event.

The event was concluded with the DJ.

We organized this event with the guidance of the club president and with the help of club members. Leo Club of University of Colombo is expected to grow with power and potential to uplift the human society with helping hands and compassionate hearts of young Leos.
We think that we were able to acknowledge what we stand for a mass audience via participants, sponsorship parties, corporates and fellow university students.

It was a joyful experience to the participants and the Leos where they enjoyed it to the fullest.