Seenigama Sport for Life project
This post originally appeared on www.unconditionalcompassion.org. The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation has been supporting the Seenigama Sport for Life project since the tsunami destroyed the coast of Sri Lanka in 2004. Sport was used as a way of bringing people back together to rebuild their communities and give hope to those who had lost everything. Today the project uses sport to tackle issues of rural underdevelopment and to promote life skills of 1400 young people a year.
S’bongiseni Vilakazi at the Laureus Sport for Good summit in South Africa
Hey
here’s S’bongiseni Vilakazi (Managing Director PeacePlayers International – South Africa)
Just thought I’d tell you that the workshop so far has been AWESOME!
Edwin Moses at the price giving ceremony with Lakruwan and Manu
Lakruwan and Manu (Seeningama Sport for Life Programme beneficiaries) recently participated in a LSFG project exchange where they met 4 other participants from the Laureus Sport for Good Network ( Indigo Youth Movement and Soweto Rugby Schools Programme)
Here are their impressions
Check out this great video on the Foundation of Goodness, one of our partners in Sri Lanka, who are responsible for our Seenigama Sport for Life programme. It demonstrates just how well aid can really work and offers suggestions of some of the best ways to deliver it.
28th December 2009
It’s been another fantastic week here at the Seenigama Sport project, with a whole host of different experiences. However, one of the main ones took place a long way from the sunny palm frond environs of Seenigama, but required just the same level of physical exertion if not more.
I was invited by the Laureus contact out here to climb Adam’s Peak with her and her parents on Christmas day. Given the way I knew my family and friends would be spending the day I thought it would be fun to do something a little different. Adam’s Peak, or Sri Pada as it’s known in Sinhalese, at 7500ft high is the second highest peak in the country and a special site of religious pilgrimage for Buddhists. The climb starts from the village of Dalhousie, which is a 7 hour bumpy twisty ride from here. Having left just after lunch, we arrived at our guest house just after 9pm in time to wolf down a huge plate of fried rice before heading straight to bed. It was lights out at 10pm as the alarm was set for just after 2am! Somewhat bleary eyed we met in the reception and at 2.30am started walking. As we’d been told, the route is lined with little kiosks ready to sell pilgrims bottles of water, cups of tea, roties or sickly sweet blocks of ant covered congealed honey (at least one aspect of which was not intentional)! However, contrary to what we’d been told the temperature was positively balmy compared to back home, particularly once we’d started climbing the never ending supply of steps, and the layers were quickly peeled off as we steamed our way to the top. The climb was pretty tough going even for someone like me, and I’m considered pretty fit, so I was very impressed by the number of elderly people doing it or those carrying small children and particularly by those doing it in bare feet! The ascent itself took about 3 hours. After a chilly hour watching the sun rise at the temple at the top (where those layers finally came in handy) it was time for the long slow painful descent and we eventually hobbled back into our hotel at 9am, however not before taking in the sensational vistas that the mountain affords.
