After a successful event held at Sputnik premises on 18th Sunday, it was very exciting to arrange the preparations of the second Gomihiroi program scheduled for June.
The proposed location was Athugala. Athugala is a huge Rock, shaped like an Elephant. It is located in the heart of the Kurunegala town. A Buddhist temple is located on the top of the Rock which is a popular place that is visited by hundreds of visitors. The green bird team reached the place by 2.30pm and started cleaning. Rapid- 56 class was having their first ever green bird experience.
A heavy amount of grocery bags and empty liquor bottles were found on the ground. The possible guess for such a huge load of plastic and glass trash was obvious, since few mobile shops could be seen in the area that were selling local goods such as flowers, snacks and fruits. The local and foreign visitors groups who come to visit the holy place while their picnics seem to have chosen these breathtaking resting spots to have their liquor pegs and smoking puffs all while climbing the Rock, sadly leaving their empty bottles, beer cans and cigarette filters or snack wraps with the place.
There were no garbage bins available since it is an ethical aspect NOT to throw garbage in the streets but, unfortunately the trash load indicated that there are still very careless associations about the environment.
The team ended collecting around 12 garbage bags. Two volunteers came forward to trasnport the garbage bags to the municipal council dumping area. Great team spirit!
The temperature of the Rock area is usually high in the day time, thus the team was exhausted. The activity was finished within exact one hour time, even though there were lots of trash still left on ground.
Its always fun to take a class out for welfare activities. The young team spirit motivates the community to gather around for making the world a better place!
A few meters away, there is this wonderful place called “Lake round”. It’s a place with spectacular scenary and serene environment. The Lake round was the best place to have a break after the activity and everyone had refreshments.
At first, this group of students had no idea what is Gomihiroi and they even tried avoiding the event. However when they practically engaged in the activity, they showed real care and gave their best effort to make it a successful event.
Many said, they would never throw garbage on the streets and will contribute themselves to attend future activities and to spread the message of “keep clean keep green”. They had promising attitude to stand against environmental pollution. And this is exactly we; the green bird team expects to see from young generation!
