Ampara Training Resource Centre Opens
Over 100 Sewalanka Foundation staff members from offices island-wide converged in Ampara from 21-23 May 2004 for three-day festivities to celebrate the opening of the new Training Resource Centre.
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| Sewalanka staff cricket day participants congratulate each other on a successful day’s play. |
The Training Resource Centre will enable Sewalanka Foundation to host residential training programs as the complex has a large training hall and six hostel rooms, two with attached bathrooms. The centre will also complement the existing Ampara Office agricultural plot that experiments with new forms of sustainable agriculture.
The centre was opened on the first day of the three-day programme at 10.30am on 21 May 2004 by Harsha Kumara Naveratne, Sewalanka’s Chairman. Mr. Naveratne stated, “I am delighted by the progress made by Ampara District Office in strengthening its position as one of the foremost national NGOs in the District.”
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| The new Training Resource Centre in Ampara District. |
The opening ceremony was well attended with representatives from donor agencies, local non-government organisations and religious leaders. The first-day festivities concluded with the ‘Bana’ and ‘Pirth’ ceremonies that went throughout the night to pray for the prosperity of Sewalanka Foundation.
Nearly 40 Sewalanka staff members on 22 May 2004 provided ‘dane’, gift giving and respect ceremony, at the Csridyananda Perivena in Ampara. In the afternoon staff visited and provided lunch and gifts for a Children Home housing 35 children with disbailities.
The weekend was concluded with the mammoth inaugural Sewalanka Foundation Cricket tournament. Six teams from Ampara, Vavuniya, Mannar, Monaragala, Colombo and Galle with Hambantota competed from 9am to 7pm. The cricket day provided an excellent opportunity for staff members from different offices to meet each other and interact on a social basis.
The Training Resource Centre will be available for use by local organisations and international donors wishing to conduct training in the district.
