By Sarah Soyza – Youth Volunteer, FPA Sri Lanka
For the third time the Youth Technical Advisory Committee of FPA Srilanka organized the yearly gathering of children from HIV affected families to be held on the 12th of December. Memories of the last year’s event gave us, the volunteers, and enough enthusiasm that all of us looked forward to this day with a lot of hopes. The day was surely going to be fun. So it was.
This time, we did something different from last year. Kapila, one of the volunteers of FPASL, conducted an excellent workshop for the children on Singing and Acting. The children imitated the songs of the wild and sang adopting different voices. They were divided in to three groups; Mickey Team, Teddy Team and Rose Team, and at the end of the day the three teams presented two dramas and an action song, all based on the stories from the jungle. They made their own costumes with colored papers with the help of volunteers. It was wonderful to see the kids, who were once shy, confidently acting and singing on the stage. And the parents, who joined us later in the day, since in the morning they were engaged in a workshop on nutrition, heartily enjoyed the show and cheered their children with unconcealed joy.
The kids and their parents were provided lunch and we did not forget to have a special guest of the season feature in our event; Santa Clause! Santa Clause danced with the kids, gave them toffees and balloons and the kids loved him immensely. From time to time some of the kids danced on stage and sang in Sinhala and Tamil. A lovely six year old girl preformed a stunning dance to a popular song just before the Teams presented their Acts.
One of the most important items of the day was giving away stationary items. Every child got a pack of stationary necessary for next year’s school work. Executive director of FPASL Mr.Gamni wansekara joined us for this event. Prior to the event stationary items had been bought with the donations we collected, and some donors were ready to give stationary items we requested.
The kids left very happy and confident. We were happy beyond words. They loved the day and they loved us. They were wonderful, witty, naughty, sometimes shy, that we couldn’t help loving them back all with our hearts.
