Sri Lankan Scouts clean up railway stations to remember Baden Powell

An initiative in railway stations across the country to celebrate the birthday of the founder of the movement, educating people to respect public property. Their leaders tell AsiaNews: ‘We want to be an example through action. Showing that if the Scouts can do it, everyone else can too’.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – To celebrate the 168th birthday of the movement's founder, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Sri Lankan scouts cleaned 150 railway stations across the country. Provincial scout leaders and parents also took part in this initiative, which was held on Saturday 22nd.

Over 700 scouts carried out the activity in the railway stations of Colombo-Fort, Maradana, Kompanagaveediya, Moratuwa and Mount Lavinia.

The cleaning of the station in Anuradhapura, in the Northern Province, was carried out under the guidance of the association's president, J.A.P. Jayawardena; the scout movements of Batticaloa, Akkaraipattu and Kalmunai in the Eastern Province have jointly launched a project to beautify the Batticaloa railway station, a programme to clean up 9 railway stations from Badulla to Ohiya in the Uva Province and another 33 railway stations from Benthara to Ahangama in the Southern Province.

Thilini Mahesha Kannangara, leader of the Nimala Maria Balika school's scout association in the region of Wattala-Jaela, in the Western Province, explained to AsiaNews that the gesture is intended to support the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ programme launched by the current government and embodies the scout movement's motto ‘Be a good example through action’.

‘By engaging in activities in public places,’ he added, ’we show that if scouts can do it, so can others. We aim to always live up to our motto and to engage in exemplary work with unity in a team spirit, without any discrimination of race, religion, age, big or small, and doing it with joy.’

‘Today is a happy day for us because all the scouts in our area have managed to get together and launch something as beautiful as this. Today is the birthday of our founder, who taught us to do good things and find satisfaction in these things’, Sarah Nicolaia, Natari Dienka of Nimala Maria Balika and Vimukthi Rehan of Christ's College in Tudella told AsiaNews.

‘Our founder,’ Vice President of Ceylon Scout Association Brother Kumarasinghe reminded them, ’was born in England, but later also went to India and South Africa to serve. There he noticed that children could do great services, but adults didn't allow them to. For this reason he started the scout movement and created opportunities for young people and children to serve society. Through these small actions we show society, including the elderly, that we protect and take care of public property’.

In Sri Lanka, scouting was founded in 1912 at Christdeva College, in the district of Matale, by the British citizen Francis George Steevans.