Unity Mission Trust: A journey of 8 years of building young lives and bridges of friendship

From left: Kushan D’ Alwis PC, Anushya Coomaraswamy, Nirmali Wickremesinghe, Rukshan Perera, Major General (Retd.) Lohan Goonewardena (Chairman), Bertal Pinto-Jayawardena (Founder Trustee), Shyamala Pinto-Jayawardena (Co- Founder Trustee), Reyaz Mihular and Ramola Sivasunderam

Chairman Major General (Ret.) Lohan Goonewardena (centre), Co-Founder Trustee Shyamala Pinto-Jayawardena (left) and Founder Trustee Bertal Pinto-Jayawardena

Unity Mission Trust, which began a unique journey of love and care and fostering unity and integration commencing from Menik Farm in May 2009, has now completed eight years of formal existence.

The initial work of conducting social care projects for IDP returnees and medical camps changed to working specifically with youth from across Sri Lanka. This commenced from 2010 and has now extended to sharing very special mind-developing messages of self-belief, self-esteem, unity and integration with nearly 9,000 youth.

The Trust began work with 16-17-year-old youth leaders who were nominated by their respective schools from across Sri Lanka to attend these four-day residential unity camps. Nine of these unity camps have been conducted at different geographic venues across Sri Lanka. 

The Trust has now completed over 60 major unity and integration projects during the eventful journey of eight years.

These original youth have now grown into 23-, 24- and 25-year-olds, who have entered the university system across Sri Lanka as well as technical colleges. In addition, Unity Mission Trust youth leaders have now attained gainful employment in the Armed Forces, Police and mercantile sector.

Each new Unity Camp worked as a “feeder” into the Unity Mission Trust system. As these youth graduated out of the schools system, a network of regional councils were established across the country to enable these youth to continue to work together and link up with other regional groups as well, thus continuing to foster understanding and forging strong bridges of friendship.

The core messages that have been drilled into the minds of these youth is that they are all equally valuable sons and daughters of one Sri Lanka, more specifically that the unity that they will build up between themselves will be what will make Sri Lanka strong in the future. 

They have also developed a mindset which recognises that they and others like them are the greatest treasures of Sri Lanka. They have also been taught at Unity Camps that unity in diversity is what will make a new Sri Lanka successful in the future.

Unity Mission Trust has now expanded operations beyond the annual Unity Camp held for 500 youth from across Sri Lanka for four days. The other main programs of the Trust include an annual conference which discusses grassroots issues of unity, integration and reconciliation, where youth leaders present their own research papers. This in itself is a significant learning and development experience.

A special program titled ‘Power ONE Hundred – Stepping out into the World’ is held annually for 100 hand-picked regional youth leaders, who complete the A-Level examinations and step out into the world.

Prominent speakers touch on subjects as varied as law, the dangers of alcohol and drug addiction, prevention of sexual abuse, building their future careers and career guidance, etc. All these topics are covered in addition to detailing the expectations of these youth of continuing to build bridges of friendship through Unity Mission Trust’s network of 17 regional councils.

Two half-yearly regional leader development programs are held as well for 150-200 selected youth leaders to focus on regional leadership-related work and projects that need to be done at the regional level to further foster inter-regional unity and integration.

All 17 regional councils also celebrate National Independence Day as well as the Unity Mission Trust anniversary which falls on 29 October, with social care projects that touch the lives of the community.

Speaking on the eighth anniversary of Unity Mission Trust, Chairman Major General (Retd.) Lohan Goonewardena said: “Our main platform is the development of leadership skills, personal capacity enhancement and self-confidence empowerment. This mind and skills development training is then used as the platform to foster unity, integration, reconciliation and the building of bridges of friendship and understanding amongst the youth who attend our Unity Camps and then continue to be a part of Unity Mission Trust’s extended family.”

Founder Trustee Bertal Pinto-Jayawardena said: “Unity Mission Trust, which worked only with youth, has now reached out to the communities to which our main youth leaders belong. We are doing all of our work with a long-term vision of 15-20 years from today, when these youth will be holding positions of influence and authority across the nation. We are putting in place a platform that will build understanding and foster as well as strengthen their friendships into the future. This will result in a network of friendships and understanding across Sri Lanka, that can only contribute to building peace and making Sri Lanka more successful.”

Co-Founder Trustee Shyamala Pinto-Jayawardena said: “It is so emotional to see these youth, who came on camp many years ago, growing up today and transforming into confident young ladies and gentlemen. It is an extended family where strong friendships are being built, which we pray will grow stronger in the future, irrespective of their locations.” The eighth anniversary celebrations on 29 October were led by the Galle Regional Council. A large segment of Unity Mission Trust youth from Galle as well as representatives from Ambalangoda, Mirissa, Jaffna, Mannar, Kandy, Anuradhapura and Colombo joined them to participate in a cricket tournament and the anniversary celebrations thereafter that had been organised.

The principals of Mahinda College, Galle and St. Aloysius’ College, Galle, Gamini Jayawardena and Ranjith Thilakaratne respectively, were Special Guests of Honour at the celebrations.

The next event of Unity Mission Trust is a sing-along celebration event led by Trustee Rukshan Perera and supported by Sohan and the X-Periments. This is an invitation-based event, which is open to those who wish to support the work of Unity Mission Trust. This event will be held on 25 November. Those interested can obtain further information by calling 0766043913.

The Trustees of Unity Mission Trust include Major General Lohan Goonewardena, Chandra Schaffter, Rukshan Perera, N. Vasantha Kumar, Reyaz Mihular, Anushya Coomaraswamy, Ramola Sivasunderam, Nirmali Wickremasinghe, Kushan D’ Alwis, Jeyakumar Thangavelu, Dr. Wimal Karandagoda, Dushyanthi Thuseetharan, Sanath Weeratunge and Prof. Rohan Guneratne in addition to Founder Trustees Bertal and Shyamala Pinto-Jayawardena.

The Trust continually needs volunteers and donors in different ways to support the English education, educational scholarships program and unity-related regional work that is continually undertaken.

More information on the Trust can be obtained at unitymissiontrust on Facebook, on the website www.unitymission.lk or by contacting the Founder Trustee on 0766043913 or 0768360103.