The project Greener Tomorrow was conducted covering six phases emphasizing on different aspects of making a better environment for the future.

Phase 01- වෙරල වෙනුවෙන්

Stepping up on initiating the project, “The Beach” was first to be considered. We know that looking at the beach is never enough. From the sand to the wave, our imagination is inspired and literally eternal joy is brought to our souls. But “Does an unclean beach still give us that feeling?” or “Do we get the same feeling of refreshing our minds?”-I don’t think so.

In mesmerizing those beautiful memories with the sea, we initiated our project in cleaning the beach. In this phase co-hosting with 365X, a team for seven days covered over nine locations from 3rd to 10th of December covering a distance of approximately 1500km. The Iconic beaches of Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western areas were picked to conduct this beach cleanups over a period of seven days. Final location was selected as the Mount Lavinia beach where with the participation over 50 people, the beach coast was cleaned.

With every drop of water we drink, every breath we take, WE ARE CONNECTED TO THE SEA. Collecting wastage to our hands and lots of memories to our mind, the phase was concluded, making an immense success.

Phase 02- නිකසල සංග්‍රාම​

A clean environment is a human right like any other. It is not just given rather we earn it. It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that the world we pass is lot better than what we received. It is always questionable whether we act out what we say or we just be active for just one day.

“Do we really need a day to clean our environment?”- Well, unless it’s a day, the attention can never be taken. The true fact you & I know and experienced is this.

Hence the “National Garbage Cleanup Day-2019” was initiated by Green Spine, Big Hearts Foundation, Surakimu Dumriya and few Non-Profit Organizations along with Rotaract Club of SLIIT cleaning 171 points island wide around Sri Lanka to help and to start a green concept by cleaning many cities and railway stations.

Phase 03- හරිත වන්දනා

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon sky”

~Kahlil Gibran~

I wonder whether anyone has ever thought when sitting under a tree, “I am covered because someone planted this tree a long time ago”- other than “Oh! My skin got so burned” or “Pheww finally it’s shady!” But imagine is trees gave off WiFi signals, we would be planting so many trees and we probably save the planet too. Too bad they only produce the oxygen we breathe.

However being that “someone” is complying our duties. In making sure that we do our duties on time, we stepped forward to our next phase- හරිත වන්දනා where we planted trees beside the road from Yakka to Kandy side in Kandy Road which was developed recently. In collaboration with Aurora and many government institutions, the project was concluded successfully. The aim of the phase was to reduce carbon level and to provide shelter to the road side by planting over 1000 trees.

Phase 04- Heat Challenge

Isn’t it too much hot outside these days? – a common thing we just pour out of our mouths almost all the time now. The highest temperature has been recorded over 40 ̊C in Sri Lanka in the recent past as a result of Global Warming.

Without being a reason for this season, Rotaract Club of SLIIT in collaboration with Aurora planted 54,653,130 trees all around Sri Lanka to raise the forest cover by 1% , challenging the Heat. In forming a better future for our youngsters and in reducing the environmental changes was the aim of conducting the project as deforestation has already become a HUGE problem in Sri Lanka.

Phase 05- Awurudu Challenge

Phase 05 was focused on the New Year celebrations. In the past era, hence people were into cultivation, planting a tree was an obvious thing to do for the auspicious time. But later with the modifications and expansion of jobs, that time was given for other work.

Bringing back the past to the present, Rotaract Club of SLIIT with Aurora and Green Spine created a revolution which contributes towards a Greener Tomorrow. Awareness was created with the support of Aurora and Green Spine, requesting to public to plant trees for the auspicious time. With the support of the public over 500,000 trees were planted across the country and public who received the message as a result of the awareness campaign has planted trees and along with the hashtag #Plant4SL

Sirasa FM joined with RAC SLIIT and informed them about the challenge to raise public awareness for the project. While globalized efforts are carried out to mitigate the problem such as developing renewable energy sources, it is understood that planting trees and increasing the live biomass of trees is recognized solution.

Phase 06- Greener and Cleaner LK

You don’t need training to become a garbage collector… You just pick it up as you go along.

We act as if the world is going to be ended after us because we never are bothered on picking up garbage rather throwing ours to the nature. This is so visible in most famous places in Sri Lanka. As Sri Lankans, we copy others and others copy us, making it a trend after all. Climbing Pidurangala Rock was seemed to be a trend these days. But that trend is trying to take away the beauty of Pidurangala as many people throw their garbage into the surrounding environment.

From the feet to the peak of Pidurangala Mountain pathway was cleaned by Rotaract Club of SLIIT with the help of some climbers, making sure the garbage were disposed in a proper way.

In concluding the project which was spread over the year 2018/19, a social media campaign of Greener Tomorrow was conducted. The intention of this campaign was to make people aware of the adverse consequences of environmental pollution and the importance of embracing the green concepts in day to day activities.

So Let’s Make a Trend for a Greener Tomorrow.

Written by-

Rtr. Nishali Perera

Member 2018/19