Milinda's Blog

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 8 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 29 posts. There were 16 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 5mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was May 4th with 82 views. The most popular post that day was Castle Hospital for Women, discriminates HIV+ woman!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wordpress.com, mail.yahoo.com, facebook.com, wsglanka.com, and equal-ground.org.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for universal access and human rights, isa guha, isa guha pics, kumar sangakkara, and together we are the solution.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Castle Hospital for Women, discriminates HIV+ woman! May 2010
11 comments

Universal Access and Human Rights June 2009

Jericho Paterno on Migration and HIV & AIDS July 2009
1 comment

About May 2009
1 comment

There’s nothing that can’t be done if we raise our voice as one! May 2010
2 comments

With much regret, we have to inform you that, the Candlelight Memorial Event which was scheduled to happen on the 23rd (Sunday) May has been postponed once again without a decision on an alternative date due to the prevailing weather condition and the postponement of the National Victory Day Celebrations organized by the Government of Sri Lanka at the Galle Face Green.

On behalf of the National Youth Coalition of Sri Lanka,  we would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused due to the postponement of the event for the second time. We will keep you guys posted on the latest developments. Please pass the message to your friends, family and contacts on the change of the event. Write to us for more information at: nycsrilanka@gmail.com.

This is to inform you’ll that, the Candlelight Memorial event which was scheduled for the Sunday, May 16th 2010 has been postponed due to unavoidable circumstances.

The event will now be held on the Sunday, May 23rd at the Galle Face Green starting wt 3.00 p.m. onwards.

For more information, please feel free to contact either Janitha Basnayake on 071-4440234 or Paba Deshappriya on 071-8015702 .

The National Youth Coalition extends its great regret for any inconvenience caused due to the change in the dates.

So these are the activities planned for the 16 May (Sunday) at the Galle Face Green;

Refresher Programme for the Volunteers.

A short refresher programme will be done at the Galle Face Green itself to polish up the existing knowledge base within the coalition. Resources within the coalition of organizations and individuals will be used with no additional cost. The programme will commence at 12 noon along with lunch and will be of about 2 to 3 hours in duration.

A volunteer group of about 30 or more individuals are willing to be a part of this refresher programme. All material developed during the campaign last year will be used for this purpose.

One-on-one awareness raising programme.

Once the volunteers refresh their knowledge on the subject matter, they will start a one-on-one awareness campaign in the entire area. They will talk to the general public by giving out brochures and leaflets and there by generate interest to be receptive to information. Once they talk to them, the volunteers will pin a red ribbon to symbolize that, they have been given information related to HIV and AIDS.

The key to success in this activity is that, the more people you reach the higher the impact would be. Thus, the volunteers are encouraged to speak to more and more people and specifically the influential people in the surrounding such as the three-wheeler drivers, military personnel, etc.

Disruptive Theatre.

Disruptive theatre can grab the attention of the general public in seconds and it makes people think of their lives as they might not be aware the intention of the theatre and what’s actually happening. This avoids theatre being considered as just merely for entertainment. It is much easier and effective to give messages in this form rather than street drams and other tools.

Wesak Lantern making and lighting them along the Galle Road.

Since it’s the Wesak season and people are attracted to places where lanterns are being made and displayed, we believe that using Wesak lanterns to give a message on the candlelight memorial event. In other words, this will be the centre of attraction.

We intend to bring around forty readymade lanterns and leave it in the location while have an area where volunteers would sit and would be making more lanterns then and there. Soon after the public being caught their attention the volunteers would invite them to join them and make more lanterns. These lanterns will be decorated with red ribbons, etc. Any one is free to make any kind of lantern with the available resources.

Once the lanterns are made, those will be hung along the Galle Road and will be lit by the general public itself around 7.30 p.m. we would also invite key people like the Officer-in-charge of the Colombo Fort Police station, military personnel present in the area, etc to be a part of the entire event.

We believe that, these lanterns would give us a chance to commemorate the people who lost their lives due to HIV and AIDS and was stigmatized as a result of their HIV status. Also it would add more colour and glamour to the event. As mentioned earlier, this would be the centre of attraction at the venue.

Involvement of Celebrities.

We in tend to invite various celebrities and well known people to be a part of the event and help us out to talk to people, distribute brochures and pin red ribbons. This is done to ensure the fact that, HIV and AIDS can be infected by any person and it’s extremely all right to get involved and be activist in helping the others to protect themselves. We believe that, people would open up to well known personalities and would be much more receptive to information.

The celebrities and the known figures coming in for the event would be asked to act completely unaware of a planned event to make it much more interesting and spontaneous. They would pretend to be that, either they came to Galle Face randomly or saw something happening and was attracted. The public should not be aware that they were invited to the venue specifically for a event or so.

If anyone have contacts of people whom you could convince to come, please do so and let us know.

Banners and t-shirts with messages on HIV and AIDS.

All banners printed earlier for our previous campaign would be used for this purpose to keep the cost at a minimal. However, we are intending to print some t-shirts with messages on it and also as few give-a-ways for most supportive individuals in the location.

I have also attached the proposal with the budget in this email. Please go through and give comments. Also let us know if anyone knows of anyone who could fund this.

That’s about it.

So join us on the 16th and help us out!