The above program was held on Friday, 16th March at the main Auditorium of Kandy Teaching Hospital from 9.00 am to about 11.30 am. This was organized by consultant Doctor W. A. L. Wickramasinghe together with Doctor Nimmi De Silva.
The participants were a mix of personnel working on health sector comprising of medical doctors, nurses, community health workers, attendants, student counselors of schools and pradeshiya sabhas, people working on drug and child abuse prevention and rehabilitation work, totaling about 80.
As per the directive given by Consultant Doctor W. A. L. Wickramasinghe, the main requirement of the participant was to know how “Sati Pasala” program is conducted at schools. Accordingly, the program was started by an Introduction to the concept of “Sati” by Mr. Chula Weerakoon, lasting about 45min.
This was followed by 4 activities, namely mindful eating, body scanning, mindful sitting and mindful walking which took slightly more than 1 hour of time. Due to unavailability of outside space, mindful walking was carried out inside the hall in two- groups. At the end of each session there was a brief discussion to share experience.
This was conducted by 4 mindful facilitators from Sati-group-Kandy, Mrs. Chandani, Mrs. Ramani, Mr. Weerasekara and Mr. Udaya.
At the end, there were some questions from participants about varies aspects of the Sati Pasala concept. Doctor W. A. L. Wickramasinghe and Mr. Chula Weerakoon clarified those points.
From the feedback, it is clearly evident that the participants got a clear idea about how this program is conducted in schools. Large number of them highlighted the timely need of this for school children and called this as a “National Service”. They also acknowledged that, it is useful for them also to handle the stress in work place and also in the family situation. Further, it is evident that, some of the participants, who were new to the concept of “Sati” also grasped some idea about what it is and its value for their day to day work.
At the end, some copies of Sati Pasala new book was distributed among the participants of the program.
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