Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 23, 2023: The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka held a Gender Equity teaching programme through Pink Volleyball for schools in Ratnapura, the gem capital of the country.
This inaugural programme, which was held under the auspices of Olympic Solidarity and the Olympic Council of Asia, was conducted at Seevali Vidyalaya in Ratnapura, a town 100 kilometres southeast of the capital Colombo.
A total of 50 school coaches and 10 supervising staff participated in the one-day programme promoting gender equity through Pink Volleyball. The programme will eventually be introduced to 600 schoolchildren in the district.
Volleyball is the national sport of Sri Lanka.
The programme got underway with the Sri Lanka NOC making a detailed presentation as to why the Olympic Council of Asia has placed a great emphasis on gender equity.
President of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation and Vice President of Sri Lanka NOC, Kanchana Jayartane, explained: “Pink Volleyball is not a volleyball tournament. It is also not a training programme or a technical programme. This is a programme where it is our responsibility to educate the volleyball playing public and the young generation of spikers on how gender equity works and to know their rights.”
The Sri Lanka NOC and the Federation will celebrate Pink Volleyball Day on June 17 at the same venue, and the target is that, by then, schoolchildren in the district will be aware of what gender equity is.
Coaches were told the two basic guiding principles of gender equity were fairness and impartiality. Fairness involves just treatment without favouritism and prejudice, and impartiality defined as treating all parties equally.
