Sikander Sabeer: Facilitated a Residential Workshop on Youth Led sustainability

Monday, June 4, 2012

Facilitated a Residential Workshop on Youth Led sustainability

The International Climate Champions is a program of the British Council. The program is aimed at empowering youth to engage in solving environment issues of the current world. The first International Climate Champions were recruited in 2009 with just 5 members, this batch received their project management training in Muktheshwar, in the Himalayan region of India. The second batch was recruited in 2010 with 12 members. The members chosen in 2010 attended a four-day project management workshop hosted in New Delhi, India. The climate champions are a part of a world-wide network. Selected champions from across the globe meet at the annual International Climate Champions International camp. In 2011, three champions from Sri-Lanka had the chance of attending the international camp which focussed on how climate change impacts coastal eco-systems. The three champions who attended this camp were Chathurangi de Silva, Sikander Sabeer and Joanne Kotelawala.

Champions are recruited based on project plans which they submit as a part of their application procedure. Their projects aim to communicate the issues related to climate change and to take action to either adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change.

The recruits for ICC 2012 submitted their applications along with project ideas and 24 selected participants attended a project planning workshop held in Thulhiriya, Kurunegala. The two-day workshop focussed on educating the participants on general climate change knowledge, and project planning skills. The program also focussed on aspects of self-development that would prepare the participants to work as volunteers in communities effectively and to communicate their knowledge within those communities. The event was organised by ICC 2010 Joanne Kotelawala, with the support of the British Council Colombo. The participants were addressed by professionals in the fields of Conservation (prof. Hemanthi Ranasinghe) , Energy and Transport, Social Action Projects (Mr. Sena Peiris), Education and Awareness, Research and innovation, Digital and social media.

The event was facilitated by the champions from 2009 and 2010 who were also able to share with participants their experiences and how their projects have grown since its inception. The facilitators at the event were Ashrifa Ali (ICC 2009), Sikander Sabeer (ICC 2010), Nilanke Panthearachchi (ICC 2010), Joanne Kotelawala (ICC 2010) and Aruthra Rajasingham. The team was given an immense amount of help by Mr. Nimal Perera and Ms. Thushara Gunasekara.

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About Me

Sikander Sabeer is a product of Isipathana College and holding a first class with distinction Bachelors of Science (BSc) degree on Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Microbiology from Spectrum Institute of Science and Technology (Sri Lanka), an outreach campus of University of Mysore (India). Presently reading for his Masters of Science (MSc) on Business Management at National School of Business Management (Sri Lanka), an outreach post-graduate institute of University of Dublin (Ireland).

Sikanders’ development work can be categorized into three avenues, namely community service and community development; youth empowerment and professional development; climate change and sustainable development. Meanwhile his development work is two phased, firstly action oriented, secondly strategic and advocacy. In the action oriented phase, he gets in to the field and implements his ideas. He works very closely with multi-stakeholders such as children, school students, youth, corporates & business firms, UN agencies, non-governmental and government organizations on diversified projects at different levels and on different capacities. With his strong grass-root level initiatives and experience, he invests equal time on advocacy, mentorship and youth policy framework, which is a unique, and a strategic bottom up approach.

Sikanders’ voluntary action oriented initiatives and his strategic thinking has given him numerous opportunities to be a guest speaker and youth facilitator; to share his experiences, best practices to motivate and inspire youth at number of National and International youth conferences. He has represented his country and fellow youth (1/4th of Sri Lankan population) at high profile youth conferences and high level UN summits/conferences, at some of the UN meetings I have served as an ‘Official Youth Delegate’ of the National Delegation team headed by HE president. Half of the world’s population is made up of young people and as a youth representative and a major stakeholder he had made several interventions on behalf of Global Youth and Sri Lankan youth at some of the UN conferences.

He has held several key positions in organizing several national and international events/programmes and he is one of the co-creators of the YOUTH is the word –Guinness World Record, where 1500 Sri Lankan youth stood to gather to form the largest human mosaic in the world.

His local, national and international initiatives on youth led community development, Climate Change; youth empowerment and youth advocacy led him to earn the most prestigious “Commonwealth Youth Awards (CYA)” for Excellence in Development Work (2012), The CYA’s celebrate and recognize extraordinary young people among one billion audiences from 54 member states of Commonwealth who are making a positive difference to the lives of others through development initiatives ranging from poverty alleviation to education and protection of the environment. This is awarded by Commonwealth Secretariat (CYP) headed by HM Queen Elizabeth II. He earned the "Global Changemaker" title of British Council Youth Empowerment Programme on 2010 for outstanding contribution for Voluntary Activities. He serves as a Youth Ambassadorial role for climate change and serves as a Youth Facilitator for climate sustainability under British Council International Climate Champion program. Apart from these major recognitions his team earned U.S. Department of States Federal Assistant Award Grant for “Green the Home” project and Global Changemakers Community Action Project (CAP) and Regional Action Project (RAP) grants for Youth Empowerment Initiatives.

Presently Sikander is serving as an Assistant Manager for Business Development and Project Officer for recycling solutions for Neptune Recyclers (Neptune Papers [Pvt.] Ltd) in Sri Lanka, a member of multinational corporate Expolanka Holdings PLC. He works very closely with multi- stakeholders, especially with school students, Industries and Corporates on recycling solutions which create an additional income from the trash while minimizing the environmental pollution.

"Do as much as voluntary activities, because volunteers Inspire in Action, they make a real change in their community, they talk less and work a lot, but never expect any personal benefits from their action, Indeed one day they will earn the rewards, that’s confirmed; Install this in your mind “I will do the best I can”

-Sikander Sabeer-