Workshop on Children Dealing with Trauma and Social Ostracism

Attended a workshop on children dealing with trauma and social ostracism organized by the ‘Friends of Prisoners’ Children’ (FOPC), which see a dire necessity to address the needs of these children and support them in becoming responsible citizens of society and thereby work towards a crime-free-society in the future.
The ‘Friends of Prisoners’ Children’, is a voluntary organisation that provides annual scholarships to over 275 selected prisoners’ children to ensure sustainability of their education.

The brainchild of Rev. Sister Immaculate de Alwis, the Association seeks to support and befriend these children by setting up psychosocial development programs, donating school books, giving them monetary awards to continue their education in the school they attend in their home town/village and setting up a prison function that allows these children to see and spend time with their parents.

In order to delve into the psychological and emotional impact on the child whose parent is serving a jail term, the ‘Friends of Prisoners’ Children’ had organised a Workshop held at St. Bridget’s Convent on 26 October 2013.

visit www.friendsofprisonerschirldren.org.lk.

UN Secretary-General listens to 1 million voices from MY World

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented today a new report “A Million Voices: The World We Want”. The report summarizes the findings from public consultations and surveys, that engaged more than 1.3 million people in all 193 UN Member States since August 2012 in an effort to identify priorities for the post-2015 development agenda that will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“For the last year, the UN has been encouraging an unprecedented ‘global conversation’ on the world that people want,” said Ban Ki-moon. “The report that we launch today captures the voices of over one million people from all regions and backgrounds. We sought the voices of those that are usually unheard – particularly those people that are poor, excluded or marginalized.”

My Experience at Asia Youth Leaders' Summit 2013

It was a great pleasure to be a youth speaker for the Asia Youth Leaders’ summit 2013, held in New Delhi, India this October.

The three day conference was packed with many sessions to develop capacities on various issues and share success stories among delegates.

As a Youth Speaker I took this opportunity to inspire number of youth delegates by sharing success stories and best practices. AYLS was a platform do be inspired, I met some of the youth activist who have been doing some amazing stuffs in their community, one of them was Rajkumar from a rural village in Chennai, who have been working with marginalized group on health and education. Another friend from Delhi who has been working with sex workers on rehabilitation, these are just few projects I really got inspired about. This platform gave me the opportunity to network and meet as much as youth from the CYP Asia region. During the technical sessions I was able share "YOUTH is the word" project which inspired many participants.

I would say AYLS was a key important meeting to think about the future of Asia Youth Council, which is a key strategic step to synergize the Asian Youth to shape the future as we want. AYLS was a memorable summit in my life, because I received the trophy of the Commonwealth Youth Award 2012 and a certificate signed by Secretary General of Commonwealth Secretariat, which is one of the major achievements in my life.

I believe these kinds of events will provide youth leaders to be inspired and inspire the next generation of youth.

Day 03 - Asia Youth Leaders' Summit 2013

The third day of the summit focused on thematic workshops on:

· Peace Building

· Leadership and Governance

· Human Rights

· Entrepreneurship

As I have been working on Peace Building, Leadership and Governance, Entrepreneurship for past couple of years I thought join the Human Rights Group which was facilitated by Mr. Manoj. The workshop build my capacity on basic human rights, key causes for HR violations, global conventions any many more

 

Day 02 - Asia Youth Leaders' Summit 2013

The second day was a technical session, where we shared some of our success stories with audiance.

 

Raising Question to the Panel

 

Commonwealth Youth Award 2012 with Gaurav

 

 Commonwealth Youth Award 2012 with Gaurav and Anoka

                                                                        My Award

         

                                                                         My Presentation

 

The Panel

                                                                        Inspired Team

Day 01 - Asia Youth Leaders' Summit 2013

The day one was focused on opportunities and challenges for youth participation, which was held at British Council - New Delhi. Some of eminent speakers from British Council, Commonwealth Secretariat, Government sector laid the foundation for upcoming two days of the Asia Youth Leaders’ Summit.

“Young people should not be slaves of technology; they should be the masters of technology” by Secretary of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The secretary further emphasized that today the respect to elders by the youngers are depreciating, which has to be addressed, because one day these youngsters will get elders.

Dr. Agochiya discussed about youth participation in governance and development. Especially on Youth inclusion development, young people rights -on voting and getting into politics,

Mr. Jeroninio spoke about how youth can get engaged for a meaningful democracy and good governance, It’s fancy to talk about corruption, then we invite CM to cut the ribbon, No one can’t change the world, but everyone can change small things.

As a Youth Speaker at Asia Youth Leaders' Summit 2013

The first Asia Youth Leaders’ Summit (AYLS) was held in September, 2012 in New Delhi. The summit assembled 60 youth leaders from 10 Asian countries and senior governments’ officials from 7 member countries to collectively deliberate and discuss upon issues related to youth development. In continuity to the last year’s successful summit and with the growing responses and demands of the young people, the CYP Asia Centre, along with the British Council, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development jointly organise the second edition of Asia Youth Leaders’ Summit 2013 under the theme “Be Seen, Be Heard” to discuss the entire gamut of issues pertaining to youth engagement/participation in the decision making process.

The schedule of the three-day summit was as follows:

A seminar on ‘Youth Participation: Opportunities and Challenges’

Youth Forum: Sharing of good practices by youth leaders from Asia

A capacity building workshop on youth leadership and participation

                                                                      The Team AYLS 2013