• Search for:
    6Dec, 2019
    Disability Action Forum 2019

    Celebrating the International Day of Persons with Disabilities – 3rd December.

    The Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Muslim Aid Sri Lanka, and the British Council Sri Lanka hosted a Disability Action Forum 2019, to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December) at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, Colombo 7.

    The Disability Forum 2019 was the extension of Active Citizen Priyankha Jeyaraj’s social action project Nethraloka, which began as a project to empower and bring awareness about the visually impaired. Priyankha is an Active Citizen and Facilitator of British Council’s Active Citizens programme; and the Head of Volunteers for Muslim Aid Sri Lanka.

    Team Muslim Aid, the organization’s dedicated volunteer team, under the leadership of Ms.Priyankha and support from the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Muslim Aid Sri Lanka and British Council Sri Lanka, organized the forum featuring wonderful performances by participants from two schools that serve the needs of disabled persons, especially children, by providing special education, rehabilitation and vocational training. The forum served as a platform for the youth from these institutes to showcase their talents.

    The event started off with a registration process designed to be inclusive for disabled persons, and everyone had to go through a voting scenario that included use of a wheel chair, cane etc to show how the disable are included in the process of voting and how their rights can be exercised and preserved.It also reinforced the message that inclusion is paramount in every aspect of life, in every building, workplace, homes and even on the roads, if we are to uphold and preserve their rights.

    Mr.Tikiri Kumara, Development Officer of the Disability Unit of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, speaks on the role of inclusion in the voting process and about the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

    Election Commissioner and Chairman of Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Mr.Mahinda Deshapriya, graced the event and delivered his keynote speech on the significance of the day and inclusion in the elections process and empathy.

    Participants performing a song and dance
    Participants performing a dance routine

    Muslim Aid Sri Lanka has supported disabled persons and their families through income generation, water and sanitation and volunteer projects, since 2015. Speaking at the event Mr. Faizer Khan, Country Director of Muslim Aid Sri Lanka said
    “We need to think about ways of supporting persons with disability in better ways than welfare and charity. We need to provide them access and space, but change the way of approaching them with sympathy. We must include them into our mainstream society by action, and empower them in ways to be independent financially and socially; so that they will be part of our society, rather than be welfare receivers or depend on others. They could become tax payers to the country and their productivity will be added to the country’s economy”.

    6Aug, 2019
    Muslim Aid Sri Lanka, supported by the British Council, joins hands with the Vocation Training Authority (VTA) of Sri Lanka

    Muslim Aid, with the backing of British Council Sri Lanka joined hands with the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) of Sri Lanka to launch the Youth Community Resilience Programme in the districts of Anuradhapura, Batticaloa and Trincomalee. As such Muslim Aid and the VTA entered into a MOU to implement the programme where selected youths from three vocational training centers in the three districts would be trained using the British Council Active Citizens framework. The programmes commenced in April 2019.

    Muslim Aid have been partners with the British Council since 2013, where Muslim Aid are delivery partners for the Global Active Citizens (AC) programme where youth are trained and educated to take a lead role in resolving issues in their communities and villages. In Sri Lanka, the youth studying with the VTA are talented, skilled and eager to learn but often lack social competency and understanding of their communities. After rounds of discussion with the VTA, about how to fill this gap, Muslim Aid teamed up with the VTA to build their capacities by using the Active Citizens Training Framework and Toolkit. This however, has been carefully reviewed and then re-formulated by the VTA and Muslim Aid to complement the curriculum of the VTA.

    The purpose of the collaboration and the programme, is for Muslim Aid and the VTA to use the British Council Active Citizens programme to train youth to be socially skilled and be able to establish social justice, community resilience and social cohesion in their regions. Muslim Aid has incorporated the Active Citizens programme into the Youth Community Resilience project whose main component will be focusing on Peace, Reconciliation and Social Justice as well as Strong Institutions. This falls into one of Muslim Aid’s areas of work which focuses on inclusiveness of peace and co-existence, keeping in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) -16.

    The project aims to reach a 100 or more young people, aged 18-29 years old, who are currently engaged in technical education, by providing social skills that are required to perform as an employee, entrepreneur and overall, as a citizen of the country. The programme hopes reach other Technical Education Institutes such as NAITA, Technical Colleges, National Youth Corps (NYC) to provide social skills to students who follow at least 6- month technical courses.