Advocacy
Projects, initiatives, causes and associations we support and advocate for.
Truth and reconciliation
The Social Architects – Sri Lanka
A diverse group of Sri Lankan writers, activists, scholars and working professionals created “The Social Architects (TSA)” in early 2012. Once a research and advocacy group now serves as a forum to debate conflicting historical views to allow for shared history and for lessons from the present feelings of blame, mistrust and injustice. In addition, TSA with branches across Sri Lanka has become a space for communities in Ampara, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Hatton, Kilinochchi and Jaffna develop skills to advocate for enhancing action for state accountability through the use of the ‘Right to Information Act’.
Education programs for disadvantaged children
Community Outreach Programme – India
Since 1977, the Community Outreach Programme (CORP) provides access to fundamental social services such as education, health care, nutrition and vocational training, enabling communities to pull themselves out of poverty and become self-reliant, independent and socially responsible. Beginning with only one center and three staff members in Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, in Mumbai, CORP today work in 13 slum communities across greater Mumbai, with a total of 20 centers and over 70 staff members. Through its centers, CORP provides residents with access to quality education, shelter, nutritious meals, access to health services, and the means to better lives through vocational and job skills training.
Promising talents of new cinematographic landscapes
Jaffna International Cinema Festival – Sri Lanka
The Jaffna International Cinema Festival is a non-partisan platform to explore contemporary forms of creative expression in cinema. The Festival’s main aim is to celebrate independent cinema in the Sri Lankan peninsula, whilst creating an understanding of other cultures, promote harmony and mutual understanding through cinema in a country that is emerging from a 30-year civil war. The festival promotes and encourages independent cinema producers and young Sri Lankan filmmakers by screenings of their debut films and short films.
Shelter for abandoned children
Weerasekera Children’s Home – Sri Lanka
Homes for destitute orphaned girls in Sri Lanka are a pressing need. In 1959 the Peter Weerasekera Children’s Home was created to ease this need. The original intake was a batch of 10 girls from age 7 to 14. Today 85 children are being looked after at the Home. The complex has expanded to accommodate also a toddler’s home, which cares for 25 children from 3 to 5 years of age, along with a Nurition Center for abandoned malnourished infants below 3 years old. They are the most difficult to manage and need much care and attention. The Peter Weerasekera Children is sited in Buthpitiya, in the the suburbs of Colombo.