MY ESD - Education for Sustainable Development Story

Volunteering In World Conference on Youth 2014

    WCY 2014 World Conference on Youth 2014 was held  from 6th to 10th May, 2014 at Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo, Sri Lanka. WCY 2014’s Cross-cutting theme was 'mainstreaming Youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda'.The Conference brought together 1500 participants.I had the opportunity to volunteer in this grate event. It was an amazing experience

Inspiration Behind Child Solder Film

http://ow.ly/i/5mv4D/original

Institute of International Education Annual Report 2013.

Institute of International Education has featured me in their Annual Report 2013.

http://www.iie.org/en/Who-We-Are/Stories/Adobe-Youth-Voices-Poornima-Meegammana

Poornima Meegammana: Igniting Creative Confidence Through Adobe Youth Voices Scholarships Program

Poornima Meegammana discovered her passion for digital storytelling through the Adobe Youth Voices program. She went on to produce a short film that features children who were forced to serve as soldiers in the Sri Lankan civil war, in order to bring global attention to child soldier rehabilitation. Poornima says that the program has “given [her] global recognition as a creative person,” and she will be using the scholarship funds to “learn filmmaking to help change society.” She is currently attending the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and is using the skills she gains there to learn how to better market her films.

Adobe launched the Adobe Youth Voices Scholarships program in early 2013 to support the next generation of creative thinkers and propel the future careers of those who create. The scholarship supports up to four years of the recipient’s undergraduate education in a creative field. Fully funded by Adobe, these scholarships are available to students who have participated in Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), the Adobe Foundation’s global philanthropic commitment to ignite creative confidence in youth by empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. AYV empowers youth to develop the skills they need to become active and engaged community members. Since the program’s inception in 2006, Adobe Youth Voices has reached 150,000 youth. The global AYV network currently includes 750 sites and schools in 58 countries. This year, Adobe and IIE are proud to be supporting 25 outstanding students from 13 countries with dreams of pursuing a creative career, including Poornima Meegammana of Pilimatawala, Sri Lanka.

Poornima joined AYV in September 2011, and immediately fell in love with expressing herself through digital media. She credits AYV with showing her that she could be a good filmmaker and storyteller, and her passion for creating films soon had her serving as the Director for several projects. During her final year of the AYV program, she “wanted to create something really good to test [herself] and [her] team.” Says Poornima, “we were born into war,” and although the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka has now ended, she believes that “the war ended with shadows of fear.” After seeking out stories from youth who had been affected by war, Poornima and her team came across stories of children who had been forced to serve as soldiers. Realizing that these children needed a second chance at life, they created a short film, Child Soldier.

As an active AYV participant, Poornima has been recognized for her outstanding creative projects by winning AYV Aspire Awards for her photo essay, 21st Century Girl, her poster campaign, Women Empowerment, and for the YES Film Project, which was created as part of AYV’s UNICEF Challenge. The YES Film Project involved a plan to expand the Child Soldier short into a longer film, which is now being implemented as Poornima and her team train local youths to be the cast and crew of the film.

Watch Poornima Meegammana’s short film, Child Soldier

Meet some of the 2013-14 Adobe Youth Voices Scholarships recipients

YES AYV Creative Youth Media Project Wins WSYA 2013

YES AYV Creative Youth Media Project implemented by Shilpa Sayura has won WSYA 2013 Award. YES AYV is a Sri Lankan platform that has trained more than 100 youngsters in digital media creation in order to make an impact in the local community with the help of creative digital art. YES AYV Creative Youth Media Project started in 2011 with UNHABITAT and Adobe Youth Voices support. They have trained more than 100 under-served youngsters in digital media creation, enabled collaboration, expression, dialog and digital journalism to report on issues related to them in pursuit of truth, made success in creation and publishing of digital media on interactive social platforms making them active participants in the public interest of their community, country and world. The think an effective use of media creation tools, Social Networks and Mobiles inspires youth to use digital journalism to inquire MDG related issues.

http://www.youthaward.org/winners/yes-ayv-creative-youth-media-project


The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is a unique global contest which brings together young developers and digital entrepreneurs under 30 years of age - who use internet and mobile technology to put the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into action and make a difference.

The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content. It demonstrates young people's potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

WSYA Award was given away at WSA Global Congress held in Sri Lanka.

Choose people to help not by ethnicity, or color; instead, choose character, heart, and soul. When we bleed, we bleed the same color.