eight-year-old child there’s a family
living next to my home with their three
children who did not have access to
education so they did not go to school
due to their struggles that they had and
the lack of money so they were always
waiting for us to come home so that they
could go through other books learn what
we have learned from the school on that
day so that inspired me to set up a
small playhouse in the backyard of my
home and we left all our freedom
materials books inside of that so that
they could come and read our books so
that was my first social group that I
initiated with my two siblings and we
named it United Children Association the
other significant incident that inspired
me was 1998 Commonwealth Games and I saw
the people of different skin complexions
embrace each other as a gesture of
friendship so I was taken aback at as it
was conflicting to actually what I was
hearing and learn about the
discrimination on gender discrimination
on people of different skin complexions
so I was inspired to organize a mini
Olympic in my own community to gather
children to educate them and unite them
and we made certificates and medals out
of cardboard boxes and later my brother
became the president of the club of
course he was one elder than me and I
became the secretary so as the years
passed and based on all the activities
that I have been doing and contributed
to I realized this gap in between
facilitated communities and non
facilitated communities facilitated
communities are the communities that are
well organized that have opportunities
and resources and even have a direction
as a community but non facilitated
communities are the communities that do
not have
resources opportunities and they do not
have a direction as a community even
though we have been working in the
community work building the life of
other people
we have been maintaining this gap in
between societies so that encouraged me
to develop strategies to build a bridge
in between these two communities so that
they could share their ideas together
they could share their exposure together
they could share their expertise
together so I joined many organization
voluntary groups NGOs and other
institutions what I realized was there
are various undertakings that we
normally reach out to and get involved
but many of them are not truly
sustainable and not literally bringing
impactful results on the ground so
charities are absolutely important they
unite people inspire educate but for
them to continue to flourish they must
be supported and promoted in a
sustainable model so in 2011 we went to
vanya northern part of sri lanka
we renovated this school and we
distributed books shoes school bags and
even school uniforms after seven or
eight months later we went back to the
community just to see how they were
doing and we noticed that students were
still walking to the school with no
shoes and they were not really using
what we have distributed among them so
we were like why they were doing that so
we went to some of these homes of this
little children we saw that the uniforms
that we distributed among them were in
the cupboard nicely packed and protected
and the pencil cases and all the other
instruments that we distributed in their
little rooms and there are little tables
so they were so excited and happy the
fact that they received these fresh
gifts from a community like us they have
never experienced
that but we question ourselves have you
truly empowered themselves in using
those resources for their education have
it truly build the capacity of the
people in that community to use the best
out of their resources to take their
lives to the next level so it’s time to
think the it’s time to change the way we
are trying to change the world we have
today we have enough resources in this
society enough financial resources human
resource including strategies plans
concepts and ideas to address almost all
the pressing issues in the society
locally and even internationally if you
really look at it we have identified
almost all the issues in the society
that we are facing today and even in the
future we have also identified the
solutions and if you look at the
institutions we have people who are paid
to act on those strategies but we do not
see the results and there are people who
are working 8:00 to 5:00 every day just
to work on these concepts strategies and
action plans while we don’t see the
result we haven’t built the capacity of
of people transforming these ideas into
an action into a reality so how are
going to build the capacity of people so
the education is fundamental in building
the capacity of people so what is the
education education is all about
knowledge skills attitudes values habits
and all of that if you look at it in
simple terms it’s all about knowledge
skills and attitudes so we have a system
search we always receive the knowledge
and knowledge not skills and attitudes
so when you do not have attitudes you
cannot work with different types of
people you cannot work in a group you
cannot work with this
certain social backgrounds and when you
do not have skills you do not know how
to implement what you know or how do you
implement what you want to do so
building the capacity is absolutely
important in making ideas a reality on
the ground otherwise we’ll be doing the
same thing over and over again expecting
another outcome or just just the change
that you want to see
so with that ideologies I wanted to make
the concept of changing the life as part
of the priority of my life so I wanted
to see the what is the purpose of life
so if you look at the purpose of life as
I believe the purpose of life is all
about serving one another you look at
mother or a father son or a daughter a
doctor and accountant cleaner what are
they doing what all of you are doing
each and every single day by doing your
job you are making someone else life
happy you are making someone else life
comfortable you are assisting someone
each and every single day by doing your
job but we haven’t understood that if we
to understand that there we would not
see jealousy we would not see
competition we would not see people
trying to deal with their egos we will
we would see a society that is so united
and peaceful this is charming the a
postman from my community he mobilized
people to support underprivileged
students in his community by today he
has supported 300 people for them to go
to school
he was just a postman with zero
educational qualifications but he
mobilized people whenever he’s he walks
into the houses when he wants to deliver
letters so I got into national and
international platform trying to change
the world and understand in this concept
then I met many activists at advocates
talking about rights women
child rights human rights but what I
know this was people were trying to use
rights as a shield when there is an
issue when they are his situation or
when you want to defend something so
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
was a concept which was born in 1948
after a few thousand years of fighting
declaration and more fighting until
everyone agree to have human rights for
everyone and he did not have force of
law it was an optional so for me thirty
human rights this concept was a set of
values guidelines and responsibilities
so why aren’t we teaching people about
rights as their values and
responsibilities rather than just using
the word when you have something to
fight so the other challenge was for me
I understood different elements of the
society and I knew that change in the
world is absolutely possible now now how
can I take this concept to the grassroot
level so I use music dancing activities
technology fashion and it worked we went
to this community in Angelina we wanted
to educate people and we reach out to
the children and children did not listen
to us we couldn’t get them United they
were screaming here and there but they
asked a few corrections are we getting a
t-shirt or a cap and then one of these
guys was like are we getting lunch today
and what is in that we got those
creature so we didn’t have anything and
we got our friend who will do that he
was good at music
so we use him to play music we asked
those children to bring cans bottle
boxes this started expressing themselves
as you saw there was a little group of
little girls they started designing a
dancing at they perfectly did that that
was for the first time they design a
dancing activity and we remove reached
out is this one of this girl and she was
not
dress up full of dust in her hair I
asked is there an issue with water in
your area just like no arms
we don’t have then I was like you can
dress up well you know you can have a
shower just like no we don’t we are not
beautiful people like people in Colombo
that shocked me so we realized the real
brown scenario and the attitudes of
these children today our initiative is
working with young people in 18
countries we have 22 local chapters and
4,000 plus volunteers within Sri Lanka
we are also pushing policy and decision
makers to make right decision make right
you that into the droughts root level
and recognize a grassroot level issues
so today’s society has changed the world
has changed
there’s no decline in between
peacebuilders changemakers social
workers and all what you do everyone is
a piece builder today everyone is a
social worker today influence a change
maker today so if I could change my
community when I was that small without
even knowing what I was doing
I’m sure you can absolutely make an
impact by doing what you do I believe
that each and every person in this
society want to help their family want
to help their community and their
country they have that desire inside of
them it’s just that we need to bring
that desire out in each one of us and
transform that into an action so ask
yourself what is the very next thing
that you could do to make a change ask
yourself what is the very next thing
that you could do to make a change in
someone else life it begins with you
thank you
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
living next to my home with their three
children who did not have access to
education so they did not go to school
due to their struggles that they had and
the lack of money so they were always
waiting for us to come home so that they
could go through other books learn what
we have learned from the school on that
day so that inspired me to set up a
small playhouse in the backyard of my
home and we left all our freedom
materials books inside of that so that
they could come and read our books so
that was my first social group that I
initiated with my two siblings and we
named it United Children Association the
other significant incident that inspired
me was 1998 Commonwealth Games and I saw
the people of different skin complexions
embrace each other as a gesture of
friendship so I was taken aback at as it
was conflicting to actually what I was
hearing and learn about the
discrimination on gender discrimination
on people of different skin complexions
so I was inspired to organize a mini
Olympic in my own community to gather
children to educate them and unite them
and we made certificates and medals out
of cardboard boxes and later my brother
became the president of the club of
course he was one elder than me and I
became the secretary so as the years
passed and based on all the activities
that I have been doing and contributed
to I realized this gap in between
facilitated communities and non
facilitated communities facilitated
communities are the communities that are
well organized that have opportunities
and resources and even have a direction
as a community but non facilitated
communities are the communities that do
not have
resources opportunities and they do not
have a direction as a community even
though we have been working in the
community work building the life of
other people
we have been maintaining this gap in
between societies so that encouraged me
to develop strategies to build a bridge
in between these two communities so that
they could share their ideas together
they could share their exposure together
they could share their expertise
together so I joined many organization
voluntary groups NGOs and other
institutions what I realized was there
are various undertakings that we
normally reach out to and get involved
but many of them are not truly
sustainable and not literally bringing
impactful results on the ground so
charities are absolutely important they
unite people inspire educate but for
them to continue to flourish they must
be supported and promoted in a
sustainable model so in 2011 we went to
vanya northern part of sri lanka
we renovated this school and we
distributed books shoes school bags and
even school uniforms after seven or
eight months later we went back to the
community just to see how they were
doing and we noticed that students were
still walking to the school with no
shoes and they were not really using
what we have distributed among them so
we were like why they were doing that so
we went to some of these homes of this
little children we saw that the uniforms
that we distributed among them were in
the cupboard nicely packed and protected
and the pencil cases and all the other
instruments that we distributed in their
little rooms and there are little tables
so they were so excited and happy the
fact that they received these fresh
gifts from a community like us they have
never experienced
that but we question ourselves have you
truly empowered themselves in using
those resources for their education have
it truly build the capacity of the
people in that community to use the best
out of their resources to take their
lives to the next level so it’s time to
think the it’s time to change the way we
are trying to change the world we have
today we have enough resources in this
society enough financial resources human
resource including strategies plans
concepts and ideas to address almost all
the pressing issues in the society
locally and even internationally if you
really look at it we have identified
almost all the issues in the society
that we are facing today and even in the
future we have also identified the
solutions and if you look at the
institutions we have people who are paid
to act on those strategies but we do not
see the results and there are people who
are working 8:00 to 5:00 every day just
to work on these concepts strategies and
action plans while we don’t see the
result we haven’t built the capacity of
of people transforming these ideas into
an action into a reality so how are
going to build the capacity of people so
the education is fundamental in building
the capacity of people so what is the
education education is all about
knowledge skills attitudes values habits
and all of that if you look at it in
simple terms it’s all about knowledge
skills and attitudes so we have a system
search we always receive the knowledge
and knowledge not skills and attitudes
so when you do not have attitudes you
cannot work with different types of
people you cannot work in a group you
cannot work with this
certain social backgrounds and when you
do not have skills you do not know how
to implement what you know or how do you
implement what you want to do so
building the capacity is absolutely
important in making ideas a reality on
the ground otherwise we’ll be doing the
same thing over and over again expecting
another outcome or just just the change
that you want to see
so with that ideologies I wanted to make
the concept of changing the life as part
of the priority of my life so I wanted
to see the what is the purpose of life
so if you look at the purpose of life as
I believe the purpose of life is all
about serving one another you look at
mother or a father son or a daughter a
doctor and accountant cleaner what are
they doing what all of you are doing
each and every single day by doing your
job you are making someone else life
happy you are making someone else life
comfortable you are assisting someone
each and every single day by doing your
job but we haven’t understood that if we
to understand that there we would not
see jealousy we would not see
competition we would not see people
trying to deal with their egos we will
we would see a society that is so united
and peaceful this is charming the a
postman from my community he mobilized
people to support underprivileged
students in his community by today he
has supported 300 people for them to go
to school
he was just a postman with zero
educational qualifications but he
mobilized people whenever he’s he walks
into the houses when he wants to deliver
letters so I got into national and
international platform trying to change
the world and understand in this concept
then I met many activists at advocates
talking about rights women
child rights human rights but what I
know this was people were trying to use
rights as a shield when there is an
issue when they are his situation or
when you want to defend something so
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
was a concept which was born in 1948
after a few thousand years of fighting
declaration and more fighting until
everyone agree to have human rights for
everyone and he did not have force of
law it was an optional so for me thirty
human rights this concept was a set of
values guidelines and responsibilities
so why aren’t we teaching people about
rights as their values and
responsibilities rather than just using
the word when you have something to
fight so the other challenge was for me
I understood different elements of the
society and I knew that change in the
world is absolutely possible now now how
can I take this concept to the grassroot
level so I use music dancing activities
technology fashion and it worked we went
to this community in Angelina we wanted
to educate people and we reach out to
the children and children did not listen
to us we couldn’t get them United they
were screaming here and there but they
asked a few corrections are we getting a
t-shirt or a cap and then one of these
guys was like are we getting lunch today
and what is in that we got those
creature so we didn’t have anything and
we got our friend who will do that he
was good at music
so we use him to play music we asked
those children to bring cans bottle
boxes this started expressing themselves
as you saw there was a little group of
little girls they started designing a
dancing at they perfectly did that that
was for the first time they design a
dancing activity and we remove reached
out is this one of this girl and she was
not
dress up full of dust in her hair I
asked is there an issue with water in
your area just like no arms
we don’t have then I was like you can
dress up well you know you can have a
shower just like no we don’t we are not
beautiful people like people in Colombo
that shocked me so we realized the real
brown scenario and the attitudes of
these children today our initiative is
working with young people in 18
countries we have 22 local chapters and
4,000 plus volunteers within Sri Lanka
we are also pushing policy and decision
makers to make right decision make right
you that into the droughts root level
and recognize a grassroot level issues
so today’s society has changed the world
has changed
there’s no decline in between
peacebuilders changemakers social
workers and all what you do everyone is
a piece builder today everyone is a
social worker today influence a change
maker today so if I could change my
community when I was that small without
even knowing what I was doing
I’m sure you can absolutely make an
impact by doing what you do I believe
that each and every person in this
society want to help their family want
to help their community and their
country they have that desire inside of
them it’s just that we need to bring
that desire out in each one of us and
transform that into an action so ask
yourself what is the very next thing
that you could do to make a change ask
yourself what is the very next thing
that you could do to make a change in
someone else life it begins with you
thank you
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
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