Vacancy with UN Volunteers for a Sri Lankan National

There is an urgent opening for a SL national as Volunteerism Research Specialist at UNV in Colombo. Graduate with Min. 05 Years of Experience in Research and Teaching and/or Training is a pre-requisite. Posting starts in November.

Please drop a message as a comment here or visit www.unvsrilanka.org for more info

Closing Date: 24th Oct 2009

Cataract Lenses for Plantation Men & Women – USD 45 to Sponsor one lense

A couple of my colleagues did a project with the Hill-country Women’s Association in Sri Lanka to donate cataract lenses for plantation sector men & women who need surgeries but can’t afford to buy lenses.

The great personality of the Eye-consultant at the Nuwara Eliya General Hospital has been instrumental in reaching out to corporates and other donors to sponsor these lenses. Due to the cold climatic conditions and the fact that these men & women spend a lot of hours plucking tea in the estates affect the cataract situation prevalent in the area further.

A lense would cost Sri Lanka Rupees 5000/= each or approximately 45 US Dollars and as a follow up of our US exchange program small-grants by Relief International our colleagues were able to donate 25 lenses. For many people this is just an affordable figure whereas many of these men & women that amounts to them not going blind in a short period of time while supporting as breadwinners for their families.

If your organisation or corporate entity (as CSR for example) is interested in giving a hand for this worthy cause please contact the eye-consultant of Nuwara Eliya Hospital directly or leave a message here under Comments section so we can provide you the contact numbers / information or facilitate the same.

This can also be an interesting project / assignment / charity work if someone is planning to go to Nuwara Eliya as a tourist and would like to get involved in a worthy  humanitarian cause for a few hours spending a few dollars / rupees.

Volunteers for Eco-Care

Eco Care Sri Lanka is an initiative aimed at networking with organisations and individuals interested in working towards positive social change by promoting sustainable environmental practices among young people.

They are glad to have volunteers in the team in order to contribute with different campaigns and projects Eco-Care gets involved with. Eco-Care is affiliated to Sri Lankan Youth Parliament.

Requirements:

Anyone who has an interest for volunteerism, keen to contribute with whatever their skills and capabilities while being able to work in a team environment can become an Eco Care volunteer.

You can be doing various things such as taking pictures at events, writing articles, distributing leaflets, planning for a workshop, etc depending on what interest you the most and how much time you can commit.

What do I get?

As this is a purely volunteer commitment, there will not be any financial benefits offered. However, you will gain valuable experience and acknowledgement of your contribution as a volunteer.

The whole Eco Care team is consisted of volunteers and you will have a fun yet a challenging environment while working on projects or campaigns run either by Eco Care directly or with our partner organizations / networks.

What’s next?

Please fill in the following information and submit your Expression of Interest to be a Volunteer with Eco Care by emailing the following info to ecocare@live.com

We will get back to you based on your skills offered and projects or campaigns which are running and need volunteers at the time of application

You can also join Eco Care on Facebook through the link below;

http://gl-es.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7280539676&ref=share

—————————————–

This is your opportunity to become an active part of

Eco Care Sri Lanka

Initiative as a volunteer of our very own

GREEN THE WORLD Campaign

Full Name:

Gender:

Address:

Telephone (Landline / Mobile):

Email:

Age:

If working, Designation & Employer:

If Student, Grade / Field of Study / Course:

School / University / Educational Institute:

Languages Spoken:

Availability (weekdays, weekends, holidays, etc):

Special Skills or Qualifications you would like to tell us about (optional):

What motivates you to be a volunteer (please answer briefly – about 100 words including organizations or projects you have involved with so far, if any):

Email this to ecocare@live.com

Training on Youth Leadership for Peacebuilding & Advocacy

I have been requested to spread the word around about the call for applications for the above training to be held in Sri Lanka in October 2009. The notice is as follows;

Peacebuilding & Development Institute

In Sri Lanka

Upcoming Professional Training Programs

The Peacebuilding & Development Institute in Sri Lanka , PDI-SL, is a unique initiative: a training, capacity building and research programme based in South Asia, run by South Asia, for South Asia .

The annual professional training programme in Sri Lanka brings together practitioners and policy makers from the development, peacebuilding and conflict resolution sectors across South and Southeast Asia to share experiences, reflect on their practice and develop new approaches for working in and on conflict in their countries.

Our approach to training is as a means to acquire and develop practical skills relevant to peacebuilding and development in South Asia .

Rather than following a lecture format, the Annual Training Programme focuses on skills development through hands-on, experiential learning. Click for More information that can be found on our website.

Youth Leadership for Peacebuilding & Advocacy

19-23 October 2009

With  Dhivya Sivanesan and Michael Shipler

This highly interactive course explores the role of young people in decision making processes; examining the diverse roles that young people play in advancing societies, shaping culture, and influencing policy.

The course is designed primarily for young leaders, supporting them to carve out roles within their communities and building their skills to be effective advocates and leaders in their own communities.

This will be a 5-day training and applications are welcome from people who are based outside of Colombo as well. Accommodation will be provided.

For Detailed Description click the link below:

http://pdisl.org/courses/specialised_courses/youth_leadership_for_peacebuilding_%2526_advocacy

You can also call 011-2370038 for more info.

Note from the Portal Moderator:

Please feel free to drop a message through comments section below in case you need more info or need a specific contact point.

Requesting Study Material – Reference Book Donations – for medical students from Rajarata University in Sri Lanka

If you have used Medical books, if you are from a university where you can collect some medical reference books or you may want to buy and donate some books for a worthy cause; please see below.

Mr. F.M.Aslam, President (Steering committee AUMSA), 3^rd year medical student has made an appeal on behalf of the first batch of students the Medical Faculty of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.

The Excerpts are as follows;

“We are facing a lot of difficulties in following our course without , sufficient study materials and proper guidance as we don’t have senior students.

Medical books are expensive , some of our student are unable to buy them due to their poor family back grounds.

Further more as a first batch of the faculty , we have a great responsibility to guide and provide medical books to poor students.

So we have decided to create a book bank which will be very useful especially for poor Muslim students in the following batches in future.

We would be very obliged for you, if you could provide assistance with the study materials hereby attached.“

Note from Portal Moderator:

I am sure, if not for new books, there may be people who read this  who have at least used books of the same which may be donated for the book bank mentioned above. Please feel free to leave a message in the comments section below so that I can get back to you with the direct contact information of the beneficiary.

The List

· Gray’s  Anatomy for students – 2^nd Edition (by Richard L. Drake (Ph.D.), Wayne Vogl, Adam W. M. Mitchell, Henry Gray)

· Gray’s  Anatomy : The anatomical basis of clinical practice – 40^thEdition (by Henry Gray, Susan Standring, Harold Ellis, B. K. B. Berkovitz)

· Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy – 10^th Edition (by Agur, Ming J Lee)

· Clinical anatomy: a revision and applied anatomy for clinical students -11^th Edition (by Harold Ellis)

· Clinical anatomy for medical students 5^th Edition  (By Richard S. Snell)

· Last’s anatomy: regional and applied 11 Edition ( By Chummy S. Sinnatamby, Raymond Jack Last)

· Wheater’s functional histology: a text and colour atlas 5^th Edition ( By Barbara Young, Paul R. Wheater)

· Clinical Neuroanatomy 7^th Edition ( By Richard S. Snell)

· Langman’s medical embryology 10^th Edition ( By Thomas W. Sadler, Jan Langman)

· Review of medical physiology 22^nd Edition  ( By William F. Ganong)

· Textbook of medical physiology 11^th Edition  ( By Arthur C. Guyton, John Edward Hall)

· Harper’s illustrated biochemistry 27^th Edition  ( By Robert K. Murray, Daryl K. Granner, Victor W. Rodwell)

· Biochemistry 4^th Edition ( By Pamela C. Champe, Richard A. Harvey, Denise R. Ferrier)

· Clinical medicine by Kumar & clark 7^th edition

· Davidson’s principles and practice of medicine 20^th Edition ( By Christopher Haslett, Sir Stanley Davidson)

· Harrison’s internal medicine volume I & II 17^th Edition (By Anthony S. Fauci, Tinsley Randolph Harrison, Dennis L. Kasper, Eugene Braunwald, Dan L )

· Hutchison’s clinical methods 22^nd Edition (by Michael Swash , Michael Glynn)

· Macleod’s clinical examination 11^th Edition ( by John Macleod, John Forbes Munro, Ian W. Campbell)

· Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery 25^th Edition ( By Norman S. Williams, Christopher J. K. Bulstrode, P. Ronan O’Connell)

· Hamilton Bailey’s demonstrations of physical signs in clinical surgery 17^th Edition ( By Hamilton Bailey, Allan Clain)

· Browse’s introduction to the symptoms and signs of surgical disease 4^thEdition ( By Norman L. Browse, John black ,Kevin G.Burnand & William E.G. Thomas)

· Scott : An Aid to Clinical surgery 6^th Edition (by Robin C.N. Williamson , Bruce P.Waxman )

· Nelson essentials of pediatrics 5^th Edition ( By Robert Kliegman)

· Illustrated textbook of paediatrics 3^rd Edition ( By Tom Lissauer, Graham Clayden)

· Gynaecology by ten teachers 18^th Edition ( By Stuart Campbell, Ash K. Monga)

· Obstetrics by ten teachers 18^th Edition ( By Stuart Campbell, Christoph Lees)

· Fundamentals of neurology: an illustrated guide( By Marco Mumenthaler, Heinrich Mattle)

· CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY 10^th Edition ( By P. N. BENNETT, MORRIS J. BROWN)

· Pharmacology 5^th Edition ( By H. P. Rang, M. Maureen Dale, J. M. Ritter)

· Robbins and Cotran pathologic basis of disease 9^th Edition ( By Vinay Kumar, Abul K. Abbas, Nelson Fausto, Stanley Leonard Robbins, Ramzi S. Cotran)

· Concise pathology 3^rd Edition  ( By Parakrama Chandrasoma, Clive Roy Taylor)

· Jawetz, Melnick & Adelberg’s medical microbiology 24^th Edition ( By George F. Brooks, Karen C. Carroll, Janet S. Butel, Stephen A. Morse)

· Review of medical microbiology and immunology 10^th Edition  ( By Warren Levinson)

· Basic Immunology: Functions and Disorders of the Immune System 2^ndEdition ( By Abul K. Abbas, Andrew H. Lichtman)

· Colour atlas of infectious diseases 4^th Edition ( By Ronald T. D. Emond, Philip D. Welsby, H. A. K. Rowland)

· Basic clinical Parasitology 6^th Edition ( By Franklin A. Neva, Harold W. Brown)

· Manson’s tropical diseases 22^nd Edition ( By Gordon C. Cook, Alimuddin I. Zumla)

· Textbook of preventive and social medicine 11^th Edition ( By J. E. Park, K. Park)

· Basic epidemiology 2^nd ( By R. Bonita, R. Beaglehole, Tord Kjellström, World Health Organization)

Sri Lanka National Youth Policy – positive development

I was in a meeting where I was able to meet up with the Youth Affairs Ministry secretary and during the conversation it transpired that a positive development is on in terms of appointing a whole new team to look in to it under him.

The good news is they will do a redraft and make it a Sri Lankan specificone (hopefully!) and willing to listen to ideas & suggestions from stakeholders.

This is just the “Breaking News”. More to come on this a little later…

Interview on Youth Engagement

The following is an interview I had with YaTv Sri Lanka Today programme on Engaging Youth in the Post-conflict Sri Lanka.

The following is another clip on the same programme where views of some of our other colleagues including some who are attached to SLYP, were obatained.

Used Computer Donations requested for School Lab

T. Sumanenthiran, from an OBA affiliated to Matale Hindu College, is looking for used computers to be sourced from Corporates and individuals who would like to donate to the Computer Lab of this school.

It can be just one computer or many of any specification, with or without monitor, etc as long as they are of working condition; it will allow students to learn to use computers.

Contact Details:

If you are interested and would like to contribute towards this cause, you may contact them through Match-The-Needs portal, please leave a message here with your contact info, the web moderator will follow up by sharing the contact info between the 2 parties for direct communication. All comments are published upon moderator-approval and any direct contact information of potential donors in comments will not be published in the portal, for privacy reasons.

Draft National Youth Policy of Sri Lanka – Update 1

As Many of you may be aware of, there has been a long and tough advocacy effort we have been carrying out for the last 2 years for the abolition of the draft National Youth Policy of Sri Lanka by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and have called for a fresh document covering the aspirations and needs of young people in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Youth Parliament (SLYP) along with several individual and organisational networks have been carrying out this advocacy, including “ambush-marketing” techniques in many forums just to get the officials eyes open and acknowledge the mistake that more than 80% of the document is a plagiarised version of the South African Youth Policy which identifies ‘Gangsterism’ for example as a main issue whereas its not relevant at all in Sri Lanka.

There is a new development with the Youth Afaairs Secretary acknoledging in March 2009 that they accept there is a fault and they are ready to redraft the National Youth Policy. However, a sustained effort in terms of keeping the momentum going on is needed in order to remind the officials that this is a priortity as much as other areas they are focusing on.

We need toplan and work on a mobilization effort and I will have updates on this subject in the next few days with a few points of “historic ssignificance” in this effort for the last 2 years as well as how the advocacy effort has been so far.

In the mean time, ideas and advice are welcome from interested people who are reading this as to what they think about the same. Please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Thanks.

Hisham

Sri Lanka National Youth Survey II

Sri Lankan Youth Parliament  (SLYP) is conducting Youth Focus Group Discussions (FGD) in the following districts in partnership with SPARC, University of Colombo and International Alert for the 2nd National Youth Survey of Sri Lanka.

We are looking for contacts for the FGDs yet to be conducted in identifying potential participants from various backgrounds including but not limited to ethnic, religious, gender, educational, vocational, etc.

Let us know if you would like to be a part of this or atleast you can refer any contacts for the organising bit.

Already Done:
Colombo - Young People living in Slums
Matara - Young Graduates
Hambantota - Rural Marginalized Youth
Kandy - Middle class young women
Kegalle - Urban middle class youth
Colombo - Employed Youth in Development Sector / Public Sector

To be Completed:
(Location, Category, Date, Language Medium)

Katunayake:
Working Women- 28.05.2009 (Thursday) – Sinhala Medium

Anuradhapura:
Rural marginalized Youth 30.05.2009 (Saturday)- Sinhala

Puttlam:
Internally Displaced Muslim Youth – 31.05.2009 (Sunday) – Tamil Medium

Ampara:
Young Graduates - 03.06.2009 (Wednesday) – Tamil Medium

Ampara:
Rural Muslim Youth – 04.06.2009 (Thursday) – Tamil Medium

Batticaloa:
Conflict-affected Youth – 05.06.2009 (Friday) – Tamil Medium

Matara:
Young Graduates - 06.06.2009 (Saturday)-Sinhala Medium

Colombo:
Youth working in the Private Sector – 07.06.2009 (Sunday)- Sinhala/English Medium

Matale:
Estate Sector Youth – 13.06.2009 (Saturday) – Tamil & Sinhala Medium

Nuwara Eliya:
Estate Sector Youth 14.06.2009 (Sunday) – Tamil & Sinhala Medium

Vavuniya:
Conflict Affected youth, TBC due to Security Restrictions

• Each FGD will have maximum of 12 – 15 participants.

• We need garment industry HR contacts for Katunayake to consult young women working in the Free Trade Zone quite URGENTLY.

• Other Districts are also of similar numbers and participant references are welcome.

Thanks.
Hisham.

Contact Info:

Please leave your contact info and how you can help us in this as a comment; we will get back to you with more info. Comments are moderated and personal info will not be published in the public domain.

US student seeking Contributions for donating School Supplies, Writing Utensils, Toys, etc during Summer Volunteering visit to Sri Lanka

Two students from Temple University, PA in USA along with their colleagues, are planning to donate;

• school supplies,
• writing utensils,
• toys and such

to an orphanage in Sri Lanka during their Summer Volunteering Visit to Sri Lanka later in 2009.

They have so far managed to raise only a little portion of what is needed and seeking for donors, well wishers who would like to contribute towards the type of items collected.

It would be great if any organizations or individuals could help with this initiative.

Contact Details:

If you would like to contact them through Match-The-Needs portal, please leave a message here with your contact info, the web moderator will follow up by sharing the contact info between the 2 parties for direct communication. All comments are published upon moderator-approval and the contact information in comments will not be published in the portal, for privacy reasons.

Hambanthota Update – Distribution of Apple Computers to Schools

Srimal Liyanage, Sri Lankan Youth Parliament (SLYP) Action Partner and District Coordinator for Hambanthota has this update:

“I was able to obtain 05 Apple computers from Mr. Kushil Gunasekara from Foundation of Goodness, to succesfully distribute to under priviledged /marginalized / rural Schools in Hambanthota,in collaboration with Hambanthota District Secretary, Director of Education & CHA Hambantota District office & other well wishers in March 2009…”

Schools benefitted were:

Janananda Kanishta Vidyalaya – Ambalantota,

Nadigamwila Kanishta Vidyalaya – Tissamaharama

Hathporuwa Vidyalaya – Sooriyawewa

Andarawewa Kanishta Vidyalaya – Sooriyawewa

Mahagalwewa Kanishta Vidyalaya – Sooriyawewa.

Contact:

If you would like to contact Srimal through Match-The-Needs portal, please leave a message here with your email address, the web moderator will follow up. All the email / Telephone data in comments will not be published in the portal for privacy protection.

References:

Foundation of Goodness (www.unconditionalcompassion.org/indexc.php)

SLYP: (www.bcis.edu.lk/slyp)

Kushil Gunasekere hands over the Computers to Srimal Liyanage

Srimal Liyanage Handling over computers to Schools

About SLYP:

The Sri Lankan Youth Parliament is a youth led, youth run initiative, whose aim is to mobilize and create a network of young people to bring about positive and sustainable change to issues that affect youth and their communities in Sri Lanka .

The first step towards this endeavor was the ‘first sitting of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament’ (SLYP 2005) which took place on the 24th to the 28th of August 2005 at the BMICH, Colombo. Building upon the successes of the inaugural sitting of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament (SLYP) 2005 a diverse mix of youth activists, Action Partners, and members of the steering committee, presently,  are planning together to formulate and implement the next cycle of action for the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament.

Way Forward

Developing a portal hasn’t been as simple as I initially imagined it to be, lots of practical challenges…

So the idea will be to maintain this as a blog for the time being while it contributes with updates on needs / requests / committments as planned; as well as information from the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament & other youth advocacy work updates.

Match-The-Needs, a portal for youth projects

What is Match-The-Needs?

I just set up the site, currently working on the initial content to kick-start this portal where you can pledge / request support for your community projects, specially youth-focused or youth-lead, youth-run projects. Hoping to get this up and running by the end of this week IA.

It can vary from staring a mini-library, pledging a couple of hours for voluntary work ina given area of interest to find possible options to donate your used computers, find resource person for a workshop, etc.

While I start working further on the content, please feel free to leave your questions, comments and ideas

Thank you

Hisham