Reaching out to communities
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What started out as a simple idea has grown into a social initiative, and earned a top spot in the Harvard Social Innovation Forum, for the members of ‘Without Borders’.
Without Borders’ began as a simple initiative spearheaded by two friends, Kavindya Thennekoon and Sakie Ariyawansa. Within a few months it has rapidly evolved into a comprehensive, four pronged social initiative by a dedicated team of 12, and they’ve just garnered a top spot in the Harvard Social Innovation Forum. Before flying out to the US and Harvard next month, they sat down with us for a quick interview.
Sakie
It began as all good things do-having met at the World Youth Conference last year, Kavindya and Sakie became fast friends, with Sakie quickly joining the Warehouse Project teaching programme that Kavindya was already actively involved in. Kavindya was in her hometown of Deraniyagala in Avissawella when the High Priest of the local temple, Kahanavita Sri Wijeyaramaya, asked her for assistance with an English teaching programme. “Because I was already involved with Warehouse I had a fairly good idea of how it works,” she says. “Then Sakie got involved and we set up Without Borders.” They were soon joined by Krystle Reid, a finance professional, and a team of dedicated core members.
Kavindya
Without Borders began the project earlier in the year; the volunteers travelled-and still do, in fact-over three hours from Colombo to Deraniyagala (the return journey will take them another three hours), and the first day drew in about 40 kids from the community. “Then the next Sunday there were about 200 kids. We were so shocked!” While the original plan was to take things easy for a while and begin a structured programme in a couple of months, the team soon realised that they would have to act fast.
A peer to peer approach characterises the ‘Without Borders’ programme. Volunteers are set the task of not just teaching, but mentoring a group of children assigned to them. “We don’t just teach English and end things there,” says Kavindya. “In addition to the teaching programme, we have practical assessments once every three weeks, and a motivational session by Sachinda Dulanjana once a month.” In teaching English, they stick to the children’s school curriculum but attempt to disseminate this on a more practical level. Parents are also consulted, invited for meetings and given a copy of their child’s worksheet as well. “It helps them to feel involved with their child’s education,” they explain.
In addition to the learning facility, they run a social entrepreneurship programme that brings together women from the community to teach them a lucrative craft that would help them earn an income. The current initiative, called ‘Light Up’, teaches these women to make lanterns and lampshades. The ‘Without Borders’ team will find them the market, and when they’ve reached the required standard these will be sold in that market. 80% of the profit will go to the women while 20% will be directed towards the learning programme that their children benefit from.
Krystel. Pix by Susantha Liyanawatte
Two other programmes, a job bank and ICT skills initiative will soon be launched. The former will benefit the older kids and minimize brain drain within the community while the latter will be run in partnership with an Indian non-profit. For the moment the project is entirely run and funded by the core team of 12 and other volunteers, and donations are always welcome, they say. “We’re also happy to train any other group who want to replicate this elsewhere,” says Kavindya. “We’ve already had several requests to do this in other areas but have no resources to go ahead with it.” Without Borders hopes to run the project in Deraniyagala for a few years before handing it back to the local community.
Applying for the Harvard Social Innovation forum was a spur of the moment decision, says Kavindya. Without Borders’ official photography partners Flexus Labs shot the footage in one day and together with Inesh Perera compiled the introductory video and soon they were sent through multiple rounds before being announced as one of the final participants. In November Kavindya, Sakie and Krystle, together with Thilini Aravinthakumar and Ashani Wijetunga will go to the States for the Igniting Innovation Summit on Social Entrepreneurship at Harvard University, sit in at workshops and network with similar young people, hopefully even bring home a partnership or two.
If you’d like to donate material or your time, please email withoutborders95@gmail.com and visit their Facebook page-https://www.facebook.com/withoutborders95?fref=ts
