Sunday Times 2
UMT holds 2nd Annual National Level Regional Youth Leaders conference
View(s):The Unity Mission Trust (UMT), a non-profit Trust that has been working towards developing unity amongst the youth of Sri Lanka since May 2009, held their 2nd Annual National Level Regional Youth Leaders Conference at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute auditorium and the residential site in Athurugiriya from January 27-29.
Head Table at the conference: from left to right -- Nimesha Jayamanne ( Colombo Regional Leader), Sasha Pinto -Jayawardena (Conference Chair - Colombo) and Dilushani Ghandhi ( Kandy Regional Leader).
The highlights of the conference included 100 selected youth from 17 regions gathering together to map out grassroot community service initiatives and inter regional programmes for 2017. The key speakers at the conference were a group of corporate and civil leaders who spoke on “Building Lives, Fostering Unity and Strengthening Sri Lanka”. The speakers included Prof. Dinusha Panditharatne – CEO of Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute; Dilith Jayaweera – Jt. Managing Director of Derana Media & Triad Group of Companies; S. Renganathan – COO of Commercial Bank; Asoka Peiris – Group CEO of Singer SL; Arjun Fernando – CEO of DFCC Bank; Suren Fernando – CEO of MAS Intimates and Lakmini Wijesundara – CEO of Iron One Technologies.
A few Unity Mission Trust Regional Youth Leaders from Colombo, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Elipitiya and Matara also addressed the conference.
The conference was conducted by Unity Mission Trust youth leaders and the areas covered included leadership training, how to conduct an important conference, how to present papers and how to conduct plenary discussions on themes that are very relevant to Sri Lanka’s future. Sasha Pinto-Jayawardena chaired the conference assisted by Nimesha Jayamanne from Colombo with all multi-lingual translations being done by the regional Leader of Kandy.
Over the years the UMT has carried out over 50 grassroots initiatives which promoted unity, integration, healing and reconciliation between the different regions of Sri Lanka. Their core message and values are now being practised by over 8000 young people in over 17 regions of the country.