Tropical Transformers – inspiring new book on Sri Lankan champions
View(s):With Sri Lanka yet to establish a platform featuring Sri Lankans who have championed change and entrepreneurship, locally and internationally, the Book Project Sri Lanka has come on board to highlight the successes and trials of exemplary Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan-origin leaders from diverse backgrounds.
The book hopes to provide role models to the young generation.
Authors Indira Kithsiri and Hashendra Wijesinha believe that the insights shared by the pacesetters in the publication will provide guidance to the island’s youth in transforming their aspirations into impactful realities.
The project has a strong community-focused outlook, calling for locals and the diaspora to nominate individuals who may serve as exemplars for younger generations. The initiative’s website www.iaminspired.lk was launched in May, with a nomination form for the public to recommend outstanding talents with captivating stories. Further, the nominee selection criteria (www.iaminspired.lk/nominate) provides the guidelines for those proposing a personality, whether an idol, family member or friend. The website will remain open for nominations until the end of July, when the authors will work with their mentors, consisting of established industry heavyweights, to short-list the final nominees.
Both authors, in a statement to the Business Times, said that they have received exceptional candidate recommendations to-date through the nominations process.
They have begun identifying the final list of candidates for the book with confirmed personalities to be featured include the likes of Penny Abeywardena (Commissioner for International Affairs for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio), Ratheesan Yoganathan (Co-founder of the Lebara Group) and Cheryl Perera (founder of OneChild, the world’s first organisation to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of minors through advocacy, rehabilitation and reintegration). They will also be joined by marine biologist and blue whale expert Asha De Vos, Everest mountaineer Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, Robert Rajeswaran, (founder of coding academy GoCode) and Rakitha Malewana, (founder of Ideanerd SL, a non-profit aiming to establish a culture of scientific research among local school children).
The book is the first component of an ecosystem of efforts to engage both the private and public sectors in supporting the nation’s burgeoning young personalities.
Once published in English in early 2018, the team hopes to collaborate with the Sri Lankan Government to distribute textbook versions of the book in Sinhala and Tamil to high schools countrywide. They are bullish that it will be an innovative addition to the curriculum, supporting the Government’s reforms in education. The authors envision the chapters to represent talents from sectors where Sri Lanka has seen tremendous progress, or which require attention in the next few years. They most recently incorporated a chapter for ‘Sustainability and the Environment’ based on public feedback.
They believe that sustainability, on both a micro and macro scale, is crucial for the country to thrive, not merely survive in the global landscape. They believe it was the missing link between the eight chapters decided initially, which includes Public Policy and Governance, Tourism and Hospitality, and Start-Up, Business and Digital.
The authors said they were delighted to welcome Dr. Ravi Fernando on board as mentor for the chapter. The climate change and business resilience expert will join a number of icons who serve as mentors for the project, including Rosy Senanayake, and Muthiah Muralidaran. Upon accepting his invitation, he stated, ‘Sri Lanka signed the Paris agreement to commit to reducing carbon emissions by mobilising the 17 United Nations Sustainable development goals in December 2015, further ratifying it in April 2016.
The current pursuit of impetuous economic growth may significantly jeopardise this commitment. As such, our nation needs a platform of this nature to encourage our younger generations to collaborate in creating and implementing a sustainable development strategy for the future.’ Indira and Hashendra are hopeful that profiling the successes of Sri Lankans in this chapter will spur conversations in homes, offices and schools on how we can generate resilience amidst uncertain times.
Like the “Book Project Sri Lanka” on Facebook for updates on the initiative; and head on to www.iaminspired.lk to nominate your heroes.
The authors
Ms. Kithsiri is a bona fide social entrepreneur and youth empowerment advocate. Born in the mountains of Switzerland to a Swiss mother and Sri Lankan father, she founded SAHANA Sri Lanka, a non-profit organisation aiming to improve the living conditions and educational opportunities of underprivileged youth and women in Sri Lanka.
Her professional career has spanned more than eight years working on project development, relationship management and communications across Switzerland, India and Sri Lanka. Today, she is a Community Specialist for India and South Asia at the World Economic Forum, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mr. Wijesinha is a third-culture nomad, having spent his childhood between Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Management) and a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Politics and Development Studies) from the Australian National University (ANU). He has a diverse skill set built across the corporate and non-profit sectors, including areas such as risk and management consulting, project management, communications, and research with organisations like KPMG, The United Nations Development Program, and the ANU. He is currently pursuing his postgraduate studies in Sustainability and Accounting at the University of Sydney.