‘I Am Inspired’ :Changing young lives with motivational book project
Proud to tell these stories:Hashendra and Indira. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
For many young people across the country, pursuing their passions is just a pipe dream. Intent on changing that, Indira Kithsiri and Hashendra Wijesinha launched the Sri Lanka Book Project, which aims to utilise the power of storytelling to foster entrepreneurship and innovation amongst the future generations of Sri Lanka. We sat down with the two co-founders as they shared their effort to effect positive change in young lives.
The first phase of their project was the launch of the book ‘I Am Inspired’ on February 6, the maiden initiative of the non-profit Sparklers Foundation. The coffeetable book contains a collection of life stories, insights and reflections from 50 Sri Lankan innovators and changemakers in vital industries, from arts and culture to policy making and more.
All proceeds from these books will fund the next phase, which is to develop a textbook version that will include career-planning exercises in both Sinhala and Tamil. The textbook will then be incorporated into the national highschool curriculum within the next two years, in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Government in 2021.
It was a chance meeting in 2016 and the discovery of their mutual passion for helping young people that sparked this project. Indira already had a background in this as the founder of SAHANA Sri Lanka, a non-profit organization that aimed to improve the living conditions and educational opportunities of underprivileged youth and women in Sri Lanka.
When Hashendra voiced his interest in career-planning for young people, Indira had the idea to highlight stories of inspiring people of Lankan origin from around the world. They discovered that there was nothing that had comprehensively covered such diverse industries and areas in Sri Lanka before, and officially embarked on the journey towards creating the ‘I Am Inspired’ book project.
There was no shortage of inspirational figures, as there was an uptick of media coverage of Sri Lankan changemakers and talents in different industries, both locally and internationally. Indira tells us they found that a lot of them were also looking to give back to their country, particularly those overseas, and the concept of helping students via career-planning education is what attracted them to the project.
This led to the idea of creating a coffee table book that collected their stories, and grouped them into chapters based on topics that are important to Sri Lanka’s socio-economic development. They were also made aware of the government’s interest in renewing school curricula, which tied in with their aim to promote Sri Lankan talent as well.
Established leaders in their respective fields were chosen as mentors, to guide the authors on the selection of the nominees for each chapter on different topics. A portal was also launched on their website where people could nominate Sri Lankan talent based on several criteria.
Diversity was a crucial aspect for the team in choosing the featured personalities. “It is crucial to have diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, and a good balance between the local Sri Lankan stories and the Sri Lankan diaspora around the world who are interested in giving back to the country. We’re quite proud to have 42% female stories!” Indira tells us.
This push for diversity also extended to the stories themselves, as it was important to include stories that haven’t been widely circulated. “For us, it was important for this book to feature everyone who deserved to be recognised. To show that Sri Lanka is not only about the Colombo elite,” says Indira.
The book gives unique insights into internationally renowned personalities that have put Sri Lanka on the map, including cricketers Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara and marine biologist Dr. Asha de Vos. The book also introduces readers to hidden gems and start-up successes, like Alternative Lunch Pack inventor Tharushi Rajapaksa and researcher, academic, inventor and youngest professor in Civil Engineering Science in Sri Lanka Rangika Halwathura and many more.
In terms of the interview content, Hashendra says they focussed on all aspects of their work. “We want young people to be multifaceted, and have much more to their lives. We see these people who are so much more than just their day jobs, and have a huge commitment to service.”
The coffee table book is the first step towards collecting this content and getting the word out about the initiative. This gives them time to work on the textbook version, as the content needed to be made relevant to the students, with the addition of career-planning exercises.
To achieve this, the foundation hopes to work closely with the government of Sri Lanka, as well as a stakeholder taskforce that includes youth leaders and experts in the education sector.
“There’ll be a lot of work that we anticipate, which will be around trying to see how we need to write the stories, what kind of content we need to incorporate, to make it relevant for them, ” Indira adds.
For many students that don’t have the adequate resources or opportunities to advance themselves, the team hopes to include extra resources for each relevant chapter to enable further research. “There are many organisations in the country across so many different areas that are doing great work. But there’s a lack of awareness about them among the wider population,” Hashendra explains, adding that their best bet is to pool the nation’s resources to create a better systematic way to aid the youngsters.
While the main focus now is to get the textbook programme off the ground, Indira and Hashendra are optimistic about its ability to engage young people, and the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders of Sri Lanka. As Hashendra puts it, “In this day and age, we really need that optimism, and we need to help young people to not feel so confused and overwhelmed.”
For more information, visit their website at http://www.sparklers-foundation.org/