Seven years since the catastrophic tsunami swept the shores of Sri Lanka and left a trail of death and destruction relief efforts are still being carried out. The damaged caused by the tsunami was so intense and lasting that organisations like the Youth Progressive Foundation (YPF), a public service unit geared to assist the youth affected by the tsunami, remain devoted to the cause, more than six years later.
Since they started in 2005, several other calamities have struck the island which spurred YPF to extend their efforts to youth affected by these disasters, including the recent floods and the conflict.
YPF founder and chairman Ashan Malalasekera describing how the organisation has expanded says he never imagined it would develop on such a large scale. Focused on providing the under privileged or disadvantaged youth with training in IT and English, Ashan says, “The quality of education to be gainfully employed was limited in these areas. Even if they are unable to gain entry into universities, they will still have a good chance at being employed.”
Having previously worked with UNESCO and other international organisations on similar projects in Jaffna, Ashan says the nature of the work had grown on him. The YPF, under a different banner was first an environmental organisation that switched its focus after the tsunami. Since then the organisation has built four Children’s Resource Centres, in Hambantota, Kataragama, Arugam Bay and Eravur. The centres currently accommodate over 580 children.
“Not only those affected by the tsunami or the conflict, but several poor people, have queued up to join the centres. It breaks our hearts but we have limited resources so we aren’t able to accept all of them,” says Ashan.
Speaking about their future plans Ashan says that YPF hopes to expand their already established centres so they could accommodate more children as well as reach more of Sri Lanka’s disadvantaged youth by building new centres in other areas of the country. Within the next 12 months, he says the organisation hopes to set up a centre in Jaffna.
While YPF is focused on helping the youth, it has also set up other programmes. “The Children Resource Centres only function after school. So during the day a women’s empowerment programme is held at the centres where women affected by the tsunami or the conflict are trained in handicrafts.
Recently a group from Netherlands conducted a training programme at the centres in lace making. In addition this the YPF conducts environment oriented programmes, one in particular to help farmers.
And their charitable efforts don’t stop there. YPF is in the process of establishing a volunteer group that can be dispatched when disaster strikes. With teams successfully mobilized during the recent floods to provide aid to those affected, Ashan is looking to form a network of youth volunteers for social service disaster management work. |
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