Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena Sansadaya with the financial support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka has successfully completed the implementation of the project: ‘Mobilising Young Religious Leaders and Youth to stop the increasing trend of inter-religious conflicts and violent extremism in Sri Lanka and to promote social cohesion through an entrepreneurial approach’ in 13 administrative districts of Sri Lanka.
The project focused on encouraging young religious leaders to be the promoters of communal harmony through peace building training programs to enhance their knowledge, improve positive thinking and attitudes, and for overall skill development, and empowering the next generation to be the drivers of peace by promoting innovative and entrepreneurship-based approaches to promote social cohesion through the creation of enterprises in targeted settings.
The project promoted the true values of social cohesion while educating the common people on how to face challenges and overcome them with self-confidence. Several opportunities for business development for youth were created while opening a clear path for a better tomorrow for the selected youth entrepreneurs from Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee.
This project supported youth representing diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds to improve their knowledge on social entrepreneurship, business development and management. In its inception, 300 young women and men between the ages of 15-29 from the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts were selected from an open call to take part in a series of virtual and face-to-face learning sessions, educational programs and motivational workshops on covering topics such as critical media literacy, engage to disengage, preventing violent extremism, social cohesion, business planning and development and management.
In these knowledge sharing sessions, 150 youth were identified to move forward to the next phase showcasing potential and interest in social entrepreneurship and the promotion of social cohesion.
After undergoing an evaluation session of project proposals, 18 teams (80 youth) were selected to join a social innovation camp to further improve their knowledge base on social entrepreneurship and business project proposals.
At the end of the social innovation camp, after carefully evaluating the multicultural business models of all teams, 11 winning teams were selected by a dedicated selection committee consisting of professionals and experts in the business field.
The selected teams will receive a Rs. 10 million worth of seed grants and stakeholder linkage support, while successfully achieving the over arching objective of identifying and capacitating youth to promote economically viable solutions to counter drivers of violent extremism.
The first seed grant awarding ceremony took place on November 8, 2021 at the Sarvodaya Training Center in Sathurukondan, Batticaloa, where 11 multicultural youth teams were awarded seed grants worth Rs. 10 million.
Participants at the event included Chief Guest, K. Karunaharan, District Secretary, Batticaloa; Dr. Priyan Seneviratne, Technical Specialist, UNDP Sri Lanka; Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, President of the Sarvodaya Movement; Ravindra Kandage, Executive Director of Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena Sansadaya (SSS); and other representatives from SSS and UNDP Sri Lanka.
The seed grants will help start, build and sustain the selected social enterprises which vary from organic agriculture; a zero waste and polythene free restaurant; production of healthy, nutritious and traditional food; production of eco-friendly natural fertiliser; a career guidance platform for youth; mushroom cultivation; wine production; rainwater harvesting; livestock and farm products; handloom production; garbage recycling; production of recycled papers from discarded straws and the production of organic food items.
The project seeks to aid, strengthen and advance youth social entrepreneurship and financial independency of youth, while contributing to the promotion of positive social cohesion and prevention of violent extremism in the country.