Empowering youth to serve communities

Nearly 800 young people from Sinhala and Tamil communities in the East have completed a six month training in a ‘Youth in transition’ project supported by UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) and WUSC (World University Service of Canada). As part of the project, youth from the age of 14 upwards were trained on leadership, career guidance and provided internships in their chosen field of interest.

The UNICEF supported project has helped establish nearly 800 youth in their communities. “My proudest moment was when I saved a nine year old girl from drowning in the floods in January,” said Jagath Kumara. “The confidence and leadership it took to do that came from my YITP experience,” he said.

The Youth In Transition Programme (YITP) focuses on helping conflict affected youth rebuild their lives. The goal of the programme is to build self-confidence, encourage community participation and civic responsibility, as well as to provide knowledge and guidance about future opportunities.

“These kinds of initiatives will give more opportunities for youth,” said UNICEF Representative for Sri Lanka Reza Hossaini. “Leadership and career guidance will help them develop their self-confidence and increase their chances for employment,” he said.

“We first used the YITP concept in the South with tsunami affected youth. The impact proved to be so beneficial that we were asked to run a similar programme for conflict affected young people in the East” said WUSC Project Director Helen Patterson.