Strengthening the Leadership Capacity of Youth of the InSPIRE Network

The Incubator Spaces for Promoting Information Right and Freedom of Expression (InSPIRE) project unlocked the potential skills of 12 leaders (03 Males & 09 Females)  through a leadership training conducted for selected members of the InSPIRE network representing the universities of Peradeniya, Jayewardenepura, Jaffna and South Eastern University. The training was organized and carried out by Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) and Helvetas on 22nd April via Zoom to create awareness and educate the youth on the major responsibilities they are tasked with, while providing them an opportunity to explore, experiment, interact and enhance their leadership capacity on 4 areas: (1.) Leadership in general (2.) Team building (3.) Emotional Intelligence and (4.) Critical thinking. Thus, these leaders will facilitate and support the project initiatives, in order to expedite the tasks effectively.

Initially, with the commencement of the program, the youth were briefed on the overall objectives of the training followed by an ice- breaker, inviting the participants to introduce themselves along with their interests. This set the tone for the entire program, as they developed a carefree attitude henceforth. The training was conducted in both local languages; Sinhala and Tamil.

Session 1 focused on Leadership in general. The participants were requested to create a Leadership Mission Statement taking in to account three questions that included what they want to do as a leader, how they are going to do it and why?  Lasuni Godage from the University of Peradeniya stated, “I like to raise my voice against the discrimination female university students face, since I too have undergone similar injustices. I look forward to be of help by seeking the support of women leaders in the community.”  In the meantime, some others expressed their interests in taking leadership to preserve the environment, combat the human elephant conflict, help people who have been mentally challenged due to violence and criminal activities etc. Antony Siri from the university of Jaffna in his leadership mission statement pointed out “I take initiative to help youth who do not have sufficient resources and access to education. I do this by conducting night classes and providing them with library facilities. I will continue to do the same in the future, until they gain this right.”

Participants and the members of the InSPIRE team, during the training

During the team building session, the participants were shown a three minute video on sexual harassment which was paused at its climax. They were divided into groups of three and requested to analyse the situation and provide their perspective on the situation that was to follow in the video. The members worked cooperatively sharing their opinions to arrive at a final conclusion on the task.

Next, each participant shared a negative experience in their lives which resulted in a positive outcome during the session on Emotional Intelligence. Participants stated that they had encountered problems due to their friends, lecturers, employers etc. with regards to discrimination, jealousy, misunderstanding etc. but they resulted in optimistic lessons.  Pruthuvi Kalpadeep from the university of Peradeniya mentioned “I was humiliated by a teacher in front of others for obtaining low marks for Maths when I was in school, but I was determined to work hard to prove this judgement wrong.” Finally, the critical thinking session provided an opportunity for the participants to critically reflect and analyze 4 given scenarios on sexual harassment, theft in the work place, abortion and an incident to do with an extremely dependent room-mate. They were given possible solutions for each of the above situations. Only a few answers were elicited from the leaders, due to time constraints.

However, the leaders displayed significant eagerness throughout the training, enthusiastically engaging in group activities, sharing perspectives on different ideas freely, and exhibiting fascination over taking up responsibility for the future activities of the project. Samadhi Madurasingha from the University of Peradeniya expressed her gratitude at the end of the program. “Thank you InSPIRE team for arranging this interesting training.”