Adahas in Sinhala means ideas. Adahas.lk is a website that uses storytelling as a technique of generating social consciousness on issues faced by young Sri Lankans on a daily basis. In post war Sri Lanka there is a serious need for a platform where young people can share their stories and reconcile with their pasts. We raise awareness on important issues such as social cohesion, sexual and reproductive health and rights, eliminating racial discrimination and gender based violence through real life stories of young Sri Lankans told via text, photography and video clips.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Colombo
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
While the internet could expose a young person to a plethora diverse viewpoints that could make them more informed and engaged citizens; most content on the internet is in English- thus limiting accessibility only to those youth who are conversant in English. Adahas.lk will be a tri-lingual site (Sinhala, Tamil, English) thus being accessible to all young Sri Lankans regardless of their understanding of English. The domain was purchased a few months back however the project is now at a standstill due to the unavailability of funds. Furthermore, young people are disengaged from viewing/sharing online content on socio-political issues due to their lack of interest. Adahas.lk will attract young people who aren't necessary interested in these issues by using creative ways to tell stories.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
1) Anoka Abeyrathne – Team Member (an eco-social entrepreneur and the winner of the Commonwealth Youth Award in March 2013 and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation's Youth Award. She was among Youth Service America's 25 Most Influential and Powerful Young Persons of the World 2012.
www.huffingtonpost.com/anoka-primrose-abeyrathne/post_3270_b_1441799.html
Twitter: http://goo.gl/ljh0T3
Facebook: http://goo.gl/3gOQBq
Shaahidah Riza- Team Member is a Young activist and a British Council Active Citizen passionate about Human Rights.
Twitter: http://goo.gl/DD8MoH
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Honest real life stories of diverse young Sri Lankans worded creatively using text, photography and video clips.
For example: youth affected by war, young people belonging to sexual minorities, young Sri Lankans living with HIV, young injected drug users, youth with disabilities, sex workers, ex-combatants, young people from indigenous backgrounds etc.
Stories can make a human connection that serious research cannot. A story can give us insight into social issues and inspire us to become more engaged and raise their voices.
EG-
A story about a young transgender Sri Lankan www.adahas.lk/becoming-me
A story about the experience of getting an STI test www.adahas.lk/hiv-test
A story about a young Sri Lankan boy from an indigenous community- http://goo.gl/8q0GYV
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council (CYEC) & British Council Sri Lanka- the idea for the project came up during a brainstorming session at the Commonwealth Changemakers Training in Colombo. CYEC along with British Council Sri Lanka pledged to support the project.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs of Sri Lanka and The National Youth Services Council- the National Youth Services Council has agreed to provide its venue for all training
The UN Country Team – Sri Lanka
The Sri Lanka Youth Parliament
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
A group of about 30 young people will be trained as trainers for Adahas and accounts will be created to each of them on the website so they could go back to their communities and train more young people on blogging and create accounts for them on our site/ extract their stories through interviews and post them on the site.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
wordpress, Nikon D3100, adobe photoshop, social media plaforms such as facebook, twitter, instagram
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
At the National Youth Services Council of Sri Lanka and the British Council Sri Lanka- both posses stable wireless internet and 15-20 computers.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
Since the three key partners that launched this project are youth activists themselves this team is most appropriate for this project.
All three of us are young activists who has engaged in similar projects before and constantly work with other young people for similar projects.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
-Only if the people trust the source will they believe they have the full story and make a personal connection- therefore it is important to build this trust.
-To make the site popular among young people who do not own personal computers.
-To make young people who are not interested in social issues visit the site and read its content.
-The sensitive nature of the issues that may be discussed.
– To ensure that all posts are translated to all three languages correctly
-Making the sire accessible to persons with disabilities
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
-By the number of hits on the website and analyze the hits based on age group of viewers, the issue of interest.
-The number of comments per day/ per post
-The number of blogs posted per week
-Through an optional questionnaire available on the website.
-By interviewing some persons whose stories were shared.
-By interviewing some visitors
-Obtain input from youth, Government officials, NGOs, academia, journalists etc..
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
20.07.2014 -updating the website
28.07.2014- recruiting trainers, translators
10-08.2014- Training of Trainers
05.09.2014-launch the website
10.09.2014- website promotion
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Per diem for trainers -$300 USD
Per diem for writers -$300 USD
Per diem for translators–$200 USD
communication expenses for coordinators-$400 USD
travel: $500 USD
website launch- $100 USD
Website hosting costs- 100$
webdesign costs100$
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We would appreciate if Rising Voices could connect us with organizations conducting similar projects to obtain advise.
Promote the website via Rising Voices platforms
Contact name
Senel Wanniarachchi