Going, Going, Green!

05Nov09

The Project Act launch event was held on October 24^th, coinciding with the International Day of Climate Action. It consisted of a clean-up of Wellawatte beach, and a demonstration geared towards spreading the Act message ‘Go Green Now’ as well as showing Sri Lanka’s support towards effective policy changes on climate change in Copenhagen, December 2009.

The event was a tremendous success, with over 350 participants representing Interact, Roteract, HSBC, Practical Action and more. The beach was cleaned by the collection crews and the collected waste was separated in to degradeable and non-degradeable waste which was handed over to the CMC for disposal.

The 350 event kicked off with a round of ice breakers, introductions to Beyond Borders, Project Act and 350, the signing of the pledge “I pledge to ACT wherever, whenever and do whatever to help Sri Lanka go green and the ‘adopt a tree’ segment. Special guests at the event included Hon. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Champika Ranawaka, the Director of British Council Gill Westaway, the Director of Press and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of the United States Jeff Anderson, Omar Kamil, Special Commssioner CMC, Justice CG Weeramanthri, Roshan Gunawardena from the CEA and Anjali Watson from the Environment Programme CHA.

After the opening activities, the demonstrators proceed to Wellawatte on Galle Road, with their placards and banners, which drew substantial attention to our cause.  The event culminated in the formation of a human 350 on the beach, a photograph of which was sent into 350.org to show support towards their global campaign.

Thank you everyone who came out to be a part of this event and show your support for positive environmental change in Sri Lanka, and hopefully, Copenhagen. Special thanks to the crew from HSBC, and all the Interactors and Roteractors who made up the bulk of our cleaning crew: you guys did an impressive job! Thank you to our invitees for your support and Naren and Anjali from the Environment Programme at CHA for your help in planning the event and all the technical support. Thank you to the work crews and the CMC team for all their help. And finally a big thank you to the Project Act committee for putting together this event on such short notice and making it such a success.

See here for photographs from the event, here for the media coverage and hereto follow the Project Act blog.

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New Blood

05Nov09

Being new to Beyond Borders (BB) is something that has grown to be a little old now. As a teenager, I’ve always dreamt of goals I would want to achieve someday and thought long and hard on areas that I’ve always been passionate about. I’ve dreamt big and thought small. That is of course until I joined Beyond Borders.

Truly it has been a place where dreams turn to reality and NO I am not promoting BB! I refer to the launch of Project Act – the environment (an area that i’ve been seriously concerned about towards my late teen years which are sadly coming to an end!) initiative taken up by BB. Being a part of such an initiative with equally enthusiastic individuals who are of the same age group makes being an environmentalist all the better.

Though I was not a part of the initial gathering of recruits and older core–group members (as I overslept!) the atmosphere that was created by the others could only be summed up as warm and welcoming. Though our opinions on things largely vary – after all, we all have the right to our own opinions – being a youth led organization helps very much in creating an informal yet serious (when necessary) environment.

And this was something quite new to me as the other organizations I am a part of carry with them the conventional attitude of ‘elders know best’. Not that they don’t, but at times it wouldn’t hurt to listen to someone your kid’s age; most youth of today is not as ignorant as older generations seem to think!

As i was saying, it was completely different with BB. Though at my first meeting I honestly did feel a little ‘small’, during the next few meetings (I think!) I caught up pretty well. The Beyond Borders environment very much made me feel comfortable in my own shoes. Being a part of BB for about a month – it feels like more! – has taken me places literally and metaphorically. I’ve learnt so much, met so many people and had so much fun while stressing myself out at the same time. I’ve also being inspired by most of the other BB-ites – no I’m not mentioning names! – who seem to manage so many other things alongside BB.

All this of course, has led me to do small scale advertising of the organization to get my friends interested. It works especially when I emphasize on the fact that we all get to voice out on what we are passionate about and get to work at making a change in places necessary. In reality, the direct impact of our actions may be comparatively small. But knowing that it could trigger a bigger change later on makes the effort all the more worth it. Personally, I know for sure that no matter where I am, not only would BB go down in my scrap book but also on the list of things I am so damn – am I allowed to swear? – glad I was a part of.

Senashia Ekanayake

Senashia is a core group member of Beyond Borders and is generally known to be a ruthlessly efficient bubbly character who is a pedant when it comes to manners. She is not allowed to swear. Her opinions are her own.

Filed under: Opinions, Youth-Culture-Society   |  2 Comments

Dayan Jayatilleka

31Oct09

Recently, we at Beyond Borders had a candid chat with Dr Dayan Jayatilleka. He almost overwhelmed us with his intellect but we managed to hang on for what turned out to be a great ride through his deeply personal experiences and idealogical roots, political general philosophy, Sri Lankan post independence political conflict and history and a lot of other things.

A few of us who were present wrote  our take on  it here.

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Act Now for the Environment

15Oct09

Beyond Borders presents Project Act. Our green initiative. The poster says it all really. Be sure to subscribe to our official blogspace and twitter feed. Project Act will take off this 24th at Wellawatte Beach at 8.30 a.m. timed to coincide with the International Day of Climate Action, and will go on until March 2010.

Our vision is to green up lifestyles, and to that end we will primarily focus on waste management in terms of advocacy, training and also direct facilitation.

Join us this 24th to show your support for climate action. You can also stick with us till March to help us execute what we hope will be a successful turn around in attitudes in relation to waste management systems in Sri Lanka. To learn more and to find how you can join with us as a strategic partner please call the Actline 0773041438 now.

Project Act is funded by a grant from the US Department of State and our media sponsors include The Sunday Times, ETV and The Colombo Spirit. Technical support is provided by the Environmental Program of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (GTE) Ltd (CHA). The Rotaract and Interact movements, the Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Network and the International Climate Champions (ICC) for Sri Lanka (part of the British Council) are also partnering with Beyond Borders in this venture. 

Beyond Borders is a youth led youth run not-for-profit organization formerly part of the British Council.

Filed under: Events-Activities-Announcements, Media, Youth-Culture-Society   |  2 Comments

Copenhagen or Bust – What Can Sri Lanka do?

07Oct09

In just 11 weeks, the world will convene in Copenhagen, under the auspices of the United Nations, to forge a new international agreement on climate change. It is a historic moment: the ultimate test of global cooperation. Yet the negotiations are proceeding so slowly that a deal is in grave danger.

If we miss this opportunity, there will be no second chance sometime in the future, no later way to undo the catastrophic damage to the environment we will cause. So when world leaders gather this week, first at the United Nations in New York and then at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, it is essential that we move toward resolving the issues that still divide our nations. As scientists spell out the mounting evidence both of the climate change already occurring and of the threat it poses in the future, we cannot allow the negotiations to run out of time simply for lack of attention. Failure would be unforgivable. (more..)

That is, according to Gordon Brown. But we agree with him. The world has dallied long enough in getting its act together to combat climate change. And even if Al Gore’s electricity bill is enough to power several small villages in sub-Saharan Africa for more than 2 weeks (there are only rumors to show that this is true by the way), we cannot ignore the core message of An Inconvenient Truth.

Gordon Brown stresses on the economic benefits for countries who ‘change with the climate’;  adopting greener energy and cleaning up their carbon footprint etc. But what he doesn’t speak of here is the other side of the coin, the somewhat uglier side; the side the consists of entrenched trade competition, all sorts of climate-unfriendly vested interests and a deep reluctance to forgo short term comforts for longer term gains.

So here is where the acitivists come in to change attitudes. 350.org is a global movement that is bent on generating awareness and action to promote more earth friendly (and ultimately more people friendly) outcomes at Copenhagen. And like all good activists, Beyond Borders will also be in the thick of it. Thats right, we are for the first time going proactively green. Naturally, we and all our project associates are very excited.

More information will follow soon. A massive launch event on the 24th will be followed by our own campaign for the environment in Sri Lanka. Anyone can get involved and provide input (we are very open source like that). Watch this space for more details!

http://350.org

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Now in the Pipeline – Some quick updates

23Sep09

To Spark A Revolution

The long process of looking for people over, we have almost finalized the list of new Core Group Mmembers. To all who applied and attended the interviews; we’ll be in touch with you shortly.

And if you couldn’t get in, don’t worry, you can still be part of the Beyond Borders experience and work with us towards our causes in a voluntary capacity.

Volunteer with BB

Volunteering will give you more time to get more hands on experience in BB without too much vested accountability. A great way to help us and you decide if you are ready to join the Core Group at a later date if you should so wish. And also a great way for you to get involved with our projects, should any appeal to you in particular.

Anyone can volunteer, Just e-mail us at info@beyondborders with your deets and we’ll get in touch.

New Projects

We’ve got an environment project coming along soon (our first full on environment venture in a long time) so we’re all pretty excited. Watch this space for more.

Jerk? will be staged again to an audience of students and teachers and the cast is hitting practice mode. We are looking forward to a different set of audience responses this time around, hopefully we’ll get them. Also look out for a review of Jerk? on the next issue of Chokolaate.

On the topic of new projects, if you’ve got an interesting idea but have no platform to launch it from, we can step in and help you see it through. But the project needs to be in line with our basic vision and mission; check our ‘about’ section for more on what we do. If you think we sync, let us know!

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Want a Revolution?

09Sep09

Well you’ve got time ’til 17th of September!

We believe that it is time youth had a say in how society is run. If you have big ideas (the more unconventional the better) and don’t have a platform from which you can launch them; then Beyond Borders is right up your alley.

We are currently looking for people to join our core-group. As a Core- group member you will be involved in making the decisions that will determine the direction of Beyond Borders and will decide the nature of the projects we do. You will also get opportunities to organize and lead project teams and also to pursue work you may be passionate about, along with the rest of us.

To join you have to be withing the ages of 16 and 24 and ready to put that passion and enthusiasm to good use! Also you will need to;

1. Email us to recruitments@beyondborders.lk a brief description of yourself, including your name (obviously), contact details, educational background, extra curricular activities (tell us what you did, not the groups you were a member of) and if you’ve worked anywhere, details of that. Keep the description to a maximum of 300 words.

2. Write 300 words on something you are extremely passionate about, or something you want to work on in your life. This is not a test of your writing skills; we just need to make sure that you will enjoy getting involved with BB. If you have an idea, but no idea how to implement it, you can write about that and we might provide you the platform to do so.

Beyond borders is a youth led, youth run voluntary organization engaged in social activism and a push for change. Our focus is on a wide array of issues ranging from identity, diversity to active global citizenship. We work through various media; organizing training sessions both outbound and inbound, hosting seminars and discussions, roadshows and forum theater among many others.

Visit out website www.beyondborders.lk for more stuff!

Filed under: Events-Activities-Announcements, Media, Sri Lanka, Youth-Culture-Society   |  2 Comments

Jerked

02Sep09

At school; everyone very friendly after the play.

Jerk? went well. The turn out was good and the cast was in top form. Many intervened and came up with their views and we are grateful to everyone who was present for helping us make it a success.

We are in the process of preparing a report on our findings and will share it as soon as it is complete. Also, optimistic plans are underway to do a few more performances to raise awareness of ADHD in the near future (fingers crossed). Pictures of the play will be up soon on flickr

Forum theater is one of Beyond Borders’ most eloquent modes of communication. If you’d like to do theater with us, well you’re in luck because we’re recruiting.

Our thanks go out to the following blogs which highlighted Jerk? before and after its screening; ASOB NQIM, The Abyss, The Ultimate Change, The Whackter’s Lair and to everyone who tweeted about it as well. Don’t think we missed anyone, but apologies if we did.

Filed under: Events-Activities-Announcements, Kids, Media, Sri Lanka, Theatre, Youth-Culture-Society   |  2 Comments
Tags: Beyond Borders, Forum Theatre, Social Change, Youth Participation

Join Beyond Borders, because we’re hiring

25Aug09

We are now calling for applications for young people between the ages 18 to 24 who are passionate about social and development issues and wanting a platform. Please find out about who we are and what we do (but considering that you’re here reading this, we would assume you would know these things), and if you are interested in joining us, do the following:

1. Email us to recruitments[at]beyondborders.lk a brief description of yourself, including your name (obviously), contact details, educational background, extra curricular activities you did (tell us what you did, not the groups you were a member of) and if you’ve worked anywhere, details of that. Keep the description to a maximum of 300 words.
2. Write 300 words on something you are extremely passionate about, or something you want to work on in your life. This is not a test of your writing skills; we just need to make sure that you will enjoy getting involved with BB. If you have an idea, but no idea how to implement it, you can write about that and we might provide you the platform to do so.

The current recruitment drive closes applications on the 12th of September, so make sure that you send your applications in before that. We will have a look at it, and we’ll conduct informal interviews on the 19th and 20th of September. So make sure that you keep at least an hour free on one of those days.

For More on who we are and what we do, look through this website or find us on Youtube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Unlike many other organizations, canvassing will actually get you places. We want to ensure that you’re energetic and that you want to get things done, so if you manage to convince us that you are what we’re looking for, well good for you. Have a look around the blog, and pop over to our website as well.

Filed under: Events-Activities-Announcements, Sri Lanka   |  1 Comment
Tags: Beyond Borders, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Youth, Youth Organization

Jerk?

23Aug09

A Forum Theater Performance on Learning Disabilities

• Date: 29th August 2009
• Time: 10.00am to 12.00pm
• Venue: Punchi Theatre, Borella

Entrance by invitation only, if you want one email us to info[at]beyondborders.lk with a couple of lines explaining your interest in attending the play.

What is Forum Theatre?
Forum theater began when Augusto Boal had the brilliant idea of allowing the audience to stop, modify and change the course of his drama performances; enhancing the overall experience of everyone involved in a novel manner. Today, this particular branch of theatre is known as Forum Theater.

FT is useful in bringing out complex issues attached to sensitive social topics and has been used by Beyond Borders to highlight a range of social issues during the last few years.

What is ‘Jerk?’
This time around the Forum Theater tackles the tricky subject of the misconceptions and issues facing youngsters with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It takes you through the roller coaster ride of our protagonist Rajeev, as he copes with the effects of ADHD and society’s often antagonistic reactions to it. It will be a morning of exciting infotainment and learning.

For invites call
0777 491 718 or  0777 335 320 (limited invites)

or email us info[at]beyondborders.lk

Filed under: Sri Lanka, Youth-Culture-Society   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Activism, ADHD, Colombo, Forum Theatre, Jerk, Sri Lanka, Theatre, Youth