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Storytellers4peace

Introduction

We all enjoy a good story even if what we define as a “good story” differs significantly from person to person. If we can tell stories, we can get our message across more clearly and in a more engaging manner, but what constitutes a natural storyteller? Storytelling is all about speaking your heart out, blending a past incident with some emotions, crisis, and finally, a resolution, sustaining energy all the way from the start till the end. Storytelling is a platform where the storyteller connects with the listener in a very interactive way. It can happen at any circumstance; formal or informal and or be it at a mediating base that serves social purposes by unveiling the words of wisdom. Narrating a story need not necessarily be an article. It can also be in the form of a video clip, photographs or even podcasts.

With this in mind International Youth Alliance for Peace Along with it’s North , Central , and Eastern Provincial team in Sri Lanka initiated the Storytellers4Peace supported by Internews Sri Lanka. The project encourages to tell the forgotten and untold history/tradition/Cultures in Sri Lanka through stories. Storytellers4Peace project aimed to build a network of writers, narrators, video & audio pod-casters who create individual & collective stories in the form of articles, and video & audio podcasts. These storytellers have written at least one story by each within the first 3 months and then voluntarily contributed to collect stories from their communities and around them. Later these forgotten and untold stories of history-tradition-culture were collected and publishes in Tamil, Sinhala, and English (translated). This project was conducted in Kandy, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Ampara, and Jaffna Districts. The workshops gave training on professional photography and videography as a technique of storytelling.

Storytellers4Peace – Jaffna workshop

Social media Link- Facebook

Storytellers4Peace – Kandy workshop

Social media Link- Facebook

 

Storytellers4peace Showcase

Storytellers4Peace Showcase event held on the 07th of December 2019 at the Lakshman Kadiragamar Institute, as the concluding phase of the project tilted Storytelling for peace in which have been involved 90 young people across the Eastern, Northern and Central provinces. In conjunction with the project, IYAP hosted the showcase and award ceremony in appreciation of the participants of the project from the three provinces. The event was an excellent opportunity to witness the efforts of a group of young individuals who have been committed towards enriching their knowledge on the culture, history and tradition of the country and conveying to the community.

Mr Peter D’Almeida , the Keynote speaker spoke on how stories become the game-changer in spreading peace and also had award winning Sri Lankan Actress Miss. Niranjani Shamugaraj and Miss Gangulali de Silva, one of the two Sri Lankan Youth Delegates to the United Nations, for the year 2019/2020 as special guests gracing the event.

Social media link – Facebook

 

Aim

Storytellers4peace is aimed to make youth understand why learning history, culture, and traditions are important. And also to guide the youth on the process of choosing themes and stories and how to plan and document the chosen story and finally producing the stories as a form of media which can be in any form such as Web Article – Research Article – Video format – Audio Podcast – Photostory. This project provides a space for the storyteller to connect with the listener in a very interactive way.

5

Months

4

Districts

218

Participants

People who involved with the project

Mr. Thirukumar Premakumar (President/ Executive Director of IYAP)

Project Consultant

Mr. Danni Dishon

Facilitator

Dinush Revinth (Taskforce Member IYAP)

Team Lead

Micheal Maheshwary

Former Nuwara Eliya District Coordinator

Karunambikaipakan Hariharan

Jaffna District Coordinator