NEWSLETTERFOR SUMMER

BIGGERBETTERSTRONGER

Aqua 2.0 is a green initiative of AIESEC Colombo South under the partnership of Peoples’ Leasing Finance PLC. The main objective of the project is awareness of sustainable consumption to a greener world. Twelve interns took part in Aqua from countries like Malaysia, Spain, Slovakia, Korea and Taiwan.The project went under 2 main phases. School sessions and a documentary on Chronic Kidney Disease(CCKD) in Rajarata area.The interns were given a one week training under National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Chemical Department of University of Moratuwa and Forest Department.Some sessions were held in Colombo ie: Sirimawo Balika Vidyala, Royal College and Anula Vidyala. Other sessions were also successfully held at Rathnapura, Kandy ,Nittambuwa and Panadura. The interns gained a maximum experience out of the opportunity of doing sessions at rural areas. One of the sessions was held at British Way College which the audience had a varying age level from 18 years to 40 years. At every session the students were divided into sub groups of 10 students where each group was assigned with an intern. Each intern was given a theme to be discussed. These themes included , threats to sustainability, how do we waste electricity/energy and water, how can we save electricity/energy and water , how do we pollute environment, air and water , how can we protect environment, air and water , how can we practice the concept of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) towards sustainable consumption, garbage problem and how solid waste management could be a solution , how can we stop global warming through little steps taken in day to day life , how does our Carbon Footprint enlarge and measures to reduce our Carbon Footprint.The second phase of the project was to visit to a village suffering from CKD. The interns and the OC visited Kebithigollewa and got ideas from people there. Also they got the chance to talk with the farmers who were suffering from the disease. The interns got chance to visit Sinharaja, Kithulgala water rafting, Sigiriya, Anuradapura, Horton Plains and Galle.The project concluded within 6 weeks with the life changing experience for all the interns and the organizing committee.

AQUA iGCDP

The ART Project 2015 was a Global Community Development Project organized by AIESEC Colombo South with the vision of making aware of art and craft in Sri Lanka.

The ART Project came back to life this summer with the collaboration of the Department of Integrated Design, Faculty of Architecture in University of Moratuwa.

Fourteen exchange participants from 8 countries Russia, Egypt, China, Azerbaijan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ukraine and Taiwan together with 36 undergraduates of Department of Integrated Design, Faculty of Architecture in University of Moratuwa had the privilege of taking part in Colombo Art Biennale 2015 under the ART Project 2015. Colombo Art Biennale 2015 themed ‘Colomboscope’ is an international exhibition which is a content rich festival of visual arts and literature, upholding a rich tradition of having engaged with and examined Colombo through the eyes of artists, musicians, performers, writers and researchers.

The exchange participants together with undergraduates explored the Colombo City and other areas in Sri Lanka to get an understanding of how the culture differs from Colombo to other areas in the country.

They developed a concept for the exhibition from scratch through the knowledge they gained from the field visits and workshops done by the Department of Integrated Design.Based on that concept they built four unique exhibits which showcased the “Hidden view of Colombo”. The exhibition was held successfully from 21st to 31st of August at the RIO cinema in Colombo.

THE ART PROJECT iGCDP

FEEL Lanka, as the name describes itself is all about feeling Sri Lanka. The culture, people, food and of course it's marvelous places, one can experience all the mentioned if he or she became a part in FEEL Lanka.

Last summer, FEEL Lanka was implemented for the seventh time, in which the main focus was adventure tourism in Sri Lanka. Although it was the main focus, team FEEL7 gained a lot of experience in different sections of tourism.

There were 13 international volunteers who took part in the project from the countries Russia, Czech, Spain, Ukraine, France, Hong Kong, Portugal, Azerbaijan, China and Malaysia. FEEL Lanka 7.0 partnered with Mahoora Tented Luxury Camps under EcoTeam and interns were involved in many activities in their sites. Day and night Safaris, Night walks, border walks , cooking sessions, cultural based activities are some of those.

Apart from the activities provided by EcoTeam, where interns privileged the chance of staying in a luxury camp in the border zone and experience the most delicious Sri Lankan food, they travelled all over the country. Jaffna, Trincomalee, Negombo, Badulla and Ella, Horton Plains, down south and many more.The ultimate objective of the project was to promote Sri Lanka by making a promotional video, which was successfully created and uploaded to YouTube.

FEEL LANKA iGCDP

The project Ripple Effect 4.0 , community service project was carried out for the fourth time with the slogan “Every Ripple Begins With A Single Drop”.

As the first event interns visit to the Cancer Hospital, Maharagama. Young children suffering from cancer got iengaged with the interns and they had a great time getting to know these children. They even made origami figures on the spot and presented them to the children as gifts. Furthermore certain gifts such as stationery items were handed over to the hospital for distribution among the children.

Interns went to the Daru Sevana Children Orphanage to visit the children who lives there under foster care. There was competition involving an intern and certain groups of children where the children had to take part in some set of team games. Next event was carried out at the Sambodhi Home Galle. It is an institution of foster care to people suffering from Down syndrome. After offering the lunch, the interns helped them to draw pictures and do art-work.

Penultimate event of Ripple Effect was held in Bethana Elders Home Katubedda. The interns got to knowa lot of things about early post-colonial Sri Lanka and listened very attentively to the stories the elders had in store for them. Ripple Effect also provided dinner for the day as well.

Final event was held in Rathnapura. With the collaboration with IMCD, Ripple Effect renovated a rural school with almost no facilities for the students to learn. The interns painted the student premises and equipment to give the area a brand new look. Furthermore hundreds of stationery items were gifted to the children as well as other important necessities. Furthermore the children were also very happy to help the interns and project members do their work.

RIPPLE EFFECT iGCDP

Heal A Nation 2.0 is an exchange based community development program conducted with the vision of educating young minds to make a healthier Sri Lanka. It mainly focuses on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and non-communicable diseases which have been a huge threat to the global community as well as to the local community.

“Heal A Nation 2.0” brought together 13 young volunteers from all over the world who were willing to engage in creating awareness on STDs and Non communicable diseases among youth in Sri Lanka for a 6 week project.

This was commenced from 1st of July to 12th of August. They had a sound knowledge about STDs and were confident to talk about them in public. They were also provided with a good knowledge about STDs and its situation in Sri Lanka by info sessions conducted by STD unit and STD related NGOs in Sri Lanka.

As a youth organization, we believe that educating the youth and giving them a comprehensive understanding about the issue and its current status is the key to achieve our goal in long term. As a step to reach our goal many workshops were conducted throughout the country targeting the youth of Universities and Schools. University of Moratuwa, University of Peradeniya and Southlands college, Galle were only few of them. Presentations and many interactive activities were done by the interns with the aim of developing the discussion about the STDs and non-communicable diseases among them.

Apart from the Sri Lankan community, this project was able to create an impact on interns in many ways. They were able to experience the social impact of STDs and non-communicable diseases and gain a good understanding about them. They had the opportunity to experience the natural beauty as well as the culture of Sri Lanka and participate in many events which brought them memorable moments that they would never forget.

HEAL A NATION iGCDP

HEAL A NATION 2.0

'I RESPECT YOU' was a project pioneered by AIESEC Colombo South with the guidance of member committee Sri Lanka, in the summer. Millennium Information Technologies reached AIESEC with the core idea for the project and thus with the collaboration of both those parties ' I RESPECT YOU' has proven to be one of the most successful projects in this season.

The purpose of the project 'I RESPECT YOU' was primarily to ensure a society that vehemently opposes the crime of sexual, gender based or other forms of harassment. In the sessions, in addition to educating the youth on what conduct can be brought within harassment we have made them aware of their rights of engaging day to day activities without being harassed under any circumstance.

The sessions were conducted by the resource persons from the Care International with international interns helping out them. A profound idea about Women's right in the world and in Sri Lanka was given to the participants while actively involving them in interactive sessions.

'I RESPECT YOU' reached around 150 local undergraduates from both state and private universities and from almost all ethnic groups. The sessions were held once a week on a Saturday and Sunday. The sessions were conducted in all 3 main languages. That is 2 in Sinhala, 2 in English and 1 in Tamil reaching out to a vast majority of the target group of undergraduates.

The Project was implemented for a period of 6 weeksproviding 15 internship opportunities to foreignexchange participants. Fifteen interns from countriessuch as China, USA, Hungary,Czech, Turkey,Russia wereselected for this project to intensify the diversification.

The interns were involved in primary sessions as well asat 'Shilpa' where they were given the chance to work with young children (girls) who have been neglected due to various reason

I RESPECT YOU iGCDP

The preschool project – Hodiya was done in style once again this summer with the number of 30 Exchange Participants from China, Russia, Brazil, Taiwan, Malaysia, Netherland, Germany, Crotiaand HongKong .

The project was mainly centered on two cities, Wadduwa and Piliyandala. Garden Preschool main branch –Panadura , Garden Preschool sub branch-Wadduwa, Guidance Preschool main branch -Bokundara, Guidance Preschool sub branch –Kasbawa were the main places where the interns involoved with the project.

HODIYA iGCDP

Gurugedara is a project initiated by AIESEC CS to improve the English and IT literacy among underprivileged children in Colombo suburbs.

This summer peak we were able to do 19 successful realizations from 8 countries. The uniqueness of this time is that we were also able to reach schools which are far away from Colombo. The impact made by the project was very high specially in Tangalle.

GURU GEDARA I iGCDP

GURUGEDARA II iGCDPAIESEC Sri Lanka launched project Gurugedara II to increase the English literacy especially in school students. The project was launched in 6 selected schools in the Piliyandala Educational Zone and will feature a total of 30 interns covering all parts of the world. This summer Gurugedara II project consists of exchange participants from countries such as China, Czech Republic, Malaysia, United Kingdom, India, Canada and Taiwan. Exchange participants inspired local school students and guided them to learn English. These interns were possessed the required skills and knowledge required to teach English and a proper understanding on teaching methods and approaches and exchange participants who were having capabilities of teaching to school students were gathered to the project. They used subject related materials with different teaching styles to enhance the students’ learning capacity of the English. This was not only an opportunity for the school children to improve their English literacy, but also to develop their soft skills, interact with different cultures and to open up to the world. As for the achievement of our objectives, all the interns were established cultural understanding and shared experiences as well as developed cultural interactions showcasing different customs and diversity of their countries while taken part in Global Village, 2015.

PARTNERS IGCDPAIESEC Colombo South has been renowned as one of the main facilitators for community development projects which address common issues on literacy, health and environment. These projects have also offered an inspiring learning experience for foreign undergraduates by creating them an opportunity to engage in implementing solutions to tackle these issues.Many prominent corporate profiles including ECO Team, People’s Leasing Corporation and Millennium IT joined hands with us on this summer by providing sustainable partnerships to ensure a remarkable service for the community.

Feel Lanka 7.0 which mainly focuses on promoting Sri Lankan tourism industry as well as the hospitality service industry was fully partnered with ECO team. 12 trips were sponsored by them providing exchange participants a wide range of exposure in wildlife tourism in Sri Lanka. ECO team also provided wide range of activities for the interns to engage with the local community in those areas.

People’s Leasing Company partnered with Project AQUA 2.0 which mainly aims to increase the awareness of the community on the importance of protecting water, aquatic environment and water resources. As a step to reach their utmost goal, 10 sessions were conducted by interns in local schools on sustainable consumption of water. Interns worked very closely with the local bank branches. Interns as well as the organizing committee were given certificates and token of appreciation by PLC CEO at an awards ceremony held at PLC head office. A booklet was published as a part of the partnership.

Millanium IT came onboard as the main sponsor for “I respect you” ,a new initiative of AIESEC Colombo South with the objective of creating awareness on social issues that goes unnoticed and ignored in the society . 6 sessions were conducted to local university students by the resource persons from the Care International with international interns helping out them.

CORP HUNT is an intense sales competition for Colombo South AIESECers. Initiated in 2012, Corp Hunt has directly contributed to the remarkable growth in the incoming Global Internship Programme of AIESEC Colombo South during past years not only by driving the number of exchanges but also by producing the some of the finest leaders and experts in the function.

GIPCORP HUNT

This competition basically targets the newly recruited GIP members to provide them an initial training and an entry into the corporate world.The competition is initially carried out through cold calling with the main target of arranging a meeting with the targeted company to providethem a one- on-one knowledge of how the Global Internship program works. After the meeting has been successful the next steps of signingcontracts with the company and matching interns is carried out.This year’s CORP HUNT was carried out with the participation of 3 teams as Corpsurfers, Seekers and Strikers competing based on threeindustry sectors as tourism, Information technology and miscellaneous respectively. The third team had the option of targeting all other companies except tourism and information technology related companies because the main demand for interns were from those industry sectors and all other industry sectors had to be combined to match the demand for those two sectors.

CORP HUNT is an intense sales competition for Colombo South AIESECers. Initiated in 2012, Corp Hunt has directly contributed to the remarkable growth in the incoming Global Internship Programme of AIESEC Colombo South during past years not only by driving the number of exchanges but also by producing the some of the finest leaders and experts in the function.

GIPCORP HUNT

All the team members who participated in this competition received initial trainings as to cold calling, e-mailing and how to handle a company meeting. They were also tracked throughout the competitionand evaluated through weekly announcement of results.The initial stages of the competition was very tough with lots of rejections through cold callings and team members being demotivated. But through constant coaching and tracking the teams were able to develop themselves and at the end there was an intense competition to be the winner. Considering the statistics of the competition the teams approached amassive number of 337 companies in Sri Lanka during this competitiontaking nearly 370+ cold calls. The competition took its course for 3 months and at the end of 3 months team Strikers were crowned as the winners and Ashean Thuduwage from team Corpsurfers was adjudged as the best performing member.

“Be Brave take risks, nothing can substitute experience!”

As a conclusion to the research on internship opportunities in local tea companies, It was found that there is apotential for foreign interns to be recruited in local tea companies. Due to tea being one of the main export goods in Sri Lanka, there are many well established tea companies interested in continuous improvement and exposure to the global market and new technology, with the potential for providing such opportunities. Also found that the target market of the Local Tea industry is mainly the South Asian countries and the Middle Eastern countries.

GIPTEA RESEARCH

I had a great team experience throughout this project. Although we were all on very tight schedules at times, due to the understanding among our team leader and team members, we were able to set up flexible time schedules for our team meetings, online research as well as for the group work. Also due to the support given by our team mentor, we were able to follow the best and most efficient strategy throughout the project. Our team leader also did a great job in motivating the members, delegating responsibilities and making sure we met our goals within the scheduled time frame. The team members were very supportive throughout and did a great job. Through this research project I was able to gain a huge experience on cold calling, on what to expect at a company meeting, on making corporate contacts and also on team work.-Dilinie Seimon

DILINIe SHARES Her EXPERIENCE working iN TEA research program

Exchange ANALYSISGIP

OGCDP

MANUJITHVIETNAM

ASHEANMALaYSIA

INSAFMALaYSIA

JINANIMALaYSIA

LOSHITHAVIETNAMSUDHARAKA

VIETNAM

ISURUMALaYSIA

OGCDP

SOMINDA

MALaYSIA

YASIRUMALaYSIA

PAWANMALaYSIA PRASITHA

MALaYSIA

OGIPMALITH GAMAGE

ESTONIA

ASHEAN SHARES HIS EXPERIENCE iN MALAYSIAThe AIESEC Global Citizen program is unarguably the best thing ever happened to me in my life. I guess It all started whenI was on the flight. When I looked through the window and witnessed the amazing skyline over the coasts of Malaysia, I got this wonderful feeling which I will never be able to explain to anyone ever in my life. Knowing that I will be living and working together with a bunch of new people for the next 6 weeks of my life made my mind even more excited. And I was right. The people I met, made me feel warmly welcome and it didn't take long for me to think about them as a family. Everyone were super cool, nice, considerate and some became brothers within a very short period of time. And some left sentimental memories and feelings that I will cherish for the rest of my life.In the beginning I had no idea how to make this project work and what laid ahead of us. But the co-operation of my EPs and the OC gradually made the nervousness fade away. It really helped me to nail the presentations and I honestly believe that AIESEC in Sunway is where I discovered the confident speaker inside me. And that of all things is the best thing i gained for myself through this project. Working and volunteering in the zoo actually made me feel so satisfied and nourishing. I truly loved that part. And that is something so precious you get to do only once in a life time. Six weeks passed by in the blink of an eye. May be Einstine was right. Time is actually relative. I’m pretty sure that the valuable experience that I gained by working with everyone will have a major effect on my life career-wise and in social life. So I'm very grateful to AIESEC Colombo South, my dearest EPs and the amazing OC including each and everyone that i met throughout the exchange programme for giving me a life changing experience full of happy tears that i can look back proudly and helping me discover who i actually am within. cheers!!!-Ashean Thuduwage

SUDARAKA SHARES HIS EXPERIENCE iN VIETNAMEver since I can remember I was fascinated by travelling and discovering new places. So when Aiesec’s Global Citizen program offered a chance to do that while making friends from all over the world and discovering a culture with them, I was instantly fascinated with the idea. So as a volunteer I travelled to Vietnam, a country in popular belief is still in a war between America. (According to the comments I got from people before leaving)While in Vietnam I had the chance to work with a diverse group of people from USA to the Europe to neighboring Asia. I easily bonded with most of the interns there but with some I needed some time because of the culture differences we have. In Vietnam I not only discovered Vietnamese culture but had a glimpse into the lives of backpackers from all over the world because for a while I stayed at a backpacker’s hostel. These people were really friendly and I was surprised by the knowledge most of them had about Sri Lanka. For the first time in my life I had a chance to do whatever I wanted without the weight of parents, relatives, work, and studies weighing me down. Only constraint I had was money. I believe I used that freedom to the fullest while not jeopardizing my integrity. Okay enough of serious talk. My stay in Vietnam was Fun if anything. For the first time in a long time I had a zero stress level. I ate at all different places, enjoyed the nightlife, went on solo travelling, did kayaking, cliff climbing, hiking and my personal favorite, Jumped into the sea from the top deck of a ship. Still the best thing about my experience was the fact that I had a group of energetic friends to do all this which made every second of it all the more interesting.AIESEC Global Citizen program is good opportunity and a platform to understand more about yourself and your comfort zone and step out of that comfort zone. It’ll teach you about the world more things than thousands of hours of googling will. I highly recommend everyone to take part in this program.-Sudaraka Liyanage

Once an AIESECer, is always an AIESECer. Alumni of AIESEC Colombo South are holding prestigious positions in the corporate sector and needless to say their busy schedules. Yet, despite all of that, close to good 40 alumni members of AIESEC Colombo South got together in AIESEC Colombo South LC House on 8th of August. Sharks Gratia, the alumni night to cherish their lovely memories of AIESEC CS and also to get to know the current leadership body of CS, Non of these great AIESECers have left the organization in heart and are always there to guide and help tthe current CS membership to rise to new levels. It was a lovely evening which brought back so many lovely memories of AIESECers from 2000 up to current EB.

AIESEC ALUMNI NIGHT

SHARKS’ GRATIA

ICON

Intern Conference is an initiative by AIESEC Sri Lanka to enhance the internship experience of foreign interns who have come to Sri Lanka on AIESEC internships. iCon was successfully conducted by AIESEC Colombo South for the summer exchange participants of iGCDP projects. This was held as a brand new product as it was the first time Lead was introduced to the Exchange Participants through an iCon. It was conducted with the help of Thridha Muhandiramge , MCP 14/15, as a facilitator with Thushan Dhaarmawardana as the chair of the event, this was done under the new panelist position of Event Management under Isuru Ramawickrama with a special organising committee headed by Nadith Lalinda. All in all the event was a success based on the feedback which was given.

GLOBAL VILLAGE

Global Village was organised on 25th of August with the participation of Exchange Participants from projects Art, Gurugedara and Hodiya at K Zone Katubedda. With a participation of a foreign delegate of over 30 the organizers of the Global V illage were able to attract more than 200 participants to come and visit the Global Village. It was filled with cultural sharing, jives, experience sharing and lots of fun.The organizing committee comprised of the recruitment oranizing committee headed by Ashane Gamage.

AIESEC INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSInternational Congress, the largest international AIESEC conference was held in Gurgaon, India from 21st - 30th August 2015 with the participation of over 800 delegates from 126 countries. Local Committee President Dehan Vithana participted to the International Congress Representing AIESEC Colombo South.It was a great opportunity to grasp knowledge on Global practices and also get to know many inspiring individuals from the network.

LOCAL COMMITTEE HOUSEWith the current extent of operations of AIESEC Colombo South as the largest local committee of Sri Lanka investing to facilitate these operations has become a necessity. So a major investment was carried out by renting a place of accommodation to serve as a centre of operations, this is situated in Batakettara North,Piliyandala. The Local Committee house has currently become a centre for team trainings, executive board meetings and operational planning.

KeeP IN TOUCH WITH US AIESEC Colombo South website was relaunched at Sharks’ Gratia now you can visit our website aieseccs.lk to get updates of every function and to get to know about upcoming events.

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youtube.com/AIESECCOLOMBOSOUTHLCaieseccolombosouth.blogspot.com