Strengthening and supporting the voice of children and youth is extremely vital in creating a vibrant society, where diversity is respected; acknowledged; celebrated and tolerated. It is also highly important to realize that the children and youth can propose extremely creative and sustainable remedies to transform complex social conflicts…

Everyone comes out of a mother’s womb. It is so unfortunate a truth that some, or rather, most, Sri Lankans who own a beautiful culture of being sensitive to others, seem to forget this. It is a common truth that people come to Colombo for…

Sri Lanka Ministry of Education and the National Child Protection Authority have started seperate investigations against a school principal on an incident of sacking a girl from a school suspecting she was vommiting because of pregnancy.  Newspapers reported that the teenage girl who had not eaten breakfast due to poverty had…

International Day of the Girl Child 11 October 2017 Today and every day, let us support the power of girls before, during and after crises to build better futures for themselves and their…

  Cover Photo Thanks to Nayana Sanjeewa

On 30 September 2017, the United Nations celebrated the International Translation Day for the first time paying tribute to the work of translators who play an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, creating understanding and cooperation, contributing to development and strengthening world peace and security. On 24 May 2017, UN General…

Opinion Editorial by Ms. Ritsu Nacken, Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Sri Lanka, in commemoration of the International Day of Older Persons, 1 October 2017. -- Ageing is an issue close to my heart. I come from…

By Rajendra Sathyajith Wijesinghe Content would be lengthy. But I invite all of you to go through which I feel either neglected, unattended or remain unanswered in refer to the aged, where I tried to find answers through my father.  Loneliness As to…

In August 2017, iVoice made a public call to youth around the island to submit their innovative ideas that address a social issue in their community. Over 100 innovative ideas were submitted that ranged from solid waste management to improving reproductive health education in schools, to awareness sessions on gender-based violence.…

We are happy to announce the 20 shortlisted best ideas of the iVoice innovative idea competition selected by the independent panel of judges. The 20 shortlisted competitors will participate in the final round of the competition on 20 and 21 September in Colombo. With the assistance of iVoice team, Sri…

Ministry of Women and Child Affairs is in the process of submitting a comprehensive National Action Plan for Women Headed Households to the Cabinet for approval, prior to the initial hearings of the 2018 Budget.  In Sri Lanka, one in four households are headed by women, of which…

This is a touching story about a young man. Although it is a personal matter in one sense, it is about a problem common to certain communities of this country. Therefore, I hide the true identity of the protagonists of this story. Let’s call him Thilak. He was born…

He is Withanage Jayawardana Perera; we call him ‘Jaya’. I have travelled many times in the office vehicle driven by him. On one such tour, we visited Rambukkana to write a media report on a medical clinic that had been set up following the 2016 landslide. The clinic…

According to Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey – 2015, only 38.5 percent of Sri Lankan women over 20 years of age are in the labour force. One major reason for women to be out of labour force is the obligations towards children. Childcare is mainly mother's duty in Sri Lankan social…

That was a remote corner of Batticaloa district. Nobody scored 8As in O/Ls in that small village other than Sara. She became  the talk of the town in that very night  O/L results were released! She didn’t come from a well to do family, she was the eldest daughter…

The way the movies get their names is interesting. I wrote about Iraj Weerarathna’s Cleopatra You Tube movie arguing that it was promoting rape and violence against women. I wrote that the name Cleopatra given to the main character of the video had no connection to the 1st century…

Is Social media creating the illusion of activism? An interesting question asked by a participant @thariqfuad at the question and answer session held after the panel discussion in the official launch of iVoice.lk (Await for video of the event) In the following video, some…

Rohan is an A/L student from Sabaragamuwa. He has volunteered and been part of several youth groups and United Nations youth programmed. Rohan believes that comprehensive reproductive education is lacking in Sri Lanka. Here’s an interview at the UNFPA Sabaragamuwa Youth Policy Stakeholder Consultation.  (This article was originally published in…

Sri Lanka: 1 in 4 people are youth.   This means that there are 4.7 million young people between the ages of 15–29 years living in Sri Lanka. As agents of change, young girls and boys have…

Today the Daily Mirror reported that the national plan to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient by 2020 may not happen. Apparently, our cattle and buffalo population had decreased by 7.2% in 2013, and in 2014 that fell by a massive 21%. There’s more about it here in the Agriculture…

October 11 was the International Day of the Girl Child. This year’s theme was “Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: A Global Data Movement” which means that what counts for girls is to be counted. United Nations General Assembly voted to pass the resolution 66/170 on December 19, 2011 adopting October 11, 2012…

“Thanks to free education and the vernacular education, we are doing well in education,” said Dr. Iresha M. Lakshman who authored Educating Sri Lankans for Development, a thematic report based on Census of Population and Housing 2012. She expressed these views participating in the Generation to Generation Dialogue organized by…

“As we get older, our rights do not change. As we get older, we are no less human and should not become invisible,” says Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. Tutu, now 83, is concerned that national statistics and development policies often ignore the needs and conditions of older people.…