Rebuilding Communities and enabling thriveability

Over the past few weeks we have connected with colleague and friend of Burning2Learn, Jeremy Liyanage. Jeremy is involved in a series of reconstructive projects with Bridging Lanka, which support a struggling community in Sri Lanka.

The community is called Mannar Island and is part of the Mannar District in the North of Sri Lanka. It is linked to the main island by a causeway and has an area of about 50 square kilometres. As part of a war-torn country, the island has suffered great social and economic breakdowns and a disintegration of community support systems.

Through the introduction of new projects and initiatives aimed at young people and teachers, Jeremy and his team are working towards restoring the livelihoods and opportunities for people in the community. All young people on the island want to learn because they believe that it will improve their life-chances. Stronger and more powerful education opportunities is what this community is asking for, so that is what Jeremy and his team are working towards. By introducing new teaching methods and education materials and projects, Jeremy hopes to support their growth and further their life prospects.

Bridging Lanka is currently developing a new project which will look at building a Donkey Management and Welfare facility in the Mannar community. The facility will be built by local people and will offer employment, food and greater tourism opportunities. Through teaming up with Burning2Learn, Jeremy also hopes to integrate opportunities for learning into the building of this facility. We are hoping to synergise our experience the practical application of theory with the hands-on build of this facility to offer new approaches to learning to the Mannar community.

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