AIESEC, the way to enrich youth

Being a young person is a challenge. Achieving educational goals, mining the way to the future, enjoying life while balancing the rest are massive challenges faced by young people. 

This golden era of life can be framed just to win these goals or to win them in an extraordinary way and AIESEC supports the latter. For any person there are hidden strengths and weaknesses. 

AIESEC gives space to excavate them. AIESEC is like an oasis for a young person who is frustrated in the desert of strict rules and systems exist in the society. Any person should be allowed to do things in their own way where it provides freedom to make mistakes. In that way one can identify and minimize their weaknesses, improve their strengths while encountering the responsibility. It gives you wings to unleash the forces within yourself to fight for betterment of others as well as for oneself. Every little AIESEC thing carries more meaning than it is seen from outside. From leading an AIESEC jive to leading a member committee carries lot of opportunities to develop one’s personality and to help develop others’. 

Doing a jive does not mean only practicing a dancing move or entertaining the moment. It represents the unity and fellowship of AIESECers. AIESEC provides different opportunities to develop one self. Team playing as an AIESECer promotes experiential learning of how to cope with people from different backgrounds and how to manage challenging situations with them. 

Team leading as an AIESECer engraves the talent to manage different people skills for the benefit and success of the team while giving the opportunity to unleash the people- person within oneself. AIESEC develops courage to stand against the weak person within oneself to walk out from the comfort zone to embrace the challenges around. It molds a young person from a team member to a leader who leads youth in the whole world while inspiring others and enhancing their potentials through its activities. 



AIESECer is a facilitator who could see best in people around them and who is willing to handle any kind of situation with any type of person. Exchange opportunities in AIESEC provide the platform to meet young people from different countries. It provides exposure to different cultures which promotes mutual understanding among different nations. 

There are situations within AIESEC where two AIESECers from two countries are working in the same team while their mother countries declare war terms. This is the AIESEC way of changing the attitude of people through experience to lead the world towards peace which is one of the ultimate goals of AIESEC vision. 

Internship opportunities from AIESEC give global experience in cooperate world where one can have life changing experiences. AIESEC makes every AIESECer feel special in their own way so that they can soar to their heights pushing their limits. With its unlimited opportunities it leads to self-development and to pursue selfactualization. 

Eventually by being an AIESECer a young person can attain important values such as self-aware, ability to empower others, being a global citizen and being solution-oriented. 

But only a passionate AIESECer will realize that AIESEC cannot not give us anything unless we try to embrace its opportunities.

Darika Sellahewa
Faculty of Engineering
University of Moratuwa

HNB Partners with AIESEC Colombo South to provide safe drinking water for children

Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown origin (CKDu) has affected over 40,000 individuals in main agricultural districts of Sri Lanka. Approximately 6 new patients are found each day from the two districts Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa where the disease is most prevalent and the average deaths reported per year in Anuradhapura district itself is 283. CKDu places burden on health resources of the country due to high cost of dialysis and transplantation as well.
Hatton National Bank's sustainability foundation, the CSR arm of HNB, under its CSR pillars 'Care for Health' and 'Care for Children', has considered this issue as a worthy cause to engage and came forward to source good quality drinking water for the school children in the CKDu endemic areas, keeping in line with the recommendations and goals of the Presidential Task Force on Chronic Kidney Disease Prevention.














As the first step, water purification plants with Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filters have been installed in three schools namely Teladinnawewa Vidyalaya, Labunoruwa Pandukabaya Maha Vidyalaya and Horowpathana Kadawathrathpale Muslim Vidyalaya in Anuradhapura District. The schools were provided with the RO filters, clean water storage tanks and plumbing systems, allowing easy access to safe drinking water for children. The capacity of the units provided was based on the number of students in each school.
The project was conducted with the assistance of the AIESEC in University of Moratuwa. The water purification units were officially handed over to the schools by Mr Mahinda Dissanayake, Manager- Development Banking of HNB North Central Region and Mr Indika Ekanayake, Manager- HNB Anuradhapura in an event held in Labunoruwa Pandukabaya Maha Vidyalaya on the 3rd of February 2016. A group of students and foreign interns of the AIESEC, University of Moratuwa have conducted a two-hour awareness programme to the school children on Chronic Kidney Deceases and prevention at this occasion.

To view the original article:
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_16A/Mar15_1458017862CH.php

 

Celebrating 20 years of AIESEC in Sri Lanka!

To mark its 20th anniversary, AIESEC in Sri Lanka hosted a ceremony on March 4th at the Water’s Edge in Battaramulla.The esteemed alumni, the current leadership bodies in Local Committees, expansions and partners were invited to celebrate this momentous occasion of pride and grandeur.

AIESEC in Sri Lanka marked 20 years of developing the potential of youth, making available international opportunities and inculcating professionalism through experiential learning. This gala ceremony was hosted under the patronage of Telecommunications & Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando. 

Providing a Shining Light through AIESEC - Pasindu Kanchana

When I first joined AIESEC, I did not have a clear reason behind it .But later, after being a part of all the amazing experiences, I understood that the eagerness within me to serve  society is the best reason which made me actively take part in the programs . 


We had a project hunt competition where we can submit new project ideas. “Switch off 1” is a new project initiated in 2015. The aim was to give electricity to rural villages. We all knew that providing electricity cannot be done within the blink of an eye. But I believed in all the possibilities of making this a reality.

The selected village was in the middle of Bibile, in Ampara district.

The “Switch off” crew went to the village to take a look at its prevailing condition and on our first visit we were convinced that it is possible for us to provide them with electricity. We talked with people.

A father of two daughters told us that he wants to see his children be teachers in the future. He wanted to give the maximum benefits of education to them.  

Being a university student, knowing how important education is, I felt the weight of his words. It was upto us to make their dreams come true. The interns, even though they were from another country, helped us a lot. The time period we planned for the project ended, but I had the belief that we could still make this happen. So I decided to proceed solving each  problem that came our way with patience. After one year of struggling, learning and putting our heart and soul to this project with the great help of the Head of Engineering of Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Ltd (LECO SL) and the support of CEB Bibile, we were able to make the dream a reality.

I am a proud member of team “Switch Off 1”. Each and every one in the team wanted to make this work, and we did that. Without that enthusiasm of  members and interns it would have not happened. 

Thank you AIESEC for giving me that experience. With patience, risk, dust, time, sacrifices it was an experience which cannot be taken from any other place. I'm proud to be a part of the change we brought into those lives.

Pasindu Kanchana
Faculty of Engineering
University of Moratuwa