An eye for community service and development
Vinu Samarasekera graduated from school last year. What makes her different from most other 18 year olds however, is her unreserved passion for development. Particularly, development in the sphere of education. Many of her classmates at the Elizabeth Moir School would easily recall her drive for community service which came to light in her O-Level year. For them, the news of Vinu’s appointment as Global Youth Ambassador for ‘A World at School (AWAS)’ would hardly be shocking.
“AWAS is basically an NGO with the sole purpose of making it possible for kids to go to school, ” she tells us. Introduced to their efforts by a friend who thought “it would be a perfect fit,” her involvement began with a mere e-mail. Countless community-service projects that took up her time left Vinu wanting to keep in touch with like-minded people from around the world. “Which is exactly what I told them,” involved with a project in which she tutored children in English at the time, it wasn’t the first project of its kind for Vinu.
The reply to her rather enthusiastic e-mail while commending her eagerness also directed her to apply for the post of Global Youth Ambassador. “I didn’t at that point know that other recognized bodies working with AWAS too were nominating people.” This was perhaps why the magnitude of the situation took a while to sink in after the appointment was announced in December last year. Sharing with us what she later learned was that there were about 500 nominees from around the world.
Working in collaboration with the UN, it was following the Education Count-Down Summit in April last year that the organisation’s efforts renewed its hype. “It was discovered that if the UN progressed as it is now, the MDG of getting all children in school by 2015 will only be achieved in 2086.” This is why the work done by AWAS, under their ‘Up for School’ project speaks out to her. Going full steam ahead, the Up For School project by AWAS is about urging policy makers and leaders to follow-up on their commitment to make schooling readily available for all children.
For Vinu her passion for quality academia comes from a personal place. “I was a scholarship student at Moir, I couldn’t have afforded it otherwise.” Starting out at Sujatha Vidyalaya in Nugegoda, she is a product of public schooling at least for the primary part of her education. At grade 5, feeling she needed a change- a thought her parents shared, she entered the Colombo South International School where she remained for 4 years.
If there is an unsung ability Vinu has yet to be credited with, it has to be that of penning a convincing email. “That’s how I got a place at Moir” she smiles. A paper advertisement announcing scholarships at the school came to her notice past the deadline for applications, which lead her to do what she does best- “I decided to just email them.”
Grateful to be allowed to take the admission test and allocated a place in the school she feels the principal and environment is what led to the discovery of her passion. Most students wouldn’t be too thrilled at the thought of shifting schools at O-Level year, but the transition for her marked a year of self-realization which came in the form of a class project. Vinu’s ability to connect with people and make their lives better got noticed. Joining the Community Service Club which she went on to lead in her final year at school, next to all of her time has been invested in people around her. Peer-tutoring and countless hours of concentration for the Champions of Change project by Sri Lanka Unites she feels are some things that had her convinced, a life of community service and education was her calling.
Hoping to read for a degree in economics and government, the Global Youth Ambassador for AWAS is currently on her gap-year. “I have applied to quite a few places in the States,” she shares, but spends her days at school. Invited to teach at Elizabeth Moir School she is entrusted with “curriculum support and community services.”
While teachers in Colombo are adequately trained, a UNESCO report she came across brings to light that “around 18 percent of the teachers outside Colombo are not trained properly” or receive poor training. Apart from all other adverse repercussions of this statistic, Vinu believes that “this isn’t fair.”
Achieving targets on the Up for School Petition- which could be found online on the AWAS website, is just one thing she is currently working on. With the possibility of even more localised campaigning for quality education in the near future she urges all young people to make a noise about the issue and sign the petition. “It’s the only way we can get big names to notice that a significant amount of people care.”