Only the second Sri Lankan to be nominated to the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church worldwide, 45 years after Thomas Cardinal Cooray, the Most Rev. Dr. Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo is one whose heart is very much with the poor and downtrodden. His elevation as a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI was announced by the Vatican on October 20.

Alia Whitney-Johnson communicates in a language so full of colour, it glistens. Turning a cluster of necklaces in her hand she touches the beads that have changed the lives of those who are now learning its language too. “I don’t speak Sinhala,” she says. “But I didn’t have to speak Sinhala to show them how to bead. Beading was a way for me to get to know them, it was a language we could share,” says the 23-year-old as she speaks excitedly about Emerge Global and her girls.