Fellowship programme for Social Change-Makers

The first Residential Workshop of EYLF programme on the theme understanding and navigating media landscape was held over the weekend in Colombo.

Exemplary Youth Leaders Fellowship (EYLF) is a novel programme by Zam Zam Foundation developed with the objective of harnessing Social Harmony within and with communities in Sri Lanka by giving national level exposure to talented young people who already are social change-makers in their own communities across the country.

The inaugural workshop covered subjects including Social Media related Challenges, Facebook community standards & safety, Digital Security & Hygiene, Role of a Community Spokesperson, basic understanding of Sri Lankan constitution & rights, Civil duties & responsibilities, Right to Information Act, etc delivered by prominent resource persons including Dr Ranga Kalansooriya, Attorney at Law Shiraz Noordeen, Prasad Perera, Munshif Hussain, Attorney at Law Nalliah Ashokbaran, Senel Wanniarachchi, Sheikh. Amhar Hakamdeen, Tharindu Jayawardena, Senura Abeywardena, Attorney at Law Rushdie Habib, among others.

Chairman of Zam Zam Foundation Mufthi. Yoosuff Haniffa facilitated a session with some of the leading community leaders where the participants were able to share ideas and experiences with.

The participants had a dedicated session to share their visions for progressive future for our motherland Sri Lanka and the ideas will be further developed in the upcoming workshop sessions coupled with follow up initiatives.

The EYLF programme includes 19 male & 15 female young leaders between 16-30 years from Muslim community coming from various professional and academic backgrounds where they will go through a personal development and experiential learning process over the next 10 months.

Selected from close to 300 applicants from 20 districts, and already established in their own areas of specialization, they are expected to be exemplary young leaders who take the lead in issues concerning the community, build bridges with other communities & become voices for national causes which are important to all of us as Sri Lankans.

We look forward to keep updating the progress of this inspiring journey with you and to create opportunities for other like minded young people join in to this core group of EYLF in the upcoming months.