Sunday Oct 06, 2024
Sunday Oct 06, 2024
Tuesday, 31 December 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Achieve Real Change
ARC, which stands for Achieve Real Change, formed with the support of International Alert, is a volunteer group made up mostly of young professionals, second generation Sri Lankans residing in the United Kingdom. Six members of ARC visited Sri Lanka last week to participate in the Commonwealth Youth Forum at Hambantota, where they also conducted a capacity building session on ‘Diaspora Youth’s Role in Promoting Reconciliation and Social Cohesion’.
In addition, the group aims to utilise their professional skills and learning to identify and address initiatives that will promote human resource development, investment and peace in the country. This is achieved by engaging local communities through three strategic pillars tilted ARC Health, ARC Business and ARC Sports.
Jayan Perera, a Management Consultant specialising in Technology in the UK, told the Daily FT their approach is one that hinges on engagement, to identify areas for improvement and present ideas and solutions for further discussion and possible implementation.
“We cannot and will not expect to come here and tell people what to do. The level of expertise here especially in the health sector is extremely high and as my colleagues point out, some are even better than those in the UK. We propose to engage with institutions here and find out where we could offer our experience and support and leave behind ideas and training which would help them to optimise their current processes.”
Dispelling mistrust and aspersions
ARC’s volunteer development program has been in existence for two years and the teams have made three visits to the island during this period. One of the critical aspects of these visits is to dispel the mistrust and aspersions cast upon the diaspora community as a whole. The delegation averred that they are met with a degree of scepticism at the outset and a lot of people “come to us with the mentality that the diaspora is bad”; sentiments which they are helping to change. “The conversations here are similar to the conversations back in London, just that the viewpoints are different. So we hope to serve as a bridge to overcome these difficulties and carry messages back based on current reality. Many young people here were very apprehensive about what we are doing and our objectives. But after engaging with them, we were glad to find that they think we are a voice for positive change,” Perera stated.
ARC Health
Of ARC’s three pillars, ARC Health is the most advanced in its operating model having commenced in December 2012. Dr. Vijay Sivapalan, who is in Sri Lanka after many years, told the Daily FT that a detail which emerged repeatedly was that doctors here were really good in terms of medical acumen.
“Where we can be of help is to develop their soft skills like communications, between doctors and nurses, even leadership skills and how it all relates to patient care. We have seen instances (both in the UK and SL) where the lack of these skills can even lead to patient deaths. We are doing these through workshops, not in a way to treat the problem so-to-speak, but to introduce the idea so that they could deliberate and implement in the best way possible,” Dr. Sivapalan stated.
ARC Health has conducted several workshops at the National Institute of Mental Health at Angoda, the Peradeniya University and the Hospital in Kandy and Post-Graduate Institute of Medicine in Colombo, amongst others. The delegation describes the feedback and uptake as hugely positive and sustainable, as many of them have been invited back to review and share their experience as the program and the learning evolve over the coming years. They averred that the opportunities present in the private sector in Sri Lanka are as promising as in the UK, despite the differences in salaries and logistics.
Perera feels that the problem is a lack of communication between demand and expectation: “There are many opportunities and resources prevalent in the Sri Lankan market, and often I find that the problem is that they are not always matched to one another. When I came in 2012, we went to Vavuniya and we met a diverse group of young people who were very articulate and confident. But the moment I spoke of business here, they all said they want to fly overseas because they didn’t see any opportunity. At the same time, when I spoke to some of the bigger companies, they had high turnover together with brilliant 
schemes and opportunities for these people. It’s a case of matching the two up. I feel, that opportunity is not being communicated to the people (Sri Lankan youth) who can actually benefit and perhaps deliver from regional communities.”
The ARC model
The ARC model is not about providing micro-financing or development schemes, it’s one of sharing knowledge and skills of capacity development and getting people thinking to do things differently. The delegates are keen to develop talents and skills, and do so in a culturally and ethnically diverse environment that will impact positively on people’s lives and communities and the nation as a whole.
“Not only are we trying to impact positively on the people here and their lives and business as a whole, it’s also about the realistic messages that we take back. We are looking to take some professionals to the UK so that they could come and gain from the relationships that they build over there. It’s like the ARC model itself. Since we came together for this program, we have become a lot close and we are a group of people from various ethnic and religious backgrounds. There is a lot of change that we are delivering on the ground by working together through this program. We aspire to drive that same achievement of working in harmony, to identify talent and show them (Sri Lankans) that they can do something wonderful with their lives and help them grow over time. We want to get people involved in business,” Perera averred.
However, their most recent visit to the island did not leave much space to engage in development work as they formed part of the delegation for the Commonwealth Youth Summit held in Hambantota.
In addition to the international exposure, which they described as “massive,” the ARC delegation also interacted with a group of cross-party national parliamentarians on the amount of support and the work that has been carried out and could be done by ARC in the future. The group felt that they had been able to change some of the opinions about second generation Sri Lankans overseas, which they felt was essential for the building trust and continued collaboration between communities in Sri Lanka and the UK.
Funnel for investment
So will ARC, or Sri Lankan youth living abroad invest in Sri Lanka? “Our strength is our skills. So we will focus on that. As second generation Sri Lankans, it’s difficult to invest per se, but what we can become is the chaperone of this process in the future. To make room for anyone, be it from the UK or even here, to do so. This position is also because of the platform we have built and the messages that we want to take back, so there maybe opportunity for us to serve as a funnel for investment in the future,” Perera said.
Dr. Sivapalan also shared his views on the matter: “This is the first time I’m coming to Sri Lanka with ARC, and we are deeply excited about seeing what kind of change we can make. We are young professionals with diverse backgrounds. Many mixed professional backgrounds too. We will focus on developing projects, hope to impart skills and develop good relations amongst the communities. This is not a journey where we seek to enforce anything, it is important to have a dialogue with institutions and do the necessary research and we will employ our professional skills to deliver a positive change.”
When asked about obstacles to their programs, Dr. Sivapalan remarked that it was to do with some elements of culture and the bureaucracy. He pointed to a training program in which none of the nurses had ventured to sit at a table where the matrons were seated.
“Respect is good, but they need to develop a situation where they can say ‘look, maybe you are making a mistake’ if that were the case.” Overall he pointed to education of soft skills, communication, IT skills, teamwork and language skills, especially English. All these elements are essential in education in the short-term to be able take part in business but also to add value to the business and to one self, he added.
Enriching the experience
ARC is looking to involve as many people as it can in its programs, both here and in the UK. It is imperative to have people with diverse backgrounds and expertise to add further value and enrich the experience. “We are trying to get as many second generation Sri Lankans involved as possible for there is a role we all can play,” Perera added. In the future, ARC hopes to innovate and be involved with more sectors and constantly monitor its progress, as they remarked that the difference between Sri Lanka in two years is significant given its current pace of growth. “The important thing is that everything we do needs to be sustainable and we want to engage continuously with the Sri Lankan population. We need to leave a legacy that is beneficial and relevant to their lives. We derive great pleasure in seeing how we can help, and if we can help bring people here (in Sri Lanka) together too and create room for synergies to grow, that would be a real achievement. Some may say it might be idealistic, but we have got to try,” Dr. Sivapalan concluded.
