Youth Co:lab Technopreneurship holds entrepreneurship skill programme for persons with disabilities
UNDP and Citi Foundation, through its flagship entrepreneurship initiative – Youth Co:lab Technopreneurship for Social Change Programme – recently conducted a programme for persons with disabilities at the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon.
Youth Co-lab, co-created in 2017 by UNDP and the Citi Foundation, aims to establish a common agenda for countries in the Asia-pacific region to empower and invest in youth through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship.
In Sri Lanka, the Youth Co:lab programme supported by Cisco Networking Academy, which is currently in its third year, uses innovative e-learning modules to connect young people, which make up over 4.4 million of Sri Lanka’s population, with up-todate learning material to improve their digitisation capabilities in contributing to the economy. Through tailor-made sessions conducted at 20 locations across Sri Lanka targeting over 1000 young people a year through the National Youth Services Council, the programme aims to encourage entrepreneurship amongst young people by providing them with the necessary leadership, financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.
Going a step further on the premise of leaving no one behind, a tailor-made programme was conducted for 14 persons with disabilities in Colombo. Delivered through sign language interpretation and in other accessible formats, the programme is the first of many sessions to be held this year to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of those who otherwise do not have access to such trainings in Sri Lanka.
Speaking about this, Employers’ Federation of Ceylon Specialised Training and Disability Resource Centre Manager Manique Gunaratne stated, “This is a great opportunity – giving persons with disabilities an opportunity to be exposed to entrepreneurship and gain some entrepreneur skills. Inclusion is very important especially to change the mindsets from sympathy to empathy, dependence to independence, hidden to open, segregation to integration, exclusion to inclusion, to create a disabilityfriendly environment.”
Also speaking about the programme, Citi Sri Lanka Corporate Affairs Head Shanaka Waduge stated, “People with disabilities and their families often have to make critical and complex financial decisions almost on a daily basis. Citi’s partnership in such specific programmes aims to leverage their role in society. We aspire to help improve their knowledge on financial literacy so they can engage in meaningful employment and help take Sri Lanka towards a progressive nation.”