Birds of a Feather

Description: Sri Lanka is a small island in the Indian Ocean where graphics, film and animation skills are limited to the capital, Colombo. Only a few privileged people run the industry and learning opportunities are limited due to language barriers. This changed with Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), a program implemented by Shilpa Sayura Foundation with Taking it Global. AYV was the beginning of mine and many other rural young people's creative careers who have become leaders in the Sri Lankan creative industry today. Youth from cities and villages, divided by ethnicity, language and religion got the opportunity to learn graphics, photography, film and animation. They collaborated to create media with a purpose making their voices heard on social issues around them. Finally winning many Adobe Aspire Awards and UNICEF challenge. Rising from the grassroots to the global level.Past eight years, the creative ecosystem created by Shilpa Sayura has produced award-winning youth, film directors, tv-series directors, graphic designers, animators and photographers from rural parts of Sri Lanka. Some of them have set up their own creative businesses in their villages and have become creative entrepreneurs. If AYV did not reach Sri Lanka these youth wouldn't have entered the creative industry. We created diverse local language creative education programs, with resources from the united nations, engaging rural youth in creating stories for effective social change transforming lives of many and bringing diversity, equity and inclusion to Sri Lankan creative education.This year we have moved online responding to COVID 19, providing local language training to young people age 12- 24 in photography, graphics and animation with adobe creative leaders program reaching across communities to bring diversity, equity and inclusion to Sri Lankan creative industry.

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