“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” – Sachintha Chamaranga Abeyrathne
It is always inspiring to watch a young person making a positive difference in the lives of others. It brings even more satisfaction to see such teenagers being honored and recognized for their work. Let’s talk about the early change-maker who has proved that “Age Is Just A Number”. In this context, Sachintha’s dedication to his work as a social entrepreneur, his involvement to support young people through his knowledge and action has been recognized with the title of Glocal Teen Hero Sri Lanka, 2021.
Sachintha: A Perceptive Social Entrepreneur!
Sachintha is an 18 years old Social Entrepreneur from Piliyandala, Sri Lanka. He is passionate about Digital Marketing, Cybersecurity, Sustainability, and Creativity. His mission is to create a positive social impact using technology. He has been working in the field of Graphic Design for the past 4 years and Web Designing and Development for 3 years. Having hands-on experience in web development and Digital Media; he has volunteered at a few non-profit organizations.
Now, he is the Founder and CEO of E-Learning Portal LK, a non-profit organization where he is creating a platform to provide Free Quality, and Equal Education for Sri Lankan and South Asian students to excel in their future careers by breaking the barriers of Poverty where every child gets educated. Apart he is also volunteering at The First Step (Social Media Evangelist, Content Creator), HOPE – for a better world (Web Developer, Graphic Designer).
Ideas for initiating “E-Learning Portal LK”
There is another side of the story of him launching the E-Learning Portal;
E-learning initiative starts with a small thought which popped up in his mind during the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic. During this period in Sri Lanka all schools and other institutions were closed, and students were restrained to their residences, and everyone had to do their studies online, and he was thinking to himself how difficult it must be for parents to pay extra Data fees, tuition fees as due to pandemic and the Economy was down and the majority of parents lost their work and the income sources they had.
Mostly the rural area students were affected by this crisis. Therefore, he wanted to address this problem and give a solution. As a result, he created a non-profit project for Ordinary Level students who were sitting for their examinations in 2020. His first step was uploading past papers and tutorials which are supportive for their exams. Moving on, he felt it was not enough and he should take another step. He talked with a few of his Tutors who taught him for Ordinary Level exams and with the help of this reputed panel of the Lecturers who volunteered to join him. They were glad and able to facilitate 1500+ students’ free online education for nearly 5 months by launching the program called “Online Speed Revision.” So during this process, he created online quizzes for subjects where students can revise and track their progress by attempting these online quizzes.
So in 2020 after all these free seminar programs, these students sat for their exams in March 2021 (which was postponed due to Covid 19). So once their exams are over they arranged a career guidance program in collaboration with Professionals in Sri Lanka to provide a guideline for students on how they can choose their career paths & how they can find their passion. Once completing all these projects successfully in March 2021, he wanted to continue with a new project as a mission to provide quality, equal and free education for all Sri Lankan students. This is an approach to lead Sri Lanka to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 which is quality education for all.
“Also this year, I’m continuing the same process of facilitating students by providing free online seminar programs with a panel of reputed Lecturers once again to facilitate 2021 O/L Students who is expected to sit for their exams in 2022 due to Covid Pandemic. This year for now there are 800+ students who benefited island-wide. In addition, I have organized a special webinar series on the theme of “Skill Based Educational Development”, says Sachintha sharing the journey of the E-learning portal.
Sachintha’s Inspiration behind working in the sector of education
As South Asians, especially in countries like Sri Lanka, Our local curriculums are still arranged for Industrial Revolution 2.0 but currently, we are in Industry Revolution 4.0. So the main purpose is to educate and share knowledge for students who are underprivileged about the new trends in the job markets in collaboration with professionals in various fields in Sri Lanka and worldwide. Also, as a teenager what he believes is; every student should get a free, equal, and quality education.
According to Sachinta,” Free education is fundamental in guaranteeing everyone has access to grab knowledge. However, in many developing countries like Sri Lanka, families often cannot afford to send their children to school and this leads to leaving millions of school-age children deprived of education. So what I always believe for a sustainable Nation or world education is the only weapon that helps to enable upward socioeconomic mobility and is the key to escaping poverty.”
Future Plans
In the future, he aspires to be a cyber-security specialist and a successful entrepreneur and change society for the betterment.
“As a non-profit organization, we focus on facilitating all Sri Lankan students free education for years using technology and providing and guiding them to up-skill themselves according to the industry revolution 4.0. In the upcoming year 2022, me & my team will be planning to Launch our free LMS platform which is currently under development which will be enabling students to learn new subjects and as well as the current subjects for their exams from one platform for 100% free from reputed Lecturers. And also I will be speaking up as a youth speaker on UN Sustainable Development Goals and Youth Empowerment,” says Sachintha.
Message from Sachintha to the Emerging Teenagers!
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Although life changes are Inevitable, we can also initiate personal change so we can rise to the challenge and become a bigger and better person as a result to empower the world. Whether you have a title or not it’s all about what ideas you bring to the table and the empowerment you bring to the people around you. Always Spread Love and Kindness where you go.
