This is the record of what happened: workshops, bootcamps, openings, visits, festivals and relief operations, one page each, in the order they occurred. It is added to rather than finished.
The pages under about the organisation describe how the work is meant to fit together; these pages are the record it can be held against, including the days where the entry is a date, a place and a photograph and nothing more.
Where a participant count appears it is a count of people in a room on a day, recorded at the time. It is not a count of separate individuals, and the counts must never be added together into a figure for reach: a repeated title here means the same format delivered again to a different group, and summing five mornings into one number would overstate the reach.
2026 · 8 activities
A makerspace opened inside the public library, inaugurated by the President, in a building the municipality owns.
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Twelve robotics projects, shown
The closing showcase of the school robotics programme funded by a micro-grant.
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Uki, a second full-stack cohort
The six-month full-stack programme opens again, fully sponsored, taught in Tamil.
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Blockchain workshop
What blockchain is, without the confusion, and how a local skill becomes a paid digital service.
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Colomboscope
Working with the contemporary-arts festival that the climate sound project was presented at.
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The in-school programme reaches Nuwara Eliya and Kantale
Empowerment Inside School extends into the central estate sector and into Trincomalee district.
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A makerspace at Hantale
Another site in the hill country, as the network extends.
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Knorr-Bremse visits
A visit from a German corporate foundation that funds education and water projects in Sri Lanka.
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A makerspace in the public library, opened by the President
Co-created with the Municipal Council at the Batticaloa Public Library, and inaugurated by the President of Sri Lanka.
2025 · 44 activities
A second centre opened in the hill country, a cohort returned after twelve months to pitch what they had built, and the year ended with flood relief in five districts.
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Music workshop
A music workshop in mid-December, closing a year that also ran a three-month music bootcamp and a music hackathon.
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RC aircraft workshop
Assembling a radio-controlled aircraft, then flying it.
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VisAct Media at Splice Beta
A third consecutive year at the media-startup festival, and a top-nine finalist place on the climate pitch stage.
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Micro-grant disbursed for school robotics
LKR 300,000 from the Sabrina Yusoof Foundation, for a robotics and science programme at a Batticaloa school.
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Aruppë workshops
The youngest group in the record, and a robotics awareness session at Aruppë College in December.
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Maker Exhibition and Certificate Ceremony
Robotics makers showed their prototypes, collected certificates, and signed up for the next level the same day.
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Kathira Greens
Venture activity for Kathira Greens, which a month later was distributing flood relief alongside the academy.
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Magiladithevu school workshop
A school workshop at Magiladithevu, photographed on 2 November 2025.
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Cyclone Ditwah flood relief
Emergency relief across the East and North with local partners, after cyclone flooding displaced families in five districts.
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Pitch day, one year of growth, grit and guts
Seven young entrepreneurs pitched what they had built after a year in the campus. The clearest twelve-month follow-through in the record.
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Make and Play
A recurring hands-on format for young children, sometimes with their parents, sometimes with their teachers.
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Certificate ceremony
Certificates for a completing cohort, photographed on 9 October 2025.
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Children's Day, Hatton
The new hill-country centre’s first celebration, five days after it opened.
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Distact Asia visits
A visit recorded on 8 October 2025.
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DreamSpace Hatton opens
A second centre, in the hill country, the first replication of the model within Sri Lanka since Mullaitivu.
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3D design and printing workshop, Hatton
A 3D design and printing workshop in the hill country, days before the Hatton centre opened.
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Art workshop
An art workshop on the floor, photographed on 8 September 2025.
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Maker Kit workshop
More than thirty children assembling kits, solving puzzles and building their first robots.
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The Routes We Take, Batticaloa
Two days of creative workshops, talks and performances with ten Eastern Province creatives, on art, sustainability and circularity.
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Navigate Digital bootcamp
A three-month certificate course in digital tools, professional communication, online safety and freelancing.
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School project work
School project work on the floor, photographed in early August 2025.
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Entrepreneurship training for women
Product building, marketing fundamentals and go-to-market, for women starting businesses.
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Project Roots collaboration
An intensive fortnight of joint work in July, including advocacy sessions and a closing celebration.
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Uki full-stack development programme
A six-month full-stack course brought to the Eastern Province for people who finished school without a route into technology.
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Build a Robot workshops
Children working in teams to build robots, run twice in July, with a one-day version in August.
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VisAct journalism training
Journalism training run by the media venture, photographed on 13 June 2025.
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DreamSpace Records at Dinacon
Ocean-data sonification and instruments built from scavenged plastic, at the fourth Digital Naturalism Conference.
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AI with Electronics workshops
The artificial-intelligence track meeting the electronics bench: training a model, then wiring it into something that moves.
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World University Service of Canada visits
A visit from WUSC, recorded on 5 May 2025.
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UN Resident Coordinator visits
Marc-André Franche, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, toured the ventures and the workshop floor.
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Open Day 2025
Thirty-odd visitors through the labs for demonstrations, hands-on sessions and conversations about what happens here.
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UNICEF Chief of Education visits
Erin Tanner, Chief of Education at UNICEF Sri Lanka, spent a day on the floor.
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International Media Support visits
Three visits across March, reviewing the media venture’s growth, its challenges and its roadmap.
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Videography and video-editing bootcamp
A three-month bootcamp run by DreamSpace Productions, matching the accredited media curriculum.
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CERI final event, digital storytelling
The closing event of the CERI digital-storytelling work, photographed on 1 February 2025.
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DreamShot MakerFaire and AI Hackathon
Four days of hackathons, exhibitions, masterclasses, music and Koothu: the largest single event of the year here.
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Dreams of Women, leadership workshop
A two-day leadership workshop run by Dreams of Women, on leadership styles and identity.
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Youth Entrepreneurship Campus, second run
The second run of the campus first photographed in August 2024, and the start of the year that ended in a pitch day.
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Kuluvinanmadu school opening
A school opening at Kuluvinanmadu, in a community the media team had worked in the previous October.
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Connections through Culture, Weather Reports
A British Council grant for a trilingual climate sound and performance work with ten Sri Lankan and UK artists.
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ChanceMaker Foundation Circle, Stuttgart
Co-founder Aravinth Panch in conversation before fifty potential supporters in Stuttgart.
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Disrupt Asia
At Sri Lanka’s flagship startup gathering, alongside the national entrepreneurship-week launch.
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Ecoversities Global Gathering
Two of the team among a hundred participants exploring community-rooted alternatives to mainstream education.
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Empowerment Inside School reaches two districts
The in-school programme runs at scale in Batticaloa and Hatton, with government approval and teacher training behind it.
2024 · 68 activities
The makerspace got its own name and its own building, a second centre opened, and six senior donor and diplomatic delegations visited.
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CERI visits
A visit ahead of the digital-storytelling final event in February.
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AI training
Artificial-intelligence training closing the year.
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UNICEF visits
The team came through the labs, three months before the Chief of Education.
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Media literacy workshops
Two consecutive days in December.
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A USAID delegation visits
The Agreement Officer and the Deputy Director for Economic Growth came to see the SCORE work.
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ACTED visits
A visit, in the same week as media bootcamps in Mullaitivu.
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Global Entrepreneurship Week
Hosting the national entrepreneurship week locally, with the women’s venture leading.
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Cybersecurity for peacebuilding trainers
A session delivered into Search for Common Ground’s own trainer programme.
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ChildFund Sri Lanka visits
Three visits across late 2024.
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Build Peace, the eleventh annual conference
Two of the team at the first Asian edition of the technology-and-peacebuilding conference.
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A blood donation camp
A blood drive for the teaching hospital, with a stem-cell awareness strand.
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Splice Beta, the second year
VisAct Media returned to the media-startup festival in Chiang Mai.
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The UN Peace and Development Adviser visits
Patrick Mc Carthy toured the labs and the ventures.
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The Canadian High Commission’s development head visits
Linda Ehrichs and her team went through the labs and the ventures.
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DiGiZEN, digital storytelling
A session on digital storytelling as a communication tool, delivered into a partner’s programme.
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GIZ hands over 3D printers
Capital equipment into the makerspace, and training for potters, so the equipment reached a trade.
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The Digital Story Creation Competition
Over thirty-five learners into a competition about family-based care, told through digital storytelling.
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VisAct at Kuluvinanmadu
Field work in a village where a school opened three months later.
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Mushroom farming with Dreams of Women
A hands-on livelihood workshop for women running households and small businesses.
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A co-working agreement with TRACE
The national technology campus takes space in Batticaloa.
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Six years
The sixth anniversary, with employee recognition at the centre of it.
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Navigate, the public opening
A digital community technology hub opens, four months after it started teaching.
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Navigate, videography and digital advocacy
Two strands running the day before the centre’s public opening.
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Photography workshop, Nuwara Eliya
Delivery in the central estate sector, a year before the in-school programme arrived there.
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A new building at Eastern University
The physical relationship with the university deepens.
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Digital literacy bootcamp, Mullaitivu
Twenty young people, three days, on digital literacy, internet safety and cybersecurity.
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VisAct, workshop and programme
Media-venture delivery in late summer.
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The High Commissioner of Canada returns
Eric Walsh came back, this time for the new makerspace and the grassroots innovators.
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The Digital Security School, training the trainers
Trainers equipped in cybersecurity, digital risk assessment and safe practice, for Sri Lankan media professionals.
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The Youth Entrepreneurship Campus begins
A five-day intensive that started the year ending in seven founders on a stage.
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A Founds and Good News visit
A visit in August 2024.
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Two visits from Rajan Bala
Aligambai in August, and here in November.
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MakerSpace Batticaloa launches
The first dedicated makerspace in the district goes public, under its own name.
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Navigate, the handover
USAID formally handed over the facility, two months before its public opening.
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GIZ visits
The visit that preceded the 3D printer handover in October.
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Search for Common Ground, delivery
Programme work with the peacebuilding partner, and a cyber-equity strand that followed.
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Certificates at Navalady school
Certificates issued under a Dreams of Women programme.
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Capacity training in Jaffna
Delivery in the Northern Province capital.
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A visit to the production house
A visit to the MakerSpace production house.
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Ocean Star
Marine and coastal work along the lagoon and the coast.
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The Travelling History Museum
Eight days asking a district to look at its own recent history, the largest-reach event on record.
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Digital marketing training with the YMCA
Contract training delivered for the YMCA.
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ARAM UK visits
A visit in June 2024.
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Digital marketing training with MJF
Digital marketing delivered for a partner organisation.
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Peradeniya engineering, the Eastern Province intake
Undergraduates from this region, back home for the bench time their course does not include.
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The USAID Deputy Director visits
Michael Haines, of the Office of Governance and Vulnerable Populations, saw the SCORE work first-hand.
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Learn to Discern, the 2024 series
Seven more media-literacy workshops, in Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Batticaloa.
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Navigate, the first workshops
Robotics and videography, four months before the centre had a public opening.
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English workshops in Porathivu
Three sessions in a rural division across the summer.
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Naga Pasumai, a product to photograph
Product photography for the agriculture venture: evidence it reached something saleable.
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Movie Club at the American iHub
A recurring public programme inside the innovation hub, five months after it opened.
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The O Group opens
A co-founded venture opens.
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International Media Support visits
The earliest photographed visit, a year before the three visits in March 2025.
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IREX visits
The partner behind the media-literacy curriculum and the Digital Security School.
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Software workshop
A software workshop, alongside a 3D printing session earlier that month.
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Kattumurivu and Veedha
Two community and school visits on the same day.
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The Lemonaid and ChariTea Foundation visits
A visit in February 2024.
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Dham Dham Riddim
A ten-day music-production bootcamp, ending in a release on the label’s own Bandcamp.
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The English workshop series
Five workshops across the spring, in Batticaloa and out in the region.
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Art and entrepreneurship
An artist on how to make a living from the work, for artists.
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Global Communities visits
The implementing partner behind the SCORE work, later a client for the closeout films.
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Web development bootcamp
A web-development bootcamp on the software floor.
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Leadership workshops in the North
Mullaitivu and Jaffna, and then leadership training for trainee teachers at a national college.
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Zonal Education Department visit
The state relationship that the school programmes run on.
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Workshops in Mullaitivu and Batticaloa
Three days across two districts in early February.
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Videography and video editing
A one-day workshop for content creators: lighting, camera settings, angles, editing.
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Dreams on Wheels
The makerspace on the road, a mobile workshop for schools that cannot come to the building.
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A five-day capacity workshop for the team
Public speaking, communication, leadership, teamwork and problem-solving, for the people who deliver everything else.
2023 · 61 activities
Delivery moved from teaching children to training the people who train the teachers, and an American innovation hub opened here, inaugurated by the United States Ambassador.
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Photography workshop, Kacheri
A photography workshop closing the year.
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FungiScope bootcamp
Bio-lab work with a microscope built for fungi, continuing the mycelium research line.
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VisAct stakeholder meeting
The first of a run of stakeholder dialogues around the media venture.
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Build Peace, Kenya
At the peacebuilding-and-technology gathering, a year before the Philippines edition.
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COP28
A changemaker from this pathway represented Sri Lanka at the climate conference in Dubai.
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Mellidaimettu community session
A community session outside the town.
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Search for Common Ground visits
The first photographed contact with a peacebuilding partner already three years into the relationship.
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VisAct in action
Delivery under the visual-activism programme.
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The American iHub opens
The fifth American Space in Sri Lanka, opened by the United States Ambassador, operated from here.
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Splice Beta, the first year
The media venture joined an Asian media-startup festival for the first time.
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Mahilavedduvaan school visit
A school visit in November 2023.
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The Knodel Foundation visits
A visit, an interview, and a workshop taken out to a school the following week.
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Innovation competition
Held days after the Jaffna festival.
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YGC Innovation Festival
Showing the work at the Jaffna Cultural Centre, to a crowd in the thousands.
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Nurainiya school visit
A school visit in October 2023.
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A media workshop for deaf and non-speaking participants
Camera operation, photography and design, taught by a staff photographer who is himself deaf.
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Visual Content Makers graduate, and Dive EAST launches
The first cohort awarded, and an Eastern Province tourism platform launched the same evening.
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Yaazh Gaanam, opening a concert in Jaffna
The music team performed to a crowd reported at more than 80,000 beside Jaffna Fort.
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Two days in Jaffna with the Community Resource Centre
A content-creation workshop with well-known creators, including RJ Vigneshkanth.
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Changemaker discovery session
The front gate of the pathway, run again.
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The farm
The first dated evidence of the farm, the agriculture strand behind two later ventures.
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Five years
The fifth anniversary, and it was a maker exhibition and a market, not a ceremony.
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A Street Child school visit
A visit in September 2023.
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The robotics workshop series
Four robotics workshops across the second half of the year.
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A United States Embassy recruitment session
Held here two months before the American innovation hub opened.
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Laser engraver workshop
Laser cutting and engraving, 2D design, and design-to-manufacture software, with a mini project each.
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Kalkudah zone, teacher training
Zonal training focused on whether a school innovation lab survives after the training ends.
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The Deputy High Commissioner of Canada visits
Daniel Bood and the Counsellor for Political and Trade Affairs looked at economic-development ventures.
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Three labs, documented
A single dated survey of the electronics, media and software labs as finished infrastructure.
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The training-of-trainers series
Four more days of training the education zones’ own trainers, across the autumn.
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Meet and greet, Navz-47
A Tamil-Canadian artist met the musicians of Batticaloa here.
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Cyber security, training the trainers
A women's network trained to teach digital security in their own communities.
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Kids' robotics, building automated railways
Twenty-seven young makers, aged six to fourteen, building automated railway systems.
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Drones at Chenkalady Central College
An introduction to aerial mechanics for eleven-year-olds, with an international volunteer.
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The third cohort closes
The grassroots innovations of the third Lifecycle cohort were launched and felicitated, two years after the call went out.
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UNDP Sri Lanka visits
A visit in July 2023.
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Green technology workshop
A one-day workshop on sustainable innovation, with experiments rather than slides.
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The AI Camp
Three days of image classification, pose detection and sound classification, aimed at problems in nature.
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Language learning session
German and English language teaching.
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Visual Content Maker, second cohort
Fifteen people into a five-day residential training led by media professionals.
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Changemakers pitch
Two pitch days feeding the cohort’s closing ceremony in July.
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The USAID SCORE team visits
The first photographed contact with a partner that becomes central to the following two years.
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Kattankudy school workshop
A school workshop in Kattankudy.
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A BOOKBRIDGE cohort visits
The capacity-building programme’s twentieth cohort came to look.
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A Canadian diaspora delegation visits
One of several Canadian-linked visits across 2023 and 2024.
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Kiran Central College, a science quiz and a workshop
Teachers, parents and learners together, at a provincial science competition.
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A multicultural event
The return invitation, a fortnight after the interfaith Ifthar.
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The High Commissioner of Canada visits
Eric Walsh went through the labs, the first of two visits.
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Living Architecture
Growing buildings from trees, two workshops inspired by the root bridges of Meghalaya.
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An interfaith Ifthar
Invited to a Ramadan gathering and dialogue at a mosque in Kattankudy.
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A wireless AC power tester
A changemaker hit a problem with a tester and built a better one.
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Music production bootcamp
Three months from music theory to mixing and mastering, open to anyone with no experience.
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Training the teacher trainers
Directors and deputy directors of education zones, working through technology and design teaching methods.
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Learn to Discern, media literacy across six districts
Eight workshops in six districts on spotting misinformation, and the start of a national-footprint series.
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SteamHead workshop
A workshop with the partner whose co-designed curriculum ran through the year’s teacher training.
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Digital drawing workshop
The basics of digital drawing, character design and the tools, for people with no route into it.
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Women's Day open day, She PRIDE of the Nation
The Dreams of Women zone at a mass public event, visited by the Provincial Governor.
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Vocational Training Authority, Vantharumoolai
Working with the state vocational-training counterpart.
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University of Peradeniya, engineering workshop
Engineering undergraduates from the Eastern Province, working on integrated circuits and microcontrollers.
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The Media Lab
The earliest dated evidence of the Media Lab, which by September was finished infrastructure.
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SLTC partnership meeting
The meeting that opened the year, and led to a sponsored research lab agreement in May.
2022 · 18 activities
An international field-biology conference ran in the building for a month and left a floating science centre on the lagoon.
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Changemaker discovery workshops
Shortlisted applicants in two districts, at the front gate of the twelve-month programme.
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Electromechanics at Cheddipalayam Maha Vidyalayam
A school twenty kilometres out with resources but no one to teach the subject.
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One Young World, Manchester
Both co-founders represented Sri Lanka at the largest youth leadership summit in the world.
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The actor Nassar visits
A dialogue with artists in Batticaloa, with the academy as visual partner.
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Dreamboat, a floating science centre on the lagoon
A solar-powered floating makerspace turning live environmental data from the lagoon into something the public can see.
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Dinacon, Thaalam Riddim Reapers
Three days of digital music production, blending music with the natural environment.
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Dinacon, game development in Unity
A two-day workshop building 3D scenes and game logic, run with the Software Lab.
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SLASSCOM Ingenuity, Emerging Women Technopreneur
Trash for Trade won for the Northern Province, and placed second in the sustainable-development category.
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Dinacon, the Fighouse
A bamboo structure testing banyan and fig as a building material, with a sensor pod that turned leaves into sound.
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Dinacon, biomaterials from mycelium
Growing materials from fungi in the Bio Lab, and the start of the biocomposite work.
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Dinacon, the Wild Lifes bootcamp
Telling stories about wild animals from the animals’ point of view.
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Dinacon, a month-long conference, hosted here
The third Digital Naturalism Conference ran for the whole of July in Batticaloa, with fifty-plus international participants.
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SheTechpreneur bootcamp
A three-month bootcamp for women in technology and enterprise, supported by the Lenovo Foundation.
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Dinacon comes to look
The director of Digital Naturalism Labs scouted Batticaloa as the site for the next conference.
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The founders of Lanka Upcycles visit
A visit from the co-founders of an upcycling business, through the whole ecosystem.
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The Digital Nomad Ambassador visits
Matthew de Caussin met the founders from the East and toured the research, development and electromechanics floor.
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Microbiology and mycology workshop
A one-day fungal-cultivation workshop, and the start of a community around biotechnology here.
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Lenovo TransforMe Award
One of four headline international awards, for digital empowerment.
2021 · 42 activities
The building was shut for most of the year and three deliveries are logged. The work that did happen ran to the International Space Station and to a glider school in the Canary Islands.
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Recognised at PeaceCon
Recognition at the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s annual conference, a year after the award.
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Science Hackday and an equipment handover
A hack day paired with a donation of equipment for the floor.
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Ara, a visit
A visit photographed across fourteen frames.
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A candidate on the UNICEF panel
A pathway candidate spoke on UNICEF Sri Lanka’s panel for the seventy-fifth anniversary.
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IEEE Innovation Nation, finalist
One of five finalists from 1,346 startup ideas submitted nationally.
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Intercultural Innovation Award, Smart Advocates
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group recognised the social-cohesion initiative.
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Seed grants for eleven social-innovation ideas
Eleven community ideas took seed grants at a ceremony with the District Secretary, under a UNDP-funded programme.
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The Ambassadors of Norway and the Netherlands
A diplomatic meeting through the peacebuilding work.
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She Loves Tech Sri Lanka, runner-up
Abitharani Jeyachandran placed second in the national round of a global competition for women in technology.
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AsiaBerlin Summit, keynote
A keynote on empowering under-served communities, at the Berlin Senate’s annual summit.
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The DreamShot Startup Challenge launches
The organisation’s own startup competition, with funding of up to LKR 250,000.
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Marine Diversity Education, a ten-session course
Ten sessions and nearly seven hours of teaching on marine biology, published in full and free.
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Ecosystem partner to 10,000 Ideas
Joining the national initiative to build a thousand technology startups, as an incubating partner.
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Virtual Startup Accelerator bootcamp
Thirty founders through a three-month accelerator, funded by the American Center.
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ExoLab-9, the experiment runs again
The same microgravity experiment, replicated, launched on SpaceX’s twenty-third cargo mission.
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PLOCAN Glider School, first Asian accepted
A maker from this floor became the first Asian accepted onto an ocean-glider programme in the Canary Islands.
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One Young World, delegate and flagbearer
Selected to represent Sri Lanka at the largest youth leadership summit in the world.
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Project AISLE, the call-out for a third cohort
Applications open for the third changemaker cohort of the twelve-month programme.
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Trainee cohort farewell
The closing event for a trainee cohort, and the internships that followed it.
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Shark's Tank Awards
Recorded in the organisation’s own timeline; the category and recipient are not confirmed.
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Bio Lab session
Bench work in the first community bio lab in Sri Lanka.
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iREACT, a virtual exhibition against hate speech
Posters and poems from contributors across the country, and the start of a strand that runs for years.
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Global Talent Mentoring, talent development in the Global South
The academy is the nominating partner for Sri Lanka on an international mentoring platform.
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MATTER, Berlin
On tackling local problems through challenge-based learning.
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The Software Lab
The earliest dated evidence of the software teaching track, taught in Tamil and English.
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Most Creative Learning Centre
Named the most creative learning centre in Sri Lanka by BOOKBRIDGE.
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Photography bootcamp
A three-month accredited bootcamp, from handling a camera to working in the field.
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BBC World Service interview
A maker from the pathway interviewed on the BBC World Service, on the legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh.
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SLASSCOM National Ingenuity, Best Innovative Project
Trash for Trade won the university category of the national technology-industry awards.
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Training centre field visit
A field visit with a partner training centre.
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FIRST Tech Challenge, skills of the future
On the international FIRST Tech Challenge programme, through Lecture Without Borders.
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BOOKBRIDGE staff training
Staff training delivered with BOOKBRIDGE, repeated two years later.
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Women in Tech photography competition
A photography competition for women photographers, marking International Women’s Day.
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Photography taught from home
Learners photographed from their own houses because they could not come to the building.
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ExoLab-8, an experiment on the International Space Station
Young people here joined a microgravity experiment on root nodulation, launched on Cygnus NG-15.
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National Youth Dialogue, a greener planet
Speaking on "Greener Youth for a Greener Planet" at the UNDP national youth dialogue.
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Back in operation after the closure
Electronics workshops restart with a capped number of people in the room.
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The Path, field visit
A visiting group toured the floor and the pathway that runs on it.
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The underwater glider is named in Parliament
A prototype built on the workshop floor was cited in a speech in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
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Nestlé Idea Hackathon
Recognition recorded in the achievements list; the placement and the team are not confirmed.
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UBL Business Plan Competition
Recognition recorded in the achievements list; the placement and the venture are not confirmed.
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Intercultural Innovation Hub, recipient and fellowship
Entry to the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations hub, with a fellowship running into 2022.
2020 · 26 activities
Almost nothing could be delivered in person: a chatbot in Tamil, open-source respirator work, a gold medal for a rice biosensor, and a peacebuilding award presented to a US congressional audience.
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HackX 2020, first runner-up
Trash for Trade again, out of thirty teams.
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Peace Direct Award, winner
US$10,000 for technology-led peacebuilding in war-affected Sri Lanka, presented at PeaceCon.
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Les Echos, collective intelligence against COVID
The French business daily covered the open-science response the pandemic work ran through.
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iGEM 2020, gold medal for a rice biosensor
A biosensor for a fungus that destroys 40 per cent of stored rice, gold at the international synthetic-biology competition.
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Bertelsmann Stiftung, Change Magazin
German foundation coverage in its changemaker reporting.
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Climathon Jaffna, runner-up
Trash for Trade, the plastics venture, placed second at a 24-hour climate hackathon.
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Impact Hero, finalist
Co-founder Aravinth Panch named a finalist in the Earth Company’s annual Impact Hero selection.
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Photojournalism training across three districts
Two senior journalists training participants from Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara, online.
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Second anniversary
Two years old, in the middle of a pandemic, with a building that had been shut for months.
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Global Community Bio Summit, MIT Media Lab
Two sessions at the community-biology summit: biodiversity conservation, and the open-source test kit.
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Industrial Dialogue, Eastern University
Co-founder Kishoth Navaretnarajah at the annual research session of the Faculty of Commerce and Management.
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Visual Content Makers exhibition
Trainees exhibited photographs and video of destinations and culture across the East.
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Corona Hunter, XPRIZE rapid testing semi-finalist
An open-source rapid test kit reached the semi-finals of a global XPRIZE.
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HackaDev information and application session
Last year’s seed-grant winner came back to run the session for the next cohort.
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Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge, top three nationally
The underwater glider pitch placed in the national top three.
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Digital nomadism workshop
Two working online entrepreneurs, from the United States and Ukraine, on selling your skills on a global platform.
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OPEN COVID19, open-source respirator work
Respirator-mask work contributed into two international open-hardware platforms rather than kept.
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CoronaBot, pandemic answers in Tamil
A chatbot answering COVID-19 questions in Tamil: statistics, local medical supplies, self-assessment.
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HackCorona, global online hackathon
Taking part in the first edition of a global hackathon in the opening weeks of the pandemic.
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Innovation Ecosystems Around The World
Two talks in one week that pulled makers from Ampara to Vakarai into one room.
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Stockholm Junior Water Prize, awareness session
The national awareness and information session for the water prize, hosted here.
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Skills for Inclusive Growth exhibition
Exhibiting under the Australian-funded skills programme that ran through the year’s media work.
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Story-mapping training, Griffith Film School
A senior academic from Griffith Film School spent three days mapping the organisation’s own story with the team.
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MakerSpace workshops for schoolchildren
One-day science and engineering workshops, run in January and again in February 2020.
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The first two changemakers
SPM Industries and OceanBiome become the first two ventures to come through the whole pathway.
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Global Community Bio Fellowship
The fellowship behind the Bio Lab strand.
2019 · 24 activities
The first full year: a building, a launch, a village visited weekend after weekend for five months, and an international science-engagement award in Berlin at thirteen months old.
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Chaos Communication Congress, 36C3
Presented on the Global Innovation Gathering track at Europe’s largest hacker congress.
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DOTS, The Impact Summit, Nakuru
A talk on sustainable making in Kenya, organised through the Global Innovation Gathering.
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Merit Award, 8th National Youth Film Festival
A trainer here won a merit award at the national youth film festival in Colombo.
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Entrepreneurship Ideation Caravan, Eastern University
A session on networking and collaboration, inside the university the academy now shares a technology park with.
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ReLogia keynote, Sofia
"Co-Creating The Dreams with Project and Challenge Based Learning", the tagline, delivered as a keynote in 2019.
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Falling Walls Engage, Science Engagement of the Year
Winner of the 2019 international science-engagement award, in Berlin, in the organisation’s second year.
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Open Door
A reopening with BOOKBRIDGE, attended by the heads of two other learning centres.
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Duke of Edinburgh's Award, regional office opens
The academy becomes host of the award’s regional coordinating office for the North and East.
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HackaDev Social Innovation Challenge
Four projects submitted to the national youth social-innovation challenge, and a seed grant won.
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Community building through passion
A three-day residential workshop building community around what people already cared about.
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Anthem for Peace and Image of Emotions
Music-for-peace and visual-storytelling workshops, funded through the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
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The chess programme
Chess coaching for children, opening with the history of the game.
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STEP NUS Sunburst Brain Camp, selected for Sri Lanka
A core team member selected as one of Sri Lanka’s representatives to an environmental programme at the National University of Singapore.
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Instrumental music sessions
The earliest photographed music activity here, four years before the record label existed.
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Residential weekends at Pullumalai
Weekend after weekend in a border village, from June to October 2019.
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The Access Programme
The first standing programme: English, computing, maker education, life skills and leadership, run in batches.
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Maker Faire Berlin
The first international outing, in the organisation’s eighth month.
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Public launch of the academy
Open programming begins.
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Design thinking training of trainers
A trainer from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Berlin taught the team design thinking in the first month of operations.
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Maker Education, training of trainers
The earliest training of trainers on record, four days before the centre opened.
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Community Innovation Centre launch
The founding home of the maker programmes opened on 16 April 2019, with a public panel on the education system.
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First logged delivery, Pullumalai school workshop
The opening entry in the activity log: a school workshop at Pullumalai with more than fifty participants.
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The MakerSpace building takes shape
Construction and fit-out of the workshop floor, photographed through March 2019.
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The first year of international stages
Four countries in one year, and the start of the network everything since has drawn on.
2018 · 1 activities
Founded on 30 September, out of a youth consortium that had already been running for five years.
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DreamSpace Academy founded
Founded on 30 September 2018 in Batticaloa, out of a youth consortium that had already been running for five years.
What this record does not yet hold
The record runs from the founding in September 2018 to the present, and it is not complete. It is built from what was documented at the time, photographs, posts, planning packs , so a quiet month here means a month nobody wrote down, not a month with nothing in it. Of the 292 activities listed above, 155 carry images and the rest show a placeholder while their pictures are prepared for publication.
Where a page says the record holds only a date and a place, that is the record and not an editing choice. A thin entry that is true is published rather than a full one that is partly invented, and thin entries are the ones most likely to be filled in later. Two entries name a partner that could not be independently confirmed, and say so on the page rather than dropping the work.
The unevenness across years is real. 2021 holds three logged deliveries and a launch to the International Space Station; 2024 holds sixty-eight entries. That is a pandemic, an economic crisis and a recovery, and it is not smoothed into a growth curve.