To build a bridge is to defy divisions, create connections and enable exchange.

The team at Building Bridges keep this vision at the heart of what we do. We collectively witnessed the destruction wrought by the Sri Lankan Civil War, and believe that building a safe space for self-expression and sustained dialogue is vital for the process of working through conflict together.

We come together through our shared love of the creative arts. From sculpture to photography to performance, the arts have been a key to empathic understanding of ourselves and the communities we share space with.

Building Bridges is our endeavour to share these gifts with other young people, particularly those under-served by existing educational and social institutions.

Our bespoke arts programmes for secondary school students, offered since 2012, are designed to build five essential skills for personal resilience and communal co-existence: compassionate empathy, creative self-expression, collaboration with others, critical thinking, and complex problem solving.

 

team

Nushelle de Silva (theatre, design thinking)
Irfadha Muzammmil (visual arts)
Amalini De Sayrah (creative writing, photography)
Firi Rahman (visual arts, photography)
Sarika Warusavitarana (visual arts)
Sivaperumal Kamalaruban (Vavuniya liaison, translator)
Satchithananthathirumal Piranavan (Vavuniya liaison, translator)