The North South University Collaboration

The North-South University Collaboration is a platform for reconciliation and bridge building. Fifty students from different universities within Sri Lanka attended and experienced the festival together. Students from the English Language departments of various universities were selected to represent the North, East and the South. The North and East of the country were represented by Jaffna University in Jaffna, South Eastern University in Ampara and Eastern University in Batticaloa. From the Southern Central province of Sabaragamuwa, the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka was selected and, from the South, the Ruhuna University located in Matara was selected. The student bodies of these particular universities represent a cross section of cultural and religious ethnicities within Sri Lanka: Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim.

Galle Children’s Festival

Held in October the inaugural Galle Children’s Festival saw the historic Galle Fort come alive when over 1,000 children from over 45 schools came together to create, learn, perform and debate in over 30 special events. By integrating various forms of art ranging from classical ballet to DJing as well as origami, pottery, cookery, sign language and puppetry into one learning experience, children were given the unique opportunity to experiment and discover.  www.gallechildrensfestival.com

Get Sri Lanka Reading Campaign     

To excite Sri Lankan children about books, ideas and creativity, the Galle Literary Festival in partnership with Adopt Sri Lanka,  launched a spectacular, historic reading campaign in October 2011. Sri Lankan schools and schools abroad were involved in this event by all reading the same story out loud at the same time. During their morning assemblies, thousands of school children read the story ‘Flying Machine’ by Sri Lanka children’s writer Chandrani Wickremasinghe Kirinde. Following the activity, the students were asked to write their own creative ending to this short story. This special event launched a year-long campaign focusing on initiatives that encourage children to read.

Outreach Programmes Sponsored by Magic and One Trust :

Schools’ Day at the Galle Literary Festival

Sponsored this year by Magic and One Trust Sri Lanka, the Festival will run its annual day of activities for schools and the local community on Wednesday January 18th 2012. This special programme will include a presentation by inspirational photographer Beat Presser’s on his experiences of Tibet, a story telling performance by Jeeva Raghunath, a Pop-Up Workshop by Robert Crowther and a Magic Treasure Hunt plus a special performance by Play House Kotte (Lanka Children’s & Youth Theatre Foundation). This will be an inspiring and unusual opportunity for schoolchildren to truly have an international literary festival come to their region and address their interests.

Galle Fort Children Program 

Magic and One Trust Sri Lanka will also sponsor this year’s programme for the children of the GalleFort. The Fort Children will spend the afternoon with a story telling performance by Jeeva Raghunath and take part in a Pop-Up Workshop with Robert Crowther, and an interactive performance by Play House-Kotte, which will provide children with a sense of basic art forms, social values and culture through creative work. 

Jaffna Teacher Training Programme

A much awaited project, linking the Galle Literary Festival with Jaffna, is finally taking place during this year's 2012 programme. The 30-year conflict had resulted in teachers and children forgetting the imaginative world of stories and the excitement of interactive books. It is with this in mind that the Galle Literary Festival focussed on revisiting two main topics: "The Art of Story Telling" and "The Wonders of Interactive Books." The workshops are conducted by two internationally renowned authors, who are acclaimed masters in the above areas. Jeeva Ragunath, a story telling performer, introduces the skills of story telling and how this can be used to develop the communicative skills of school children. Robert Crowther, one of the world's leading paper engineers of pop-up books, focuses on how teachers can use interactive books to create an interesting learning experience for children.

The two authors will be conducting four workshops in Jaffna, spread over two days for 100 teachers from schools in Jaffna, Islands, Thenmarachchi, Vadamarachchi, Valikamam, Kilinlchchi and Thanukkai. The workshops will cover the two main areas: Jeeva Ragunath will use her expert skills to revive what is now a lost art of storytelling amongst the teachers from the Northern region. Robert Crowther will conduct a paper engineering workshop where he will pass on some techniques on the art of pop up and show the important role interactive books play in the development of a child's learning. This Teacher Training programme in January will be the first of a series of workshops to follow in the coming year. 

Jaffna Children's Program

A school day is planned with a selected school in Jaffna where Robert Crowther and Jeeva Ragunath will spend their day with 150 children who will participate in this unique journey into Jeeva's imaginary world of stories and Robert's creative world of pop up books.

Book Donations:

The Asia Foundation under their Books For Asia program the Foundation has generously supported the Festival outreach programs by donating 3,000 books, across 100 schools in Jaffna, Islands, Thenmarachchi, Vadamarachchi, Valikamam, Kilinlchchi and Thanukkai and 10 universities around the island. The Asia Foundation is committed to empowering future and current leaders with information because they believe that an educated population is better equipped to fight poverty, disease, injustice, and instability.

The Perera Hussein Publishing House was formed in 2003 to enable and encourage talented  Sri Lankan & South Asian writers to gain exposure and recognition by publishing their work. PH Books supports the Festival by donating a selection of their latest books which are gifted to visiting authors, thereby gaining more international exposure for their portfolio of writers.

Authors in the community

In addition to some of the festival writers visiting Jaffna, many will be visiting schools  in the Southern Province during their stay. One participant will be pitting his skills at a mass chess play off where he will take on 20 players simultaneously!