Seventeen Sri Lankan community leaders from fields including community development, education, journalism, and business, will travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in a three-week program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that will focus on reducing marginalization, resolving conflict, and promoting democratic engagement in Sri Lankan civil society, a US Embassy press release said.

The program, conducted by Relief International – Schools Online (RI-SOL), in collaboration with the Business for Peace Alliance (BPA), will bring together young professionals from Sri Lanka and the United States to share experiences and improve leadership skills in order to become more effective community leaders.

The seventeen Sri Lankan participants will attend pre-exchange workshops in Colombo and will engage in post-exchange activities, during which they will share their knowledge with their fellow community members. While in the United States, participants will begin designing projects on issues the participants find important for their communities in Sri Lanka.

Following the US visit, American participants will travel to Sri Lanka for a three-week program to learn more about Sri Lanka and to work with their Sri Lankan counterparts to design and implement the community projects. American participants will then share their knowledge and experiences of Sri Lankan community activism with their organizations and fellow community members in the US, the press release added.