The Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE) Youth Activity (SYA), which provided life-changing internship opportunities for 280 youths from fourteen districts, successfully conducted six SCORE Youth Activity: Youth Symposium and Award Ceremonies in the month of July.

The six ceremonies covered the Eastern Region (Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara Districts), Northern Region (Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya), Southern Region (Matara, Hambantota and Monaragala), Central Region (Kandy and Anuradhapura Districts), Galle and Colombo. During the event, interns were presented with certificates while other stakeholders were provided with tokens of appreciation in recognition of their valuable contributions to making this ground-breaking initiative a huge success.

Following the felicitation, the youth have remained focused on making meaningful contributions towards uplifting communities in their respective regions. Currently, they are actively involved in implementing a series of community support projects under SYA capstone activities, marking the closing of the project. These youth-led projects included in-kind support to improve access to education such as providing laboratory equipment to a school in Matara; bicycles to school-going children in Kilinochchi, livelihoods improvement programs where home gardening packages for families in Trincomalee, agricultural equipment were provided in Vavuniya; and advocacy and educational campaigns including a beach clean-up and installation of a sustainable garbage system in Hambantota, and an initiative to create a grassroots level discourse on rights and responsibilities through government official-citizen interactions in Monaragala.

Implemented by the International Youth Alliance for Peace (IYAP) and supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Social Cohesion and Reconciliation Activity (SCORE) implemented by Global Communities, SYA was a 12-month project that targeted youth aged 18-29 to improve their civic awareness, leadership skills, participation in community improvements, and decision-making processes.

Founded in 2013 and based in Colombo, the International Youth Alliance for Peace (IYAP) is a youth-led/based organization that believes in harnessing the power of young people and the contribution they make to their respective communities and country.