Hello, everyone. My name is Sanka, and I am an 18th Duskin trainee from Sri Lanka. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to JSRPD and the Duskin Ainowa Foundation for giving me the opportunity to participate in this follow-up training. Thank you very much. I had enriching experiences during the Duskin training in 2016. Please watch this. In this video, you’ll see pictures from my individual training and ski training. (video)

It's been a long time since I finished the Duskin training. During that time, we faced the global challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we persevered and overcame those difficult times together. Currently, Sri Lanka is facing a severe economic crisis, which has greatly impacted the lives of people with disabilities. Therefore, leadership and action from individuals with disabilities are important. Today, I would like to share the work I have been doing up until now. I hope you enjoy my presentation.

First, I would like to talk about the activities I engaged in. First, I joined a big research project for three years. Through the project, I researched about the work and Quality of Life (QOL) of people with visual impairment in Sri Lanka. We published 36 articles and I was in charge for 4 of them. From that project, I received the scholarship to go to graduate school. Duskin training’s experiences were very useful during the research project. Everyone, I would like to share with you more interesting activities. Please watch this video. This is the video of an event of bicycle. Please enjoy.

(Video/ video subtitles: I feel very excited. Now, again, I can ride. That's why today, I'm happy. Good morning, everyone.)

About why I am so excited about riding a bicycle, when I was child, I could see with my eyes, and I didn’t have any problem. I rode bicycle very often. However, when I was 16 years old, I became visually impaired, and I couldn’t ride a bicycle. In 2016, when I came to Japan for Duskin Training, I’ve rode Tandem bicycle for the first time. Tandem bicycle is amazing. It is very useful because in the front seat, people who can see can ride and in the behind seat, people with visual impairment can ride on. It is amazingly useful. After I went back to Sri Lanka, I searched how I can get Tandem bicycle. However, in 2016, it was hard to get Tandem bicycle in Sri Lanka. I went to the bicycle company called Lumada, and I asked them to provide Tandem bicycle. The company, Lumada was originally Japanese company and later, it became Sri Lanka company. They became happy after I shared my experience in Japan with Tandem bicycle, the Tandem bicycle project has started immediately I talked to the company. Now, anyone with visual impairment can get Tandem bicycle in Sri Lanka. When I ride Tandem bicycle, I get attention from everyone, and everyone look at me. Sri Lanka people think people with visual impairment cannot ride bicycle. However, that bias changes when people look at me. It makes it easier for people to understand the concept of "Inclusivity." And then, they will understand people with visual impairment can actually do anything. I got interviewed from the media when I join the Tandem bicycle event. I talked about the independent living of people with visual impairment, barrier-free society, and inclusivity. I also have a video from that event, as well as footage from another event. Please take a look.

(Video)

From now, I would like to talk about activities in school to everyone. I am a school teacher. In my school, students have difficulty to speak in English. The way of teaching was more like studying and boring. Thay only use textbooks in their class. So, students wanted to have language center to enjoy learning English. I learned how to write proposals during the Duskin Training. By using that knowledge, I wrote a proposal and could start the language center with the PCs and grant that we received from an organization. Now, students are enjoying learning English. I am so happy about that. Please watch this video. We took this video when we launched the language center.

(Video)

Sri Lanka and Japan have close relationship for long time. Both countries have interesting cultures. Foods are delicious. People are very kind. I have been to Japan for twice and had interesting experiences. This follow-up training helped a lot to improve my skill. After I go back to Sri Lanka, again, I want to work on improving life of people disability. Such as education activity and the event activity of Tandem bicycle. Staff from Duskin Ainowa Foundation, JSRPD, my friend from Japan and my friend from training, thank you very much for helping me while I’m in Japan. Thank you very much.