With over 100 promising young media students from the Media Studies, HELVETAS and Sri Lanka Development Journalists Forum (SDJF) began the virtual training program on Digital Citizenship on 25th of July 2021 morning with a brief inauguration ceremony, as a part of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed between the Helvetas Intercooperation gGmbH and University of Jaffna.

The virtual training programme on ‘An Exploration of Creative Minds for Future Media’ covered the selected media and communication undergraduates of the University of Jaffna, University of Peradeniya, University of Sri Jayawardanepura and South Eastern University with the aim to encourage the exchange of ideas from different stakeholders.

Along with Digital Citizenship, the training will cover the themes of Freedom of Expression, Right to Information and Gender and Media and the undergraduates will become the member of InSPIRE network and get the opportunity to work with the media and communication undergraduates of other three state universities in addition to the experts’ inputs during the training.

At the virtual inauguration for the Media Studies students of University of Jaffna, the welcome address was delivered by Ms. Sivashanthi Sivalingam, Project Officer, HELVITAS and the Introduction of HELVETAS was given by Ms. Chandula Kumbukage, Project Manager, HELVETAS.

To start things officially, Dr. K. Suthakar, Dean of the Faculty of Arts send the message of wishes to the participants and it was presented by Dr. S. Raguram, Head, Department of Media Studies at the virtual gathering.

Pre-test and the introduction of the trainer made by the session moderator Mohamed Azad, Programme Director, SDJF.

Dr. M.C. Rasmin led the training session providing a brief on the contextual background of the Digital landscape in Sri Lanka, digital footprint, rights, privacy and security of digital citizens and many other areas pertaining to the online space. The students were actively involved in answering questions and engaging in quizzes and games. The next training will be on Freedom of Expression.