{"id":512,"date":"2012-03-08T14:23:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T14:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/blog\/?p=512"},"modified":"2012-03-08T14:23:24","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T14:23:24","slug":"premila-gamage-sri-lankan-digital-storyteller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/digitalstorytelling\/premila-gamage-sri-lankan-digital-storyteller\/","title":{"rendered":"Premila Gamage, Sri Lankan Digital Storyteller"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s International Women’s Day<\/a> today. This year’s theme centres on Empowering Rural Women. So today’s the day I want to talk about a digital storyteller I met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in December 2011. Premila Gamage works at the Institute of Policy Studies, Colombo; in her spare time she’s taking the tools of digital storytelling to rural areas of Sri Lanka, encouraging people to tell their stories, publishing them online and helping people realise the dreams they outline in their stories. <\/p>\n

I’d been was introduced to Premila via email by Sarah Copeland<\/a> who’d met Premila because they were both studying at Leeds Metropolitan University. So Premila and I made arrangements to meet at her office in Colombo.<\/p>\n

\"Premila<\/a><\/p>\n

I could tell straight away that Premlia was a person with a strong social conscience. She’s been investigating digital inclusion and her speciality is Policy. Bearing in mind the evidence that digital storytelling can bring about policy change via health-related projects such as Patient Voices and Story Works in the UK, using such personal accounts in Sri Lanka sounds like a promising route to ignite social change. <\/p>\n

Premila told me that she and her fellow digital storytellers have set up Lanka Community Information Initiative – LCII.org – which works with “marginalized and disadvantaged communities to access new and old communication technologies to enhance their quality of life.”<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of one of LCII’s digital stories. Umesha Lakshika gives a glimpse of life for students of the Prabhavi Resources Center, Werankatagoda, Ampara, Sri Lanka. The resource centre consists of a library, Nenasala (ICT centre and digital inclusion project) and classes. <\/p>\n