As a measure of taking Right to Information (RTI) to the bottom sphere of the country and to create a RTI trend as a practice, Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) organized workshops for youth in eight districts in the country. These workshops were linguistically facilitated according to the preferences of each district.
The Youth empowerment workshops are part of the “Empowering Youth towards a Culture of Accountability” project, implemented by SLPI funded by the USAID Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability Program (SDGAP) in Sri Lanka.
SLPI successfully trained more than 300 youth on RTI in Colombo, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Galle, Nuwara Eliya, and Badulla. The workshops bring in the needed awareness of RTI, how to file an RTI, how to appeal when information is not received. The youth are also provided with a simplified RTI manual “A citizen’s manual on RTI Law of Sri Lanka” published by SLPI in order to have a detailed understanding of the law.
The trained youth are then linked with the SLPI RTI Help-line to support them in the application of their RTIs and guide them in obtaining relevant information, which will bring about the needed change.
