This project emerged following an invitation by The Mannar Zonal Director of Education wanting Bridging Lanka to assist the Education Department address the sharp increase in school drop-out rates after the pandemic and economic downturn. A growing uptake of hard drugs by students as an escape from domestic conflict, street violence and an uncertain future, complicated further with a falling morale amongst teachers and anguished parents, was a further catalyst to intervene.

To identify and respond to the fault lines between the three most significant social institutions of a young person’s life, that of the home, their community (street) and the school, the Home-Street-School program was developed.

The Bubbling Cauldron

A ‘perfect storm’ of debilitating factors adversely impacts young people in Mannar. The smartphone’s duplicitous influence (unhealthy social media use, online addiction, online games, pornography, etc.) combined with a dysfunctional and often violent home life, the drug and violence-saturated street and an increasingly irrelevant education in the school context, are toxic ingredients in this potion.

Riding the inevitable crises

Following an initial trial of The Home-Street-School project undertaken for students from grades 8 to 12 in one high school, the results were highly encouraging. We are now involving parents as well as teachers in a series of interactive and challenging workshops. Three ‘high risk’ secondary schools in Mannar are now part of the following programs:

  • HOME - Better Parenting: parents provide a more caring home environment, monitor children’s learning, understand substance use and build better parent-teacher relations.
  • STREET - Get Smart: students reduce distractions and addictions from social media and drugs, deal with stress, anger and suicidal feelings, and develop supportive study environments.
  • SCHOOL - In Command: teachers identify what demotivates them and develop strategies to rise above classroom conflict using the PACE (Playful, Accepting, Curious, Empathetic) framework instead of the typical authoritarian approach in the process of rebuilding positive teacher-student relations.

Some feedback from students who participated in the Initial Program

“The session helped me to plan for my future and the importance of being a supportive friend.”

“The workshop pushed me to change my habits. Instead of looking at my smartphone for hours, I will do some gardening and book reading. I will sleep more and reduce my social media time.”

“The session was really helpful in understanding my parents, and why they get angry. I will try to be more kind to mum and dad.”

“The session scared me into thinking of consequences – I need to stop what I’m doing and if I see my friends’ using drugs, I will start to talk to them seriously about giving it up.”

“After hearing the real Mannar stories about jail, I want to avoid violence. Anger is causing me many problems, so I need to reduce it.”

“By knowing how drugs are affecting us, we need to make wise decisions about our lives. Thanks for a very insightful session.”

“We had planned to have a gang fight after school but after the session, I decided not to join in and will try to get it called off altogether. We should not fight because we don’t know the results or the consequences.”

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