Beyond Skin representing Northern Ireland at 2014 World Conference on Youth in Sri Lanka

The World Conference on Youth is expected to bring together 1500 participants. Seven hundred of the participants will be young people, aged 18 to 29, and 350 of them will come from marginalized backgrounds, making the conference one of the most well represented youth events at a global level.

As part of Beyond Skin’s Parallel Versing project, using new media and arts to link school children from Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland, Darren Ferguson & Davy Bates will be in Sri Lanka during May working with five schools involved in the project, two of which are in the remote area of North Sri Lanka.

Davy & Darren will be working alongside the staff from partner organisation (The Music Project – Sri Lanka) to assist in building the capacity of the project, meeting with investors & media and as part of the process will train teachers, volunteers and students.

They will also be taking out handmade greeting cards, artwork and audio & video recordings from five schools in Northern Ireland.

The current phase of the project has been supported by Esufally Family Foundation, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Southern Education and Library Board, Northdown Borough Council and Lisburn City Council. The John Hewitt bar has also been collecting soft bottle top to be recycled to make music instruments for children in Northern Ireland & Sri Lanka. Play Resource also has provided great support through resources.

Also  the UK's leading communications charity, Media Trust have nominated Beyond Skin to be a beneficary of the Lottery Funded Local360 project. Through the scheme quipment and free audi/video production training will be provided for some of school children in Northern Ireland.

Darren Ferguson from Beyond Skin said “The enthusiasm, artistic skills and willingness to learn and connect from the young people we have been working with has been inspiring and overwhelming. The World Conference on Youth is an opportunity for us to challenge local negative stereotypes on youth education levels and prove on a global platform how amazing the young people of Northern Ireland really are. We truly believe that young people, regardless of their education, position in society, or socio-economic status, have inborn creative capacity for unbounded achievement.”

Information on Parallel Versing is available online www.parallelversing.com and on request from the Beyond Skin office – info@beyondskin.net - 07877756987

An example of a recent production is now online
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MmPDNq6_CA