Story

When I was eight, there was a family next to my home. They had three kids who did not go to school. Whenever we came home after school, they were always waiting for us to come home so that they could read our books. So we created a small playhouse – sort of a tent in the backyard of my house – and before we went home, we left our bags in that backyard, that tent, so that those three kids could come to the tent and read the books. The same year, we named it the United Children’s Club.

This was the start of Ashan Perera’s first social programme. Eleven years later, in 2009, the war in Sri Lanka came to an end. The 30-year-long civil war had left its mark on society – Ashan realised that social divisions were an obstacle for peacebuilding and started to think about ways to address this issue.

Ashan said he remembers how watching the Commonwealth Games as a child made him realise how sports is a powerful tool in uniting people. In the newly peaceful Sri Lanka, he wanted to translate this idea into action and decided to organise a football game for young people from different communities. Ashan saw that football could be the common language and playing in teams was a way of building trust like no other: ‘After the competition, we didn't have to do any sort of workshop for them to understand peace. They understood by themselves.’

In 2009, Ashan founded an organisation called The Road to Rights, focused on human rights education, sustainable development and empowering youth. Besides sports, The Road to Rights uses other innovative approaches such as art and music to bring people together and build trust. Ashan’s creative approach received a positive response both in Sri Lanka and abroad, and he is now cooperating with other organisations and the Sri Lankan government.

The underpinning values of Ashan’s organisation originate from his family. He said his parents come from a humble background and a small village in Sri Lanka. They were not highly educated, but they had strong morals, and this was something that Ashan learned from them. Their support was always impactful for Ashan’s work: ‘They were the ones who brought positive thoughts into my life. I believe those thoughts and their influence were among the biggest and strongest factors that enabled me to do what I am doing today,’ he said.

Ashan firmly believes in shared social responsibility in peacebuilding. ‘I also realised that peacebuilding or social impact is not just the responsibility of social workers, or people who work on peace initiatives, it has to have a connection with everyone in their day-to-day life.’ This value is central to Ashan’s organisation, which currently consists of 30,000 volunteers from different backgrounds. What began as a humble backyard playhouse to store schoolbooks for children who were unable to go to school grew into one of the biggest youth-led peacebuilding organisations in the world. Ashan said, some things, however, have not changed: ‘The organisation is driven by this little thought that I had at age eight, protecting the same values and passion.’

Published in 2026