By the end of July, this young team of debaters will be working their jaws in Singapore, representing Sri Lanka as they verbally fight their way through World School’s Debating Championships 2015. Devin Hewage, Sidath Samarasinghe, Amrita Khandpur, Miriam Alphonsus and Eran Fernando are ready to spar with new opponents, explore the country and make friends and most importantly bring back what they have learned to Sri Lanka. The group, matching their humour and wit to their passion to make a change, will be a formidable team indeed!

How did you get into debating?

Amritha – I really can’t remember why I joined. It was one of the clubs in school that seemed interesting and it turned out to be an amazing way to learn communication and analysis. That’s what kept me there.

Miriam – I got into debating as a sort of accident as well but the thing is all of us stayed, and it’s not easy to stay but we did. The first step to doing anything is knowing what’s wrong with something and that’s what debating does to you, it gives you the ability to think critically and to see what’s wrong with the world.

Amrita (left) and Miriam (right)

How are you preparing for the tournament?

Sidath – Individually all of us are making a really big commitment here, we are all putting off our classes and anything else we do. We’re also bonding together and that’s really important as a team. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well and that’s the best part.

Miriam – We also research a lot on all sorts of issues, environment, sports, politics, IR so we get to know more about these things as well. Also when we speak we try to do things that don’t come naturally to us especially this time around we’ve been trying to work on speaking in a more moderate fashion, so emotional speakers will work on trying to be calm and being more aloof.

What does this tournament mean to you?

Eran – The tournament carries quite a lot of weight for all of us because it’s the highest level of debating that you can participate in as a Sri Lankan, and it’s probably the most competitive level of debating that a high school student can engage in anywhere in the world. Over 60 countries participate so nothing opens your mind and trains and hones your skills the way this does.

Devin (left) and Sidath (right)

What would you like to do in the future?

Devin –It changes and it has changed several times, I have wanted to do medicine and that became law after I joined debates but whatever I end up doing it will be based on the kinds of things that we use and learn in debates, the principles, morals, ideas, the engagement, even if it’s charity work, the basic idea is that you’re working towards some greater good.

Eran

Why are you excited to go?

Amrita – It promises to be an incredible experience, travelling without your family but with your teammates, meeting together with people from so many different countries all coming together for this same thing where you just get to fight out ideas.

Sidath – I’m excited to go there and see everything, the people, the country.

Eran – I got to go for the same tournament last year and we didn’t do as well as we’d have liked to so after training for months and months I’m pretty confident that this team will do well so I’m ready to go.

Mimi – There will be Scandinavian boys!

Why did you decide to start a crowdfunding campaign?

Devin – Historically the Sri Lanka team has not been funded officially, and teams have paid out of their own pockets for registration, accommodation, air fare etc. So we decided we should do something about this, on a moral level we would like some support so we set up an indiegogo campaign. All attempts at humour and levity and general charm aside, what we’re trying to achieve as the national team is to go there, gather good experience, learn things from the people that we are going to meet and face and bring those things back to Sri Lanka. At the end of the day that is our greatest responsibility, it isn’t winning the tournament or having fun, though those are important parts and winning would be great. As the national team and as members of the debating community it is our duty to spread the knowledge that we receive so that each and every member of our circuit are able to benefit as well, so that we uplift all that is in the local circuit.

By Marissa van Eyck