The Founder’s Message

Japan is one of the best sources of inspiration for any country aspiring to be an advanced and matured society. For instance, blending the best ideas of the past with a vision for the future and going international while preserving our own tradition would be the best way for an island nation like ours. This is the path followed by Japan to achieve modern development. About 150 years ago, Japanese people realized the importance of adopting Western technology. The policy of “Wakon-Yousai” which means ‘Japanese spirit plus Western technology’ enabled them to adopt western technology while keeping Japanese spiritual tradition. Today, we should teach our younger generation how to adopt modern technology for solving our problems while keeping Sri Lanka spiritual tradition alive.

Looking back at the collaborative work between Japan and Sri Lanka in the recent past, one of the most important youth exchange　project was the Okinawa-Sri Lanka Project for Passing over the Message of Life and Peace to the Future Generations, successfully implemented for six continuous years (2011-2016) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Japan, the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka and Bright Moon Foundation. This project called “Building Bridges to Asia” sent every year about 20 Sri Lanka school children to Okinawa and 8 Japanese junior high school students to Sri Lanka. We are happy to see that manys students who participated in this project have grown into exemplary characters in higher education, business world and social services.

In 2017, we started a new project to exchange teachers and leaders in different fields, in which we have been discussing and disseminating “the education for the next generation” with the cooperation of Okinawa University, Okinawa Sri Lanka Friendship Association and NPO Japan Sri Lanka Next Generation Edu Support under the sponsorship of the Bank of Ryukyus. This project added new impetus to the building of a new school in Sri Lanka.

To meet unpredictable challenges and serve the future world, we need to nurture people who are capable of carving out their own future while seeing the world from multiple perspectives. To achieve these goals, students would need to improve their knowledge and skills, build a sound intellectual foundation integrated with compassion and consideration for others as well as for nature. To meet these accelerating demands, we established this new school in 2021 in the North-Western Province of Sri Lanka with a clear direction and vision for the future.

Our vision is Becoming the Sri Lankan model for nurturing globally attractive citizens in a culturally responsive environment.

We have an important mission to do: We educate the whole person helping students to achieve high academic standards, training them to acquire global skills, shaping their attitudes and behavior to suit the world in the 21st century.

I appreciate the efforts and contribution made by Bright Moon Foundation to establish this school.

I sincerely hope that Kibou International College provides good services for people of different backgrounds, achieving maximum diversity, creating collaborative cultures, and contributing to building a peaceful and prosperous future.

Dileep Chandralal

Professor Emeritus, Okinawa University, Japan