It all started early in 2022, when a small, like-minded team was put together by Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana. Of course, this idea had been taking shape and morphing into many patterns in his mind for quite a few years before this – like a puzzle slowly coming together over the years.

As we all got together and listened to him speaking passionately about the need to address a pressing issue in Sri Lanka’s education system, we were all inspired. We’d like to say the rest is history, but it was not all smooth sailing from there and the journey has been far from simple. What we can say is that our collective passion is still alive and we are hard at work navigating our way through unchartered territories.

We wanted a name that embodied the essence of Sri Lanka with Asian roots and thus after much contemplation and friendly debates, we settled on Avinya. While we can’t claim expertise in Sanskrit, references suggest it signifies innovation. The name resonated with us all and the decision was unanimous!

So, armed with a name, the subsequent stride involved crystallizing our purpose.

It took us a while to formulate a clear vision with so many things that needed attention but we managed to narrow it down after many discussions (and of course a few good natured arguments).

Our vision emerged as a picture or a painting where we envisioned a world where every underprivileged post O-Level student, who has veered away from the conventional higher education path, is not only supported but celebrated for their potential. We recognized the absence of skill-oriented training for these students, leaving them without the essential employability skills required to enter the workforce with confidence. At a pivotal turning point in their lives, they were like ships adrift, uncertain which path to choose at the crossroads they faced.
Our challenge was to wade through the sea of doubt, mountains of obstacles and provide these students a transformative learning journey towards life success, armed with crucial 21st-century skills and a sense of purpose through individual attention, career guidance and a commitment to excellence.

After a few months of planning and preparation in 2022, we realized that our next step to make this dream a reality was to start recruiting a group of Educators who embody our vision and passion. After setting up a basic website and doing a mammoth amount of work behind the scenes we advertised for our pioneer group of Educators in August 2023. In true Avinya fashion, we gave ourselves very tight deadlines to achieve this crucial but challenging task.