Sri Lanka Design Festival launches ‘Returning Voices: Sri Lanka’

• Platform for diaspora leadership and collective impact

The Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) has announced the launch of ‘Returning Voices: Sri Lanka,’ a new platform designed to strengthen engagement between Sri Lanka and its global diaspora community. 

The initiative welcomes diaspora leaders to contribute to areas they care about, from youth empowerment and innovation to entrepreneurship, cultural exchange, and community upliftment.

While Returning Voices is envisioned as a broad, multi-focus diaspora movement, its first activated chapter focuses on youth, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Innovation, and future-skills development.

First phase: 15 merit-based AI scholarships

 The SLDF welcomed Ian and Rebecca Joseph from Toronto, Canada, as the first diaspora supporters to kick-start this initial chapter during their participation in the SLDF staged in Colombo in November 2025.

As part of this launch phase, 15 fully funded need and merit-based scholarships will enable underserved youth to pursue the BTEC Diploma in Applied AI at AI Academy (January-December 2026).

AI Academy, a sister organisation within the Academy of Design (AOD) Education Group, is Sri Lanka’s first higher-education institute dedicated to design and innovation. With internationally recognised BTEC accreditation, experienced faculty, and a practice-based curriculum, AI Academy has spent the past three years strengthening its footprint at the Colombo Innovation Tower. The institute focuses on preparing youth for the emerging digital economy through applied AI, data literacy, human-centred innovation, and employable skills training.

The scholarship program will begin its pilot intake with selected students from rural Sri Lanka, including those from communities where the AOD and its partner institutions have been engaged in ongoing development efforts. Students will be selected based on potential, need, merit, and motivation to pursue technology-driven career pathways.

With additional partners and supporters, this scholarship cohort has the potential to expand from 15 to 25 students in the coming year.

The SLDF expresses its deep appreciation to Ian and Rebecca Joseph for their early support and leadership, which has helped give Returning Voices its tangible beginning.

Ian Joseph, a former student of St. Joseph’s College who left for Canada at the age of 16, is a seasoned financial leader and cultural advocate. He is the President of Paradigm Capital Inc., one of Canada’s leading independent investment banks. 

With over 35 years of experience in the finance industry, Joseph has built a distinguished career that bridges capital markets, strategic planning, and organisational growth. Beyond his corporate leadership, Joseph plays a pivotal role in Canada’s arts landscape as Chair of the Board of Directors at the Shaw Festival, one of North America’s foremost theatre institutions located in Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

A passionate supporter of the arts along with his wife Rebecca, who serves on the Shaw Festival Board of Governors, Joseph and his partners at Paradigm Capital have sponsored one of the Shaw Festival’s theatres and several performances each season for over 15 years. 

A future vision: The Mobile AI Academy

While the immediate launch centres on scholarships, Returning Voices carries a broader long-term vision.

A key future component will be the Mobile AI Academy, which will be Sri Lanka’s first travelling AI-skills classroom.

This platform will bring advanced AI literacy, creative tech training, and employment programs directly to remote districts across the island.

The mobile academy will become a second-stage expansion, to be implemented after the successful completion of the first scholarship cohort.

A platform with multiple diaspora pathways

Although the first chapter focuses on youth and future-skills, Returning Voices is designed to grow into multiple diaspora-led streams, allowing each supporter to choose the area they want to champion. Future pathways beyond the current youth and future skills may include: entrepreneurship and business mentorship, cultural and creative industries, innovation and digital development, community upliftment initiatives, and sustainability and circular economy projects.

Returning Voices has been conceived to evolve with the interests, capabilities, and passions of Sri Lanka’s global 

family.

 Next steps

• Need and merit-based scholarship applications open for the 2026 AI Academy cohort. 
• Diaspora Leadership Circle opens in January for global Sri Lankans wishing to mentor, advise, or support Sri Lankan youth.
• Planning for the Mobile AI Academy begins as Phase 2.
• Expansion of scholarships cohort to 25 students with additional partnerships.

A collective beginning for Sri Lanka’s future

 Returning Voices embodies a simple belief: when Sri Lankans around the world reconnect with purpose, they create new opportunities at home. The youth-focused pilot, supported by Ian and Rebecca Joseph, marks only the first chapter in a larger, multi-year movement led by the SLDF and its partners.

As Returning Voices grows, more diaspora leaders, institutions, and communities will be invited to join in shaping the initiative’s next chapters.