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Right: The "unseen" women workers of Sri Lanka

We are proud to introduce SLETP - one of the latest partners to set up shop on the Pan Asia E-commerce Mall. SLETP is a non-profit, educational service dedicated to effectively using the audiovisual and electronic media - Television, Video and Internet - to enhance awareness on environmental and development issues.

"We are excited to be the latest partners to join Pan Asia's Electronic Mall and its online community of like-minded organisations working in sustainable development and social justice issues. We have something useful and interesting to offer, and our shop on the e-mall will enable us to reach out to a global audience."
  - Nalaka Gunawardene, Executive Director, SLETP

The following video titles are now available from the Pan Asia E-Mall: Cargo: Wildlife (English), The Story of Ritigala (English), The Unseen Woman (English, Sinhala and Tamil), Diriya Maga (Sinhala). SLETP will be loading more titles soon.

Having started television only in 1979, Sri Lanka moved quickly to embrace the medium. The island of 19 million is now served by nine terrestrial channels beaming a wide range of programmes round the clock in several languages. It is estimated that almost half the population regularly watches television, and video is also widely used in households, educational institutions and offices.

The Sri Lanka Environmental Television Project (SLETP) offers the country's television broadcasters and video users a broad range of factual programmes on subjects such as environment, development, health, social justice and science. As the Sri Lanka Video Resource Centre affiliated with the International Television Trust for the Environment (TVE), SLETP has access to some of the best factual programmes produced around the world.

SLETP was started in 1995 by TVE and the Open University of Sri Lanka as a nonprofit service to use the audio-visual and electronic media to raise awareness on environment and development issues. As a non-formal educational effort, all SLETP programmes are scientifically accurate, journalistically produced and use engaging, non-technical formats.

The Project's strength has been in forming partnerships - with television stations, universities, government agencies, training institutes and NGOs. Television producers and programme managers turn to the SLETP for complete programmes as well as video footage that is not easily or commonly found elsewhere in Sri Lanka. The Science and Environment Video Library provides non-broadcast users with access to nearly 500 video films that have come from TVE and a multitude of other sources. The videos are regularly borrowed for screenings in schools and universities, community gatherings, public seminars, training programs and for private viewing. For those interested in buying videos, the SLETP sells high quality tapes containing those programmes for which copyrights and distribution rights have been cleared. This usually means SLETP's own productions and all of TVE titles.

SLETP productions cover environment and development issues relevant to Sri Lankan and Asian audiences. Among the other audiovisual services offered are:

• versioning - through voice dubbing - international programmes into local languages;
• providing location and production services for international factual programmes being produced in Sri Lanka;
• promoting Sri Lankan television productions at documentary festivals abroad;
• representing international film festivals in Sri Lanka; and
• organising public discussions on development issues stimulated by video productions.

In all this and more, SLETP hopes that the power of the moving images will inform and inspire Sri Lankans to make the right choices in their efforts to achieve sustainable development.

More information on the SLETP and its activities is available at www.sletp.org

The Sri Lanka Environmental Television Project
24, First Lane, Koswatte, Nawala, SRI LANKA
Tel: (+94-1) 877808
Fax: (+94-74) 403443
Email: sletp@eureka.lk

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2002-03-03

News 32 of 50