Click to view Final 15

Click to view Final 26

The journey of V Awards began in June 2011 with the IYV+10 National Steering Committee members (UNDP, UNV, Volunteer Services Overseas, National Youth Services Council, Ministry of Social Services, The Ceylon Chamber Of Commerce, MBC/MTV , University of Colombo and Sarvodaya) conducting discussions in order to deliberate upon the concept of ‘V Awards’. By August 2011 promotional material had been circulated around the Island and the calling for applications took place. Though a tedious task of managing the hundreds of applications that came the deadline for V Awards, 10th October 2011 had arrived soon enough. From there onwards it was an uphill climb- with a joint effort of the Committee members the long listing process and the shortlisting process took place over a period of two to three weeks.

The applications then moved hands to the high caliber judging panel that comprised of Ms Sunethra Bandaranaike, Mrs Jezima Ismail, Professor Somasundaram Sandrasekaram, Mr Chandra Jayaratne and Dr Vinya Ariyaratne.  Between the applications that were sent in and the supporting evidence provided by the MTV crew that visited the shortlisted candidates it was not an easy task for the judges to determine the candidates that would proceed further. But meetings going on for long hours and many discussions later the decision was made that there would be 26 shortlisted nominees out of whom 15 would be announced as the finalist, the unveiling of the finalist took place on the 5th of December 2011 coinciding with the International Volunteer Day.