Student Exchange
Kalpitiya x Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf

Between October 27 and November 07 2025, students from Berlin and Kalpitiya will come together in Sri Lanka to exchange ideas on pressing topics such as ocean protection, waste reduction and recycling to develop joint strategies für a sustainable future.

The partnership project was launched in 2019 by the Department for Eduaction for Sustainable Development of the Berlin district Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. In cooperation with the Kitesurfing Camp ans School Kitesurfing Lanka and the Berlin based start-up Merijaan, the project aims to raise awarness of the increasing pollution of Kalpitiya’s beaches.

The main goal of the project is to foster public awareness of environmental issues in a creative and tangible way. At the heart of this intercultural exchange lies the question: Why does ocean protection and plastic waste reduction concern all of us?

Using the Education Box #2030, global challenges are explained in the context of UN’s Agenda 2030, laying the foundation for developing local solutions.

The Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka supported the project last year by strengthening the link between cultural exchange and sustainable development. In July 2025, this collaboration led to the open-air photo exhibition Humanity & Earth. The participants explored conceptual approaches to visually capture the relationships between humans and nature while raising awarness of sustainability issues.

This year, the Goethe-Institut is supporting the new project phase with a theatre workshop, providing a creative starting point for intercultural dialogue and connects a young bio-design researcher with the project.