Winning peace through interaction and greater understanding

By Indeewara Thilakarathne and Ranga Chandrarathne

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice- Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

The only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction - Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)

Janaki Kuruppu, Chairperson of the Mother Sri Lanka Trust

The ambers of mistrust and myth among the diverse ethnic and religious groups in general and between the children of Kilinochchi, which was the nerve centre of the 30 year terrorism and their counterparts in the south in particular seem to be withering away with the ambitious programs launched by Mother Sri Lanka Foundation aimed at fostering peace, reconciliation and promoting inter and intra ethnic understanding among diverse ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka.

The cornerstone of such programs is the objectives of rekindling the justifiable pride of being Sri Lankan, engineering faith and confidence in the country, inculcating proactive and positive attitudes to create positive energy in every Sri Lankan resulting in making a lasting contribution to the nation.

Denuwara Mithuro or Friends of two cities is such an ambitious initiative by Mother Sri Lanka Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Education which brought together 200 children from Kilinochchi and Homagama in a five-day camp which was conducted from September 30 to October 4 at the Management Training Centre in Meepe in Homagama.

The camp was aimed at fostering greater understanding among diverse ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka.

The host of activities during the course of five days commenced with a series of speeches by Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim religious leaders exposing the participants to diverse religions, customs, rites and cultural practices. The emphasis of the exercise was on commonalities among diverse religions rather than their differences. The highly interactive program provided an atmosphere conducive to free expression of ideas and views which was encouraged by the camp leaders. To iron out difficulties in languages, at least to a considerable degree, children were given a brief introduction to Sinhala and Tamil facilitating communication among themselves.

At the end of the camp, Mother Sri Lanka Foundation presented each child with a tri-lingual dictionary (English/Sinhala/ Tamil).

One of the primary objectives of Mother Sri Lanka Foundation is to inculcate patriotism, positive thinking and peaceful co-existence. A series of lecturers have been delivered on these themes; Renton De Alwis, one of the trustees’ of the organisation spoke on the importance of being a good citizen while Deepal Sooriyaarachchi spoke on confidence building, positive thinking and how to be successful in life. Capt. Elmo Jayawardene stressed the importance of changing individual attitudes and how such a change would yield benefits to the country as a whole.

Dr. Kalyani Guruge, member of the Mother Sri Lanka Foundation spoke on the importance of healthy living and nutritional value of local food and good lifestyle habits.

The host of interactive programs of the camp included Yoga, meditation, singing, dancing, games, and several sports events. Mother Sri Lanka Foundation notes that the friendships formed among the children from Kilinochchi and Homagama would further flourish extending to their extended families leading to forming relationships among the adult population in Kilinochchi and Homagama. In the second tier of the program, children of Homagama would travel to Kilinochchi to participate in a similar camp.

Mother Sri Lanka Foundation

Mother Sri Lanka is a collaborative effort of the public, non-governmental and the private sectors in the country leveraging on the strengths in each sector with leadership and direction from the President’s Office. The campaign aims at bringing together diverse perspectives in an inclusive manner with empowerment and development as a goal in the long run. It is hoped that the initiative would demystify the ideas about the past and allow discussions on what can be done for the future to stand up as strong individuals and a nation across disciplinary and practice lines.

The campaign is aimed at an action - oriented change in the behaviour fuelled by a gradual shift in the perceptions and will lead towards positivism and optimism and will act as a wakeup call to look at things differently and actually lead to action.

The Mother Sri Lanka Foundation was established under the Companies Act of 2007 and is characterised as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. The donated funds, profits or other income from the Foundation will be re-invested for purposes of promoting the objectives.

The Foundation has a Board of Trustees and will employ an Executive Director, Directors and Project Coordinators as needed. Monitoring and evaluation of activities will be through the Foundation and the Presidential Secretariat.

The broader and long –term objectives of the foundation include conducting activities, programs, communication campaigns to build pride in being Sri Lankan and develop positive thinking about Sri Lanka and initiate activities at grassroot level to contribute towards nation building through the development of professional, physical and spiritual wellbeing of all Sri Lankans and attract international resources towards developing Sri Lanka, through motivating Sri Lankans and Sri Lankan interest groups overseas and act as a facilitator between receiving and donor parties in Sri Lankan by liaising between stakeholders from the private and public sectors, NGOs and INGOs.

The camp under the banner of Denuwara Mithuro or Friends of two cities was sponsored by Save the Children and GIZ and was conducted by the Mother Sri Lanka Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Education.