Sri Lanka Unites – School Tour
Sri Lanka Unites is a group of young people changing the country, and they are keeping at it.
After bringing students from all over the island to two youth leadership conferences, they are now on a bus tour of the island. I have been following their videos and stories online and it is really amazing to see.
Positive
Some people believe in boycotting Sri Lanka or punishing the government before reconciliation begins, but I don’t think that works. What about the young people that have to wait? For their sake, we have to start right now.
The vital task at hand is not rolling back the war, it is rolling out the future. It is about uniting Sri Lanka in heart and mind. In some circles, however, even talking about this is difficult. Among the diaspora, many people don’t identify as Sri Lankan and the term an identity is surprisingly controversial among the english speaking elite at home. Many do not like the flag, or want the government to make certain moves before they do anything. This, I think, is a minority. A vocal one, but the future doesn’t belong to them. There are many more people putting hope into action.
What is great about Sri Lanka Unites (led by Prashan de Visser) is that it is run by young people reaching young people. Rather than setting prerequisites for peace and documenting what is wrong, they are just going out and making a change. What I have seen through their experience is that the ground reality is actually a lot more hopeful than cynics would have you believe.
Simple
What is beautiful about what Sri Lanka Unites is doing is that it is so simple. Difficult and complicated to do, but simple in its final application. Kids are making friends with kids from other parts of the island. Before the war sports and scouts and stuff did this, but it needs a bit of a kick start. It is actually much more effective than any top-down political solution or even political devolution. These are kids making friends with other kids and actually uniting as people, not political parties or voters. Just people.
I was especially encouraged by a young man from Kegalle who said his new Tamil friends visited for local New Year and that they were visiting in December. I was also struck that a young man, Ashan, from Trinity said not only did his mind change, he changed his mother’s mind as well. That is how change generally works, especially change of the heart. From the youth, from the ground, a few young people at a time.
In another example, a young man from Jaffna visited Matara for the first time and was laughing about how he got a rose from a Sinhala girl saying, “I think we have reached the first step for reconciliation”.
Change
This is how change starts and reconciliation begins. It isn’t something the government can dictate or legislate, and it is not something that can devolve from the centre.
The government can certainly get out of the way or do more than it is doing, but reconciliation is ultimately between people on the ground. Rather than lobbying the centre or international bodies, true change makers like Sri Lanka Unites are doing it school by school, town by town, person by person.
Admittedly, a better education system would mix students from within towns and across regions (through sports, etc) better than it does, but civil society can pick up some of the slack. Each young person that groups like Sri Lanka Unites reaches becomes an ambassador to their families, to their communities and to the nation and world at large. They truly are supporting a new generation of leadership.
I for one find this very exciting, and you can actually follow it all without trekking round the country with them. Just ‘like’ Sri Lanka Unites on Facebook (facebook.com/pages/Sri-Lanka-Unites).
I think you’ll like what you see.
Short URL: http://www.thesundayleader.lk/?p=49986
Posted by
sanjeewa
on Oct 30 2011. Filed under
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Polonnaruwa, being a district where many ancient kings
governed this island, is a very important part of the identity of this country.
It was indeed a great pride and joy for us to be able to reach out to the
younger generation of this district, and shape them for being leaders in a
reconciled Sri Lanka.
We arrived at Batticaloa on the 2nd of November,
in the night and were hosted at Sarvodaya Campsite. We were all exhausted and
in need of a good night’s sleep, and so retired to bed immediately.
The next day, we divided into two groups, one heading to
North of Batticaloa and the other to the South. The team that headed north
visited Vakarai Maha Vidyalayam, Palchenai Madhya Maha Vidyalayam and Kathiraveli
Kannaki MahaVidyalayam while the team that head south visited Al-Hira
Mahavidyalayam and Eruvil Kannakipuram Maha Vidyalayam. This enable us to cover
many school within a limited time period.
The next day, the weather conditions proved favourable, and
we managed to visit two schools and conduct assemblies there. At Akkaraipattu
Central College, the Principal was very interested in the cause and also
attended the workshop we held later in the day. We also visited Bandaranayake
Balika Vidyalaya, which was one of the few Sinhala schools in the district. 
We arrived at Monaragala on the 1st of November.
Rajakeeya Vidyalaya was the only school from Monaragala that had attended the
conference. Just as the name of the school suggests, we got a very royal
welcome, with two dance performances from the students of their school. We
initially conducted an assembly, which was followed by a workshop. Mo/Mahanama
Central College, Vidyaloka Maha Vidyalaya and Dombagahawela Central College
were some other schools that attended the workshop. 
We had a good feedback from the participants after the
workshop, and we believe that next year’s FLC will have more than one school participating
from Monaragala. Monaragala and Badulla are two districts where we were able to
really expand our scope of influence as a result of this road trip.
We finished the day by having a late lunch at one of the
students’ place. Later, on our way to Ampara we also paid a short visit to
another student’s home. The warm welcome and the response we received at Monaragala allowed us
to leave the district confident that SLU has a long future there.
That evening, we had a small workshop for the Girls Orphanage next to the Elders' Home where we were residing at Badulla. The workshop went better than we expected. Many of the Girls were very interested, and were involved throughout the workshop. We also made a donation of a few uniform and stationary packs to the girls in the orphanage. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience.
Sri Lanka Unites is a group of young people changing the country, and they are keeping at it.
