Members of the Beruwala Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) visited Ampara and shared their experiences with the LIRC members of Addalachenai under NPC’s project Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF), in a bid to promote inter religious and inter ethnic harmony.

The initiative - in which 33 members the Beruwala LIRC participated including religious leaders, government officers, police officers and CBO representatives - was the first in a series of visits planned for other LIRCs.

The activities were designed to be informative and entertaining, where participants visited Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic religious places and attended experience sharing sessions and group activities.

The group activities fostered amicable and lasting relationships between the members of the two committees, where they were given the opportunity to find a partner from the other committee and share experiences and ideas.

Another objective of the programme was to make the two committees aware of each other’s work, so that they were able to discuss progress made in conducting activities, issues faced, challenges encountered, solutions found and knowledge they gained from the visit.

Participants visited places of religious worship and held discussions with religious leaders, which shed light on the reasons behind the communal violence that had taken place earlier in the year.