News

Empowering communities: Building a civic space through education

Using beneficiary driven approaches directly help identify the daily needs of communities. One prominent example is the Kebethikollawa Divisional Secretariat in Anuradhapura District where people both protect and then enjoy their civic space. Under the LAW (Legal Action Worldwide) project, NPC conducted a facilitation meeting which resulted in the construction of a road between the village to Kebethikollawa Model Primary School.

A panel discussion followed by a book launch on Fake News, Dis-Information and Propaganda in International Relations was organized by NPC in cooperation with the Nepal-based Consortium of South Asian Think-Tanks (COSATT) with funding from Konrad Adenaur Stiftung (KAS) in Colombo.

Over 50 children representing Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim schools put peace into practice on International Peace Day under the theme of Actions for Peace in Kandy by creating works of art depicting peace during an event organised by Kandy DIRC and supported by the Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project.

According to the International Convention to Civic and Political Rights Article 25(c) “Every citizen has all the rights and opportunities without any of the distinction and without unreasonable restriction to have access, on general terms of equality to public service in his country”. One particular service accessed by “all” citizens in Sri Lanka is the state postal service. However, people living in the plantation sector do not fall under “all”.

The Action for Religious Coexistence (ARC) project implemented by NPC conducted a residential training programme for 43 CBOs and NGOs from 13 districts focused on developing the capacity and the understanding of the participants on the importance of establishing pluralism and the rule of law to bring about religious coexistence.

In the spirit of fostering inclusion and promoting women's empowerment, the Women Organized for Inclusion through Community Engagement (WOICE) project organized a series of meetings to bring together women leaders, state officials, former women Local Government Authority (LGA) members and women political leaders from the seven districts of Matara, Gampaha, Kegalle, Ratnapura, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Monaragala.

The course participants of the Advanced Certificate Course, Inclusive Service Delivery for Sustainable Peace, which is funded by Freedom House and facilitated by NPC with Sabaragamuwa University, held a language camp and fact finding mission. The participants comprised government officials, most of whom engage in front line activities with the people. This activity was focused on school children and the estate community living in the Nonperiel Estate, one of the oldest tea plantations in the country. The language camp was held at Vivagananda Tamil School located outside the estate, which has classes only up to Grade 8. The children study under tremendous hardships. Some students walk 12 kilometres up and down daily.

Working on finding ways to restore trust between people since 2002, my life experience has contributed greatly to my actions towards social inclusion and promoting sustainable peace. In my experience, I feel practicing the values of dignity, respect and trust motivate peace and an inclusive society. It strikes me that the two key words in designing and thinking about social inclusion and coexistence are dignity and respect; dignity about our own existence and values and respect for the differences that define another person's existence. A third component plays a central role: trust.

With Sri Lanka continuing to be in the throes of economic crisis, the focus of popular attention, and governmental initiatives, is on economic matters. However, the issue of inclusion, which informs peace and makes peace possible, is also important to the economic restoration of the country and its people.

One hundred and eighty District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) members, including religious leaders, government officials, youth leaders, university students and plantation sector communities, joined the walk of men and women working in the plantation sector organized by Collective for Maanbumigu Malaiyaha Makkal from Thalaimannar to Matale from July 28 to August 12. The walk, retracing the journey of the first group of Tamils brought to Sri Lanka to work on the plantations in the hill country, aimed at focusing attention on taking actions to address the pressing problems of the Malaiyaha community.

The concept of police brutality is not foreign to Sri Lanka and many commentators have accused the police of employing violence and abusing the law in the name of maintaining public order and national security. Due to the three decade war, the police has had to transform itself into a battle ready force; it is common for police officers to carry assault rifles.

Connecting emotions, experiences and expectations have been central in the project aimed at improving the capacity of staff of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). Funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CLFI), NPC concluded the OMP project with nine sessions of outreach on empathy building. Held in Colombo, Matara, Mannar, Jaffna and Batticaloa, the sessions were delivered to the members of victim families as well as government officers with the objective of reconciling the issues and conflicts identified in the service delivery process. 

Elephants, associated with cultural and religious values, are seen as sacred animals and cultural symbols; they are also used for economic activities and tourism development.

Problem mapping is a technique used to analyse and understand complex problems by breaking them down into smaller components, figuring out the relation between these components, visualising and choosing what component to prioritise first. Mapping community problems is important to identify root causes and actual issues that are related to democracy and the vulnerability of women. Under NPC’s Women Organized for Inclusion through Community Engagement (WOICE) project, problem mapping discussions were held in the Matara, Monaragala, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Ratnapura, Gampaha and Kegalle districts with the participation of 35 female supergroup members and 140 female peer group members in each district.

When it comes to wounds, injuries or injustices of the past, different words carry similar meanings; the commonalities lie in what experiences change in individuals, groups or organizations in the future. Therefore, the past has to be dealt with before looking to the future.

The CSO Collective held a meeting to discuss the deteriorating conditions in the country in which hardships of the people continue to grow along with governmental suppression of dissent. NPC was one of the core group of organizers. More than 500 leading civic activists from across the country attended the meeting. NPC took on the task of ensuring participation by clergy from all religions by facilitating the attendance of 68 religious clergy from its 17 District Inter Religious Committees as well as 25 youth and seven coordinators from its Local Inter Religious Committees. In addition, 24 representatives from NPC's partner CSOs at the district and divisional levels also attended.