By Shiyana Gunasekara,
Sri Lanka Unites’ Dream Team just recently completed its school relations tour ahead of the opening of the organization’s fourth Reconciliation Centre in Ampara, scheduled for March 10th.
As a Sri Lankan-American researching post-war reconciliation efforts here on the island, I had a truly eye-opening experience tagging along with the spectacular members of this year’s Dream Team.
I joined the last leg of their second February trip, which covered Bandarawella up through Galle, in the beautiful southern city of Matara. The schools and educational centers we visited in Matara and Galle were Sinhala-speaking, meaning that our multi-lingual Dream Team had to focus their resources in supporting the Sinhala speaking members to vocally lead the workshops. One of the most special dynamics I have seen during my time here was the support given amongst the members to ensure everyone – regardless of their first language – had a significant role in sharing the ideas of SLU to the school children.
These SLU members took time off their busy schedules of work and university lectures to conduct workshops on tolerance, unity and collaboration for the greater goal of grassroots education on post-war reconciliation. While these meaningful workshops included hands-on games, a beautiful digital presentation and engaging with the students themselves, I found that the most powerful display of embracing diversity came when these young leaders introduced themselves to the students. The native Tamil speaking members practiced their introductions in Sinhala and told the students how their primary method of learning this new language was through their SLU friends. Not only did the native Tamil speaking members make their own efforts in communicating in Sinhala to the students and fellow Dream Teamers, but the SLU volunteers reciprocated by encouraging them to practice their second (or third!) language alongside the students themselves – who even thanked members in their native languages. I, as a native English speaker, experienced this same camaraderie as I rehearsed my Sinhala introduction while being supported by all participants of every workshop.
This is the kind of amity that the Dream Team hopes to inspire with their school relations tour and they only lend credibility to their efforts by practicing the values they preach.
The Future Leaders Conference will be coming sooner than you think, this August 2015. I encourage any and all school-age leaders eligible for this fully-paid conference to come and be a part of this amazing event that helps get to the root of the problems among communities that can not be addressed with just politics and rhetoric, but rather healing and forgiveness.
I feel honored to have traveled, even for a short time, with the Dream Team. The work that Sri Lanka Unites does is important and reminds young leaders that their contributions to the future of this country are valid. This group reminded me of why I consider my roots to be in Sri Lanka, as opposed to the U.S. where I was born and raised. This country has had most of its history defined by the beauty of embracing diversity, and for a few violent decades Sri Lankans as a whole forgot that special history and contributed – both directly and indirectly – to the ethnic conflict that remains relevant even with the demise of the civil war. I once felt disillusioned by my faith in my community as well as others to be active agents of social change on this island; however, the work that Sri Lanka Unites does has restored that faith.
Sri Lanka Unites’ Dream Team just recently completed its school relations tour ahead of the opening of the organization’s fourth Reconciliation Centre in Ampara, scheduled for March 10th.
As a Sri Lankan-American researching post-war reconciliation efforts here on the island, I had a truly eye-opening experience tagging along with the spectacular members of this year’s Dream Team.
I joined the last leg of their second February trip, which covered Bandarawella up through Galle, in the beautiful southern city of Matara. The schools and educational centers we visited in Matara and Galle were Sinhala-speaking, meaning that our multi-lingual Dream Team had to focus their resources in supporting the Sinhala speaking members to vocally lead the workshops. One of the most special dynamics I have seen during my time here was the support given amongst the members to ensure everyone – regardless of their first language – had a significant role in sharing the ideas of SLU to the school children.
These SLU members took time off their busy schedules of work and university lectures to conduct workshops on tolerance, unity and collaboration for the greater goal of grassroots education on post-war reconciliation. While these meaningful workshops included hands-on games, a beautiful digital presentation and engaging with the students themselves, I found that the most powerful display of embracing diversity came when these young leaders introduced themselves to the students. The native Tamil speaking members practiced their introductions in Sinhala and told the students how their primary method of learning this new language was through their SLU friends. Not only did the native Tamil speaking members make their own efforts in communicating in Sinhala to the students and fellow Dream Teamers, but the SLU volunteers reciprocated by encouraging them to practice their second (or third!) language alongside the students themselves – who even thanked members in their native languages. I, as a native English speaker, experienced this same camaraderie as I rehearsed my Sinhala introduction while being supported by all participants of every workshop.
This is the kind of amity that the Dream Team hopes to inspire with their school relations tour and they only lend credibility to their efforts by practicing the values they preach.
The Future Leaders Conference will be coming sooner than you think, this August 2015. I encourage any and all school-age leaders eligible for this fully-paid conference to come and be a part of this amazing event that helps get to the root of the problems among communities that can not be addressed with just politics and rhetoric, but rather healing and forgiveness.
I feel honored to have traveled, even for a short time, with the Dream Team. The work that Sri Lanka Unites does is important and reminds young leaders that their contributions to the future of this country are valid. This group reminded me of why I consider my roots to be in Sri Lanka, as opposed to the U.S. where I was born and raised. This country has had most of its history defined by the beauty of embracing diversity, and for a few violent decades Sri Lankans as a whole forgot that special history and contributed – both directly and indirectly – to the ethnic conflict that remains relevant even with the demise of the civil war. I once felt disillusioned by my faith in my community as well as others to be active agents of social change on this island; however, the work that Sri Lanka Unites does has restored that faith.
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