I stood in the middle of the auditorium. Teams of students waved their flags and called out to me to choose them. It dawned on me that hosting a segment of forum theatre at the Future Leader’s Conference would be harder than I'd anticipated.
Volunteers and SLU
Team members approached me, "Choose people from Mathara, Kegalle, Kandy
Knights. They haven't had an opportunity to perform". I took in their
suggestions, while thinking I also wanted to ensure an equal ethnic and gender
representation.
During most of my
hours at the conference, I often contemplated how each activity must be
"inclusive". A good event ensures Sinhala, Tamil and English
translations. It ensures Tamil and Sinhala speakers participate equally. It
ensures that young girls participate as much as young boys. And, I always get
quite upset if this standard isn't met.
But, here I was
walking down the aisle of the auditorium about to choose a
person to perform. As I walked, students called out to me on both sides.
"No one has chosen our team" many called out.
I could only
choose one. So, I chose one to the best of my sensibility.
Two young boys (of different teams) with furry in their eyes
approached me. “Why haven’t you chosen our team?” they questioned. “You haven’t given us a chance”.
I was taken aback. Did he really think I was purposely excluding
them?
Intention is tricky thing to judge. That much I know. Here I was trying to be as just as possible,
but I was being accused of unjust intent.
As I stood in that auditorium looking into the eyes of this young
boy, I thought. ‘It must be so difficult to lead and manage so many people’. The
chaos that ensued in that auditorium as hundreds of kids screamed and cheered
to have a team member perform on stage was intimidating.
No matter how much I intended to ensure every student felt
included, when there’s a hundred kids screaming at you, I’d miss a few or maybe
many.
But, what I wished for at that moment was that those students
could know and see that my intentions were pure. I hoped they’d sympathise with
how difficult the task was.
At that moment, I settled with the realization of how difficult it
is to ensure inclusivity in a conference, in a nation.
We should always strive for that end goal. But, we should also
have compassion and humility towards one another when we fail to reach that
ideal. Sometimes the task is daunting, it’s a difficult one. Nevertheless, we
must strive to spread that inclusivity as a necessity on this Island.
And, it’s comforting to know that Sri Lanka Unites is doing its
best to ensure inclusive intent spreads through the hearts of our future
leaders.
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