New Beginnings

Today is the last day of the summit. The morning started off with Awista Ayub, the South Asian Regional Director, Seeds of Peace, spoke on the work she’s been involved in with the organization from 2012-2015. Seeds of Peace work predominantly in the Middle East and Asia. Awista is very honest in her speeches, and, while she conveyed the amazing work on what Seeds of Peace does, she also spoke about the struggles which arise to sustain. Her presentation was both insightful and beneficial to the gathering.

The delegates then split into their regional breakout teams and a member from each regions spoke to all the other groups, sharing the experiences that they possess over the past three days while  discussing the action plans, which have come out of these discussions and the issues that were discussed.

President of Global Unites, Prashan then addressed the delegates encouraging and explaining how excited and hopeful he was to have a group of such dedicated, passionate youth from around the world.

After a group photo and some morning tea, the buses departed for the closing ceremony. It was time to drive to Colombo, saying final goodbye to MIMT.

The buses left at 3.30 pm  towards BMICH , where the closing ceremony was held. We all arrived at BMICH after a long drive to Colombo. The closing ceremony started with traditional Sri Lankan dance entering the room, as the delegates arrived closely behind. With all of the participants from the 5-day summit and local members of the Sri Lanka community; from highly regarded individuals School chapter members of Sri Lanka Unites to students of Sri Lanka Unites Youth Reconciliation Centre, many gathered for this closing event making it a locally embraced.

Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala extended his support while articulating his hope in his keynote address. He said, “we see a bottom up approach, and now we are seeing a top down approach from the government.”

High Commisioner Geoff Doidge addressed the crowd saying that he is inspired by the work of Global Unites and Sri Lanka Unites. He affirmed his support at all possible means in the progress of the movement. He was inspired by the people he has met and amazed by the questions he was asked.

This was followed by some amazing Baratha dancing, which is a Tamil cultural dance. It was wonderful to have these talented dancers a part of the ceremony.

Randhir, Kanji and Rajeeva performed for us all again.

Through the ceremony, delegates were recognized by the countries they come from. Their work and efforts were highlighted and brought to the attention of the wider world. Interns from Sri Lanka Unites were called upon the stage and recognized for their sweat and toil doing all the ground work for the summit being the hosts.

To end the summit Kanji, Randhi and Rajeeva sung the song Wavin’ Flag. This ended the inaugural Global Unites Summit for 2015, which is not the end, but the brand new beginning of a journey towards creating a better world of Peace.