Caritas Sri Lanka organized an orientation workshop under the latest project implementation named, “Helping People Move Towards Reconciliation”. This is a CAFOD UK funded project aimed at establishing Peace and Reconciliation among different ethnic groups who are divided by various social boundaries such as ethnicity, religions and languages. The project will be implemented from May 2017 to April 2018.
The orientation workshop of the project, held on the 24th of April had the participation of Diocesan Directors of Batticaloa and Rathnapura along with the project staff. These two Dioceses were selected, especially due to the high concentration of ethnically mixed communities in the districts of Batticaloa, Ampara (Batticaloa DC), Kegalle and Rathnapura (Rathnapura DC). They were located under the purview of the above two Diocesan Caritas Centres.
According to the project goals and objectives, this particular social & ground situation is ideal to implement a project of this scope and nature. Under the project implementation, members of community groups, local officials, CSOs and religious leaders will have improved attitudes and practices for promoting reconciliation and peaceful co-existence between communities of different ethnic and religious groups. With the change of attitudes, they will understand the issues of different communities and would create a mechanism to address ethnic and religious tensions. The National Centre programme staff and the CAFOD UK Programme Accompanier Mr. Mahinda Gunaratne facilitated the workshop.
