Together with the Sri Lankan NGO Future Peace, SAD promotes dialogue at the local community level in Sri Lanka. Sport & play serves as a platform for children and youth to enter into dialogue and (re)build relationships transcending ethnic boundaries.
During the 30-year long ethnic conflict, hopes of sustainable development and peaceful coexistence have decreased and Sri Lanka’s development has been limited. Although the military strike of spring 2009 has put an end to open war, post conflict politics leaves little room to (re)build relationships and promote dialogue across ethnic and religious boundaries. Few platforms for exchange that transcend ethnic, religious and gender boundaries exist. Mistrust and intolerance among different ethnic groups is rife.
In an era of post-conflict, children and young people are especially in need of long-term future opportunities that provide emotional and social stability. Sport & play offer a unique platform to overcome mistrust, heal emotional wounds and to find ways to channel frustration and aggression. Sport & play provide an important basis for peaceful co-existence, to build trust and relationships, promote inter-ethnic dialogue and exchange. This qualitative pilot project aims to assess the effectiveness of sport as an innovative approach in peace-building and at ultimately passing on the knowledge on effective approaches to other relevant actors for replication and scaling up in other regions and districts of Sri Lanka in the future.
Project objectives
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Build trust and understanding among children and parents from different ethnic / religious groups in 8 selected villages
- Increase self-esteem and resilience in children / youth and support them in the process of social inclusion (ethnic, gender)
- Promote and develop social values and skills among participants such as respect for ethnic and religious diversity and ‘the other’s culture and strengthen their capacities to deal with disputes/conflicts in a non-violent manner
- Contribute to the evaluation of the use of sport as an instrument in conflict transformation to provide evidence and share experiences with other relevant actors
Project structure and activities
Local youth from the 8 selected villages are trained as coaches in sport pedagogy, conflict & diversity management and monitoring & evaluation by foreign and local experts. The skills acquired and the experiences gained by them will be incorporated into the sport & play activities with children and youth to promote inter-ethnic dialogue and teach ways of dealing with conflicts in a non-violent manner. Three coaches (Singhalese and Tamil; male and female) supervise and guide the activities 2-3 times a week during the entire project duration. To increase the sustainability and ownership of the project, parents, key persons and local government authorities are informed and actively involved in all stages of the project. For instance, cultural activities promoting knowledge transfer on different traditions and rituals and a mixed New Year festival will be organised by children / youth with the active support and involvement of their parents, key leaders and the broader community.
Target group(s)
Children/youth 9 – 18 yrs; their parents; village communities
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Future Peace Sri Lanka
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Ruveni Wijesekera
Project Manager
+41 (0)32 344 49 60
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