Peace and Education for kids

The initiative aims to enable a future generation to grow up co-operating and respecting one another by creating Sinhala-Tamil bilingual children. It is hoped this will improve trust between ethnicities, so reducing conflict that arises from miscommunication and misconceptions.

Description

The ground work of the initiative is completed and the initiative is scheduled to start in the beginning of 2007, along with the start of the first semester in schools. Currently it is scheduled to end in 2009, but we hope to extend the initiative if we can find a way to sustain it. The target group of the initiative are Sinhala and Tamil monolingual school children from grade 1 to 12. the initiative starts Tamil and Sinhalese classes for these children in public locations, thus enabling the two ethnicities to have better communication among each other.

Aims / Objectives

The initiative aims to create Sinhala Tamil bilingual children who do not have a language barrier in communicating across ethnicity.This hopes to improve trust between ethnicities, more understanding towards each other and cooperation. A future generation who grow up with the ability to communicate with each other in either language would highly contribute to the positive transformation of the ethnic conflict.

How it is Articulated

The initiative appoints Sinhala and Tamil teachers to teach these languages to Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim children. PRDF informed the schools and children about the initiative and invited the children to participate in the language classes that are held after school hours. The classes will be held at school premises, at the Temple and the Kovil (the Hindu temple/ shrine).

Achievements / Learning Points

There are both Sinhala and Tamil schools in the area and often the children go to the school that teaches in their mother tongue. However, when the idea is proposed to the teachers and children in the ground preparation level, they were enthusiastic about the idea and the teachers in the Tamil school offered to teach Tamil to Sinhala speaking children and the Sinhala teachers offered to teach Sinhala to the Tamil speaking children.We have received feedback that this is an important task that has to be done for achieving ethnic harmony in the country.

As it is, the initiative includes only the school going children in the area due to various difficulties that might arise in including drop-outs as well. However, the impact of the initiative would be even more if we can find ways to include the children who have dropped out of the schools as well through holding the classes in a place separate from the school and having it at times convenient for them to attend, such as late afternoon, evening or the night.

Geographical Area of Operation

Dimbulagala, Medirigirya, Lankapura

Funding Resources

The ground work is done with the contribution of PRDF, and we are still in the process of finding a funder for the initiative

Organisations Involved

Mahaweli Adikariya