Establishing Harmony Centres in Sri Lanka

We have won one of the most ruthless wars. But

how can we embrace peace?

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and

blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our

entire society, will benefit from our peace” - Thich Nhat Hanh

‘When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of

person who can live at peace with others.’ -Peace Pilgrim Quote

• .

Introduction to Harmony Centres in Sri

Lanka (HCS)

Objectives

• To promote community initiatives in harmonious living

• To enhance inter-cultural, inter-ethnic and inter-religious interactions

• To recreate and sustain a resilient nation

Focus

• Cultivate and promote the importance of harmony and reconciliation

• Engage local communities in a manner that embraces their unique heritage to foster a collective rich national identity.

• Add value to the individual, social, economic, health, spiritual needs

Values• Being sensitive and

respectful towards diversity• Understanding ground

realities and providing sustainable solutions;

• Responsible and resilient in promotion of harmony and reconciliation; and

• Empowering people by enhancing their ability to become meaningful contributors.

Structure of the Harmony Centres

National Leve

l

• National Advisory Committee• National Harmony Centre Secretariat

District

Level

• District Coordination Committee• District Harmony Centres

Community

Level

• Harmony Clubs

National Advisory Committee

• To Develop Policies and Guidelines, and advice on HCS

• The committee will consist of representatives from,o GOSLo Security Forceso Religious Dignitarieso Selected NGOs

National Harmony Centre Secretariat

• Implementation of the Project• Monitor District Harmony Centres and• Critical Feedback

Nati

on

al

Harm

on

y C

en

tre S

ecre

tari

at

Research and Training

Resource Centres

Culture & Entertainment

Sports & Physical Education

Community Assistance

Health & Wellbeing

IT & Media

Maintenance

Research and Training• Implement and Manage Research projects,• Organize Conferences, Seminars,

Workshops, • Training programmes including language

training, conflict transformation, Sri Lankan Studies, History

• Publish research findings

Resource Centres on Harmony

National Resource Centre (NRC)

District Resource Centres (DRC) (24)

Harmony Club Resource Centres

Role of the Harmony Resource Centres

• To collect, classify, process and deliver print and electronic information on Peace and Reconciliation.

• The resource centre will include material concerning, o Sri Lankan Studieso Historyo Sri Lankan Cultureo Sri Lankan Identities o Conflict Resolution, o Human Rights in relation to Peace and Conflict Resolution, o Ethnic Issues, Religious Conflict, o Cultural impact on peace, o Transitional Justice, o Government , UN and NGO reports on peace

All Resource Centres will be networked and inter-linked with the Government Libraries and Civil Society Network for Information Sharing.

Harmony Resource Centres should be people friendly, interactive, equipped with state of the art technology and well designed using unique Sri Lankan architecture to portray distinguish identity and attract people.

Culture and Entertainment

• Cultural and Entertainment unit will work on enhancing all forms of cultural activities by organizing,o cultural festivals, o artist camps, o photographic and artist exhibitions, o dance and drama festivals and o conducting performing arts training programmes.

• This unit will work closely with Ministry of Culture and Arts to give significance for its activities.

Sports and Physical Education

Sports and Physical Education unit

• will work closely with Ministry of Sports and Ministry of Youth Affairs in developing physical fitness, peace and harmony through sports.

• This unit will also focus on reviving traditional sports and martial arts.

Community Assistance• will develop the plan of

action with the consultation of the community.

• They will work closely with the community societies, Samudhri officers, NGOs and INGOs.

• Would provide direct support or link community to the required services.

Health and

Wellbeing

• work on reviving the traditional healing and wellbeing practices in the university community. Such as organizing yoga classes, meditation classes, Ayurveda, Siddha and other forms of traditional healing clinic; workshops on wellbeing.

• This unit will work closely with the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine and Ministry of Health in fulfilling their vision.

IT and Media

• Online Harmony Centre

• Publicity on Mass Media

Online Harmony Centre

A platform to share news, resources and interact on Harmony in Sri Lanka. The On-line Harmony Centre will link all the Harmony Centres, Harmony Clubs and Harmony Libraries.

The Objectives,• To create awareness and share information on the activities of

Harmony Centres,• To promote Government agenda for reconciliation and transitional

justice in Sri Lanka,• To provide a record of programmes conducted through the web page; • To provide information on policies, laws, project reports, research

papers, baselines, evaluations on reconciliation and transitional justice through a web portal,

• To provide access to online resource databases and scholarly information on peace, reconciliation, conflict resolution and on Sri Lanka and to promote Reconciliation and transitional justice through Social networking interfaces

Staff – National Harmony Secretariat

• National Project Director• Six National Project Coordinators (Research & Training, Library, Culture, Sports, Community Support, Health & Wellbeing)

• National Webmaster • Admin Officer • Finance Officer• Assistants

District Coordinating Committee

• To coordinate and implement Projects at the District Level

• Members of the Committee will include representatives of o GOSL o Security Forces o Religious Dignitaries ando Selected NGO

District Harmony Centres

• Establish and Monitor Harmony Clubs

• Organize activities at the District level,

• Provide feedback to the National Committee on District level Harmony activities.

Staff – District Harmony Centres

• District Project Director• Six District Project Coordinators (Research & Training, Library, Culture, Sports, Community Support, Health & Wellbeing)

• IT Office• Admin and Finance Officer• Assistants

Harmony Clubs• Established in all schools and all Universities

• Linked to the District Harmony Centres  

• The School will appoint a Teacher to Coordinate the activities.

• The School Harmony Club Library managed by the Librarian in the School.

The Pilot Project

Harmony Centres in Killinochchi and Jaffna

Actively Initiating and promoting the work of Harmony Centres will endorse the

commitment for Reconciliation and will effectively contribute towards

sustainable development of Sri Lanka.