Reduce religious conflict in Sri Lanka

Thank you for your support of inter-religious peacebuilding in Sri Lanka! It has been a while since we have updated our GlobalGiving donors, so we have a lot to share from the activities these funds have supported over the last few years.

This GlobalGiving project supports the work of local interfaith councils that were formed during our 2011-2013 program in Sri Lanka. Through these councils, community-based religious leaders are working in their communities to foster reconciliation, build cooperation among youth of different faiths, counteract misinformation and hate speech about minority groups, and use their influence to prevent new conflicts from escalating.  

Since 2013, these councils have enacted a range of important peacebuilding activities, each coordinated and provided with primary support by our colleagues at the Sri Lankan organization Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena. Since we last updated you, GlobalGiving donations have been used each year to support each of the following activities:

• In September 2019, interfaith religious leaders in Batticaloa—one of the cities where a church was bombed by terrorist attacks earlier that year—worked with Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena to bring Tamil and Muslim youth together (the Tamil ethnic group includes primarily Christians and Hindus). The goal was to develop mutual understanding across the deepening religious divides, and engage the youth in preventing retaliatory violence. Many of the youth entered the dialogues with harsh preconceptions about the other group, fueled by hate speech and rumors that spread quickly through social media. Most participants had a transformative experience; at the end, 50 young leaders created an interfaith “youth circle” with plans to continue meeting monthly, and they planned to jointly implement two public, interfaith community projects to improve the living standards in area communities.

• In September 2020, Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena partnered with district inter-religious committees and media experts to hold a one-day workshop for more than 50 selected journalists on ethics of journalism and social media. The workshop, “Reporting without Discrimination Among Diverse Communities,” focused on the special importance of media ethics and conflict sensitivity during times of stress—such as the COVID-19 pandemic and related inter-communal tensions. Participants in the workshop explored the impacts of fake news and hate speech, in both formal channels and social media, and the critical need for unbiased, independent reporting. They collaborated on case studies to practice unbiased reporting, and discussed examples of how they planned to apply insights from the workshop in their ongoing work.

• In July 2021, local peacebuilding councils in Trincomalee and Batticaloa took action to support the mental health of children experiencing stress, anxiety and depression during the pandemic. Community-based religious leaders collaborated across faiths to engage children in four different age groups in a friendly “7 day challenge” competition. A total of 840 children completed this independent program, which encouraged them to cultivate inner peace, express themselves, give respect across differences, and connect with nature and their community.

• And most recently, in 2022, these funds supported Sarvodaya’s expansion of its “community kitchens” model as over 70% of Sri Lankan households reduced their food consumption due to hyperinflation. Sarvodaya’s community kitchens have been an essential way for community members to work together to improve food access for the most vulnerable people, with preschool-aged children particularly susceptible to malnourishment and its lifelong consequences. This expansion of the community kitchens model specifically serves preschoolers onsite. Funds are primarily for the costs of food staples (budgeted at $.42 per child per day, at 50 preschools over three months), as well as appliance purchase for set-up.

Thank you for your continued support! We look forward to updating you as we continue to support the vital work of Sri Lankan peacebuilders in their communities during these very difficult times.