My name is Fouwmy Sahath, and I’m 23 years old. As the Team Leader of a Social Action Project (SAP) entitled ‘Youth Voice for Reconciliation’ in Mutur[1], I focused on bringing my community together and improving relationships in our village with support from SEDR[2].
Santhanavettai[3] is home to Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities, who were forcefully displaced to a new area called ‘New Santhanavettai’ during Sri Lanka’s civil war which ended in 2009. Although we are all part of a larger indigenous community, the fall-out from the decade’s-long conflict had created many misunderstandings and mistrust.
Several incidents deepened this divide, including land disputes which arose when internally displaced villagers returned after the end of the civil war and received insufficient land allocations. There were also heated disagreements over leadership roles within the Rural Development Society (RDS)[4], with frequent verbal abuse. Additionally, the Muslim community’s distribution of dry rations during COVID-19, though rooted in cultural practices, stirred resentment among the other religious groups. Mistrust and animosity among the communities also led to increasing tension on claiming rights over the use of a common plot of cemetery land.
Our SAP team decided to address these issues, taking into consideration our learnings from the training received as part of the SEDR Active Citizens programme. We began by meeting with community leaders from each religious group separately to better understand the root causes of these disputes, and we found land encroachment by the newcomers was a significant factor.
The RDS includes both male and female leadership to ensure equal opportunities for individuals of all genders to assume leadership roles. Our problem-analysis also revealed that the RDS headed by men was more prone to disputes and aggression than the women-headed RDS. This insight led us to design an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) strategy together with the women’s RDS.
To foster understanding and harmony, we organised several social action activities:
We invited all three communities to an awareness programme that emphasised the importance of working together for a harmonious post-war future.
We hosted an ADR session specifically for the women’s RDS, sharing knowledge with them about mediation and conflict resolution.
Recognising persistent social issues like child marriage and illiteracy among women in the community, we conducted awareness on leadership, problem identification and solving, and motivation programmes to empower them.
We also organised collective cooking programmes where members from different ethnic groups provided food items and cooked together, which was successful in fostering unity.
Additionally, we hosted sports and cultural events that encouraged active engagement from all communities.
We slowly noted a positive shift towards communal harmony, with residents now starting to build warm relationships across religious boundaries. We have noticed some positive changes, with residents gradually building relationships across religious boundaries.
However, our journey wasn’t without its challenges. Balancing our personal responsibilities with the demands of the social action project was tough, especially since most of us were undergraduate students with ongoing exams. Moreover, as our main SEDR Active Citizens team was predominantly Muslim, gaining the trust of a multi-ethnic indigenous community was difficult. To overcome this, we enlisted the support of volunteers from all ethnicities within the village, which helped us build trust and reduce scepticism. We also faced scheduling conflicts with government officials and community leaders, whose time was often occupied with income-generating activities.
On a personal level, this experience was very rewarding. I was exposed to the challenges of juggling personal responsibilities, leading a team, and managing time and finances effectively. Participating in the SEDR Active Citizens ADR training was particularly impactful: it was my first exposure to ADR methods and I believe it also helped me develop stronger leadership skills.
The impact of SEDR Active Citizens extended beyond me. The two girls from our team had never been involved in community work before. After our interventions, one of our female team members was invited by a Civil Society Organisation to facilitate their reading circle programme in the Mutur division. The other female team member, who had previously been restricted by cultural traditions to staying at home, was given permission by her parents to engage in higher studies in a university at Trincomalee.
As I continue my studies for a Bachelor’s degree, I’m also working as a teacher. I’m committed to sharing what I’ve learned about ADR with my students, and I hope to continue raising awareness about the importance of peaceful conflict resolution in my community.
[1] Mutur is a town located about 25 km south of Trincomalee, in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka.
[2] Supporting Effective Dispute Resolution (SEDR) is an alternative dispute resolution project funded by the European Union and implemented by British Council.
[3] Santhanavettai is a village comprising an ethnically Tamil population, and it is located in Mutur.
[4] Rural Development Society (RDS) - A social service organisation dedicated to facilitate, empower, mobilise vulnerable people for socio, cultural and economic development towards an improved quality standard of living.
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