Sarvodaya Shanti Sena CC

Our purpose is to promote non-violent action, training and education in peace efforts and to offer a wide range of activities to bring out harmonious integration of all communities and religious faiths.

This is the first CC registered in Sri Lanka. With a wide network in about 1500 villages in the country, ours is an NGO with a great reputation for peace initiatives. We undertake a wide range of programs for community development and peace building. The war that has taken an enormous toll on Sri Lanka and its people during the past 20 years has been concluded with a cease fire. The political agreement is very fragile and must be strengthened by building public opinion, which is among the many tasks facing Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena. We want to bring together the youth, in particular, through peace dialogues. Inter-cultural cooperation among selected leaders is being tried out by providing opportunities for youth from the North and East to get together to develop mutual goodwill and understanding at the village level. At the close of one gathering of North and South youth, a Tamil girl said "We have known Singhala soldiers only as enemies and not as civilians. Now we realize that we are all human beings with similar aspirations. Even though we are poor, we brought thirty bags of rice as a token of goodwill." Such experiences help to bridge the gap. This past year we had an interfaith conferences, an essay competition for peace, interfaith dialogues, and 12 interreligious youth exchange camps. Overall, there were 10,000 beneficiaries. To learn more, visit www.shanthisena.org