NP leaves Sri Lanka
NP appreciated in Sri Lanka after 9 years there
We are now in our last week of the Nonviolent Peaceforce programme in Sri Lanka. Our files are being packed, many of our local staff have now found other employment, a few colleagues remain with us to assist in finally closing the office. It may be with a heavy heart that we leave but it is knowing that we, and all those colleagues that have come before us, have achieved a lot. Our exit evaluation is now completed and gives us a range of sound recommendations for future country programmes but one thing sticks out, and that is the deep appreciation expressed by so many the evaluators met, that NP has been with them during the most difficult years.
One of our local partners in Batticaloa, Eastern Sri Lankan, recently held a Human Rights celebration day and invited us to attend. Our former Head of Field Office in Batticalo, Chika Onah, went and represented all of NP in one of our final public events.
NP only recently started working closely with this new group of largely young people. We have assisted in information sharing, context analysis and providing trainings in Basic Negotiation Skills for Threat Mitigation (BNSTM) to their large network of youth volunteers. We have also provided them workshops on Protection for Human Rights Defenders as they now prepare to work without NP’s direct support into 2012 and beyond.
Our BNSTM training is an attempt at passing on the essential skills needed to do Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping at the local level. This we believe is one of the key legacies that will remain once we have gone. For our Batticoloa partners it means 18 of their youth are now themselves trainers and can replicate the trainings throughout communities across the district. They also participated in our last Most Significant Change impact study and demonstrated how they are putting what they have learnt into effect.
The International Human Rights Day anniversary programme on the 22nd December 2011 was entitled “Living with Dignity in a Diverse Community by Respecting Human Rights”. This is a clear message that many in the Tamil and Muslim communities of Eastern Sri Lanka yearn to live in a spirit of reconciliation and peace but built on respect for rights and dignity. They also used the occasion to launch their newsletter and also to begin a one year Diploma course in Human Rights. The guest speaker came from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo and also in attendance was the regional director for Legal Aid in Sri Lanka.
Chika, representing the whole of NP, was presented with a small plaque as a token of their deep appreciation.
