Understanding Differences, Acting on Commonalities

SEARCH 2019 Reflecting on a Year Gone By Message from Nawaz Mohammed, Country Director, Search Sri Lanka

change agents, including most groups have been women, youth and community engaging with decision-making leaders with skill development structures, institutions, and local and knowledge improvement community groups to bring in areas such as conflict attention to their needs, views analysis, transitional justice, and aspirations related to peace peacebuilding, reconciliation, and reconciliation. Further details communication and use of social about our overall achievements media. With improved capacities, have been included in the introduction section of this document and also in the project specific sections.

“Overall, our achievements in 2019 are very significant, especially when you weigh them against what can be described as one Overall, our of the most challenging years for Reflecting on the larger picture, I the country since the organization am happy to see that things are on achievements began to work in Sri Lanka.” the mend given the bleak situation that the country was facing by in 2019 are very In the year 2020, Search Sri Lanka the end of the first quarter.The will continue its work toward year 2019 has been challenging significant, strengthening the national and for Sri Lanka as a country that is local level efforts of transitional still in the process of transitioning especially when justice, peacebuilding and from war to sustained peace. The reconciliation in the country aftermath of the April 2019 Easter you weigh by working in collaboration Sunday’s violence showed how with government bodies, civil fragile the country’s post-war them against society organizations and local context was and the vast amount communities. of work that needed to be done what can be to heal the wounds of war. Search I wish you all a peaceful and Sri Lanka remains committed to described as happy 2020! play its role by creating space for one of the most diverse communities to dialogue with each other and assist challenging them to utilize their collective and individual capacities to years for the work toward reconciliation and sustained peace. country since Looking inward, I am extremely the organization happy with what Search Sri Lanka has been able to achieve in 2019 began to work in by creating common grounds for diverse communities and groups Sri Lanka to listen to each other, share their views and establish meaningful linkages that would last beyond the project implementation periods. We also supported

2 SFCG 2019 Introduction Search has been working in Sri amount of work that needed to be violence and also hate speech Lanka since 2011 with a long-term done in order to the heal of hearts on social media and in inspiring strategy of supporting the country and minds Sri Lankans across innovative approaches to move towards sustainable the country. In this light, it has to peacebuilding and peace and reconciliation become even more important reconciliation; founded upon the principles of for Search to continue its efforts democracy, pluralism and a just to create common grounds  to create space for inter- and society, as it transforms itself from to help divided communities, intra-district dialogues between post-war to post-conflict. With full marginalized groups and change different ethno-religious appreciation of the overwhelming agents from different ethno- communities to heal their challenges that have emerged in religious, socio-economic and psychological wounds through post-war Sri Lanka, Search seeks cultural backgrounds to get to shared memorialization of pain, to promote sustained peace know each other at personal and generating empathy for ‘the and reconciliation across ethnic, communal level while enabling other’ and engaging them in religious and political divides. them to engage with transitional discussions focused on repairing justice, peacebuilding and the social fabric of the country; In 2019, Search Sri Lanka worked reconciliation processes at local with diverse communities and and national level. In 2019, Search  to facilitate a collective impact identity groups with an aim to made a series of interventions approach to develop inclusive increase their participation in that aimed to: urban development and address transitional justice, peacebuilding urban conflicts and spatial and reconciliation policies and  to use popular culture to create injustice. processes. In this respect, we better understanding among worked with women, youth, different communities; In 2020, Search Sri Lanka will war-affected communities, further reinforce its efforts in marginalized and under-  to provide a platform for the two areas of empowering privileged groups giving them women to raise their concerns, women and youth given their space to voice their views, needs and aspirations as well crucial role in peacebuilding concerns and aspirations while as influence the state and the and reconciliation while looking providing them skill and knowledge government on transition justice at ways to engage with social improvement opportunities to policies and processes, and media as a cross cutting theme engage with decision making reconciliation; as well as a platform for outreach structures and public and private and communication with diverse partners in bringing attention  to mobilize youth agency communities and individuals. to their transitional justice, as a crucial tool in countering peacebuilding and reconciliation increased ethno-religious related issues and needs. A great emphasis was also given to create and strengthen linkages between diverse communities and groups with unique experiences of war and violence through bridgebuilding and reconciliation focused efforts. As cross-cutting areas, Search Sri Lanka used popular culture, traditional media and social media treating them as both mediums for communication and outreach as well as platforms whose constructive potential is critical for peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts. The April 2019 Easter Sunday violence re-emphasized that although the war ended a decade ago, the fragile post-war context could unravel in the face of destabilizing incidents. The aftermath of the Easter Sunday incident also indicated the SFCG 2019 3 Search Sri Lanka 2019 At A Glance Jafna Mannar Cyber Guardian

Batticaloa Empowering Woman for an inclusive and Sustainable transitional justice and Reconciliation process in Sri Lanka Putalam We build Together

Colombo Hatton We Lanka Kaluthara Hambanthota Community Memorialization Project Matara Locations of Search Sri Lanka Projects Male and Female Compositions of SFCG Project Participants Ethnic Based Participation

Muslim 33% Sinhala Sinhala Tamil 53% Muslim

Tamil 15%

In 2019, SEARCH Sri Lanka reached an audience of over 6MN people through its media programming and media products

4 SFCG 2019 Creating Space for Dialogues The Community Memorialization Project

During 2019,83 multi-level dialogue sessions were held with the participation of over 2700 persons

In partnership with the Herstories programming to engage with the skills for identification of emerging project, since 2016, the Community general public. The project was conflicts and practical skills of Memorialization Project (CMP) conducted in two phases: In Phase conflict resolution. As a strategic has taken important steps toward 1, the CMP interacted with over 2000 approach, the CMP has used memory repairing Sri Lanka’s conflict- persons within the selected project as a previously under-explored tool torn social fabric. Based on the locations in Matara, Ampara and to support reconciliation among critical imperatives of shared Mannar districts through dialogues, divided communities in the post- memorialization of pain as well as community consultations and war context. generating empathy for ‘the other’, interviews. With the consolidation of all the the CMP was built on to the Herstories above-mentioned project activities, effort to capture individual and The Phase 1 findings also revealed the year 2019 has seen some shared community narratives to that participants acknowledged the encouraging results. prioritize and strengthen community importance of preserving narratives owned memorialization. The project’s as well as developing values that will Search Sri Lanka and Herstories objective has been to facilitate an ensure non-recurrence of violence Project together have developed environment that acknowledges through the establishment of a a resource pack that can be made and preserves multiple histories, reconciliation process. use of for similar memorialization- while encouraging empathy through focused efforts. The resource inter-generational transfer and In order to further strengthen the pack and the documented life inter-regional sharing of memory to impacts of the three-tiered dialogue stories – with permission from the support peace and reconciliation in process, in Phase 2, the CMP participants- are shared on social Sri Lanka. introduced an intergenerational media and web-based platforms dialogue component by involving with a view to create a wider public The CMP’s key activities include youth to engage in dialogue with engagement. The CMP has already a three-tiered dialogue process, adults. The dialogue process created held a traveling exhibition apart from collecting and archiving of safe spaces for communities to hosting an online and a physical narratives to institutionalize share their stories and experiences archive at the national level, similar memory and amplifying the core with a focus on empathetic listening to the Herstories project. messages emanating from the and acknowledgement. The CMP project through innovative media used dialogue workshops to impart

SFCG 2019 5 “We often thought that conflict is bad but after participating in the dialogue I was convinced that conflict can also be good in terms of understanding others and for the development, if managed in proper manner”

Sinhala participant from Kaluthara

“ Earlier, I used to think the war affected only those who lived in the Wanni. But aftter the visit to Mannar, I realized the war has affected people in other areas, too. When the Muslim lady from Thalaimannar narrated her story, I recounted my own experience in the Wanni”

A young woman from the Wanni

“This is my first visit to Mannar. I felt very sad when I listened to the hardships they have undergone. Had I been born and lived here during the war, I doubt whether I would have been able to cope with similar experiences. Still, people in Mannar have survived those experiences and they are very brave.”

A 20 year Sinhala woman from Kaluthura who participated in an inter district youth exchange visit to Mannar

6 SFCG 2019 Using Popular Culture to Create Better Understanding Among Different Communities Change the Channel!

‘Thriloka’ is a fourteen-episode win the football match. Additionally, CEPA assessed tele-drama that was telecast viewer comments collected on the Independent Television Thriloka reached over from the Thriloka Facebook Network (ITN) from December 4.5MN viewers on air and group, which also comprised 2018 to March 2019 another 1.1MN on YouTube. of youth that took part in the (https://www.youtube. two viewer circles. According com/watch?v=FoD8Iw2zu0 to their first round viewer circle k&list=PLqTHbZFu4wu8s5- Search also commissioned an responses, while their change slpaNct8eSie8VNum&index=15) independent evaluation which of knowledge did not indicate a The story of Thriloka is about a was conducted by the Center positive change in attitudes and football team made up of youth for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). The perceptions, 81% of youth and 84% from a multi-ethnic coastal CEPA evaluation team conducted adults mentioned that Thriloka village where all communities two rounds of viewer circles highlighted the importance of peacefully co-existed at the start in , Galle, , living in harmony with all ethno- of the story. A Sinhalese team Badulla and to assess religious communities. member was injured in a road the extent to which Thriloka accident while traveling with his resonated with the audience. The Muslim team member and friend. results gathered from the viewer The peace in their community circles showed that the adults was shattered following this understood the importance of key incident after some Sinhalese messages communicated youth began to accuse the young through the Muslim player of deliberately drama. planning the accident. The story depicts how the village’s Sinhala and Muslim politicians manipulate this incident for political gain assisted by the misinformation spread by some youth from both sides of the divide. Bonds of friendships and ties begin to unravel fast as dark clouds of misunderstanding hang over the village. The drama ends on positive note, though, after the villagers realized that a few individuals were behind the escalated inter-ethnic disharmony and they leave aside their bigotry and prejudices to

SFCG 2019 7 Comprehension of terms such as reconciliation and social cohesion improved in youth from 23% to 44%, and in adults, from 39% to 71%. (The second round viewer circle interviews)

“I am not saying social media is 82% youth and 84% adult "This story made me a different the main reason for racism and participants stated the foremost human being... it made me think ethnically motivated riots in the message they acquired from the anew..." country, but if youth had used drama was the importance of social media wisely, we would co-existence and reconciliation Pasindu Dilshan Liyanage have been able to minimize the with people from different (Youtube comment on Episode damage of Digana riots. I am ethno-religious communities. 13) glad that the ‘Thriloka’ drama showed us something similar and how the youth are being "Bride fainting on the Poruwa, groom running away, Muslim girl misled by false information” bringing a Watallappam with extra cashew, the coach being Muslim, the groomsman being Muslim but wearing a Sinhala traditional A youth respondent from costume... How much those 22 minutes spoke, how many times it Mahiyanganaya stabbed nationalism and certain extremists in our society with a knife... if expressed simply, it is a great teledrama..." “This tele-drama provided us knowledge on what are the main (Youtube comment on Episode 1) reasons for ethnic issues in the country and through the tele- The increase of comprehension of drama, I learnt how these things are happening in the country”. co-existence and reconciliation among youth is over 50% compared to the first A female participant from Kurunegala viewers’ circle round of viewer circles.

8 SFCG 2019 Providing A Platform For Women To Influence Transitional Justice Policies And Processes

During 2019, Search Sri Lanka state and the government for training, conflict identification, further consolidated its formation of stronger policies analysis and management, use contribution toward Humanity for transitional justice and of mainstream and social media and Inclusions effort to establish reconciliation (TJR) process; for advocacy and lobbying on a National Platform (NP) for  prioritized TJR related issues and women in order to facilitate their to act as an effective body networking with journalists. At full and effective participation in that work intensively on district level, women identified the national transitional justice community education on TJR in and prioritized TJR related issues and reconciliation processes Sri Lanka to equip people with such as resettlement, land issues and mechanisms. Women from knowledge and understanding and missing persons, language Ampara, , Trincomalee, for reconciliation; issue and female-headed Anuradhapura, Kandy,  households and their issues. Moneragala, , and to be a proactive body working The women members have Matara districts representing with a greater responsibility been conducting district level to diverse ethno-religious and to prevent any form of future bring attention to these issues. socio-economic have been ethnic and civil conflicts. With the hands-on training provided with the knowledge they received in media use and and skills to strengthen their In order to achieve the production such as speaking in participation in district and above-mentioned objectives, front of a camera and delivering national level transitional throughout 2019, members of NP targeted messages during a justice process in Sri Lanka. have been engaging in lobbying given time frame, effective Members of the NP, Women’s and advocacy, data collection, communication and creating Platform for Transitional analysis and information media messages, NP members Justice and Reconciliation dissemination, coordination have produced posters, videos ( ixys¢hdj i|yd ldka;dfjda or between the Government and cartoons around prioritized நல்லிணக்கத்திற்கான and the people and building, TJR issues.These media பெண்கள் ) have been working maintaining and strengthening products are currently being toward: relationships. used for advocacy efforts at The skill building measures national and district level. One  to be active as a powerful civil for NP members included of the highlights of this year’s society body, influencing the mediation and facilitation advocacy efforts taken by the

SFCG 2019 9 NP has been the production of a document on Missing Persons that was recently handed over to the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) including data gathered and recommendations. Over 150 women who make up the National Platform were trained under this project. “Most of the women who took part in different activities agreed and understood that all communities are experiencing the negative effects of disappearances. Their increased knowledge impact of all communities”

“The participants are now able to identify issues of disappeared families and present those issues to relevant stakeholders”

“Women who participated in the project are able to identify the issues that prevent us from coexisting with other communities and achieving reconciliation”

10 SFCG 2019 Mobilizing Youth Agency for Transforming Ethno - Religious Violence and Hate Speech on Social Media WT2 : Work Together, Win Together

‘Work together, Win together’ - in Jaffna, Mannar, Ampara, campaign. The youth teams WT2- project aimed to engage , Kandy, also received mentoring and youth in a discourse about (Hatton) Colombo, Kalutara, guidance to produce their reconciliation while enabling them Matara and Galle districts with social media products. The to become drivers of change. over 1000 youth; the second WT2 process provided plenty of With an idea to make the national phase focused on social media- opportunities for solidarity and reconciliation process more focused campaigns to counter linkages to be fostered among vibrant and participatory, Search hate speech and promote the youth groups which can now Sri Lanka’s WT2 engaged with positive examples of co-existence be used as platforms to activate youth and their local communities and reconciliation. The We Lanka reconciliation focused activities. in ten districts in the Northern, social media campaign enabled Responses from the youth Western, Central, Southern and and assisted youth groups from participants indicate it has been Eastern provinces of the country. the ten districts to produce and an experience of learning and The WT2 used challenges, team- disseminate positive stories enjoyment for them. based activities and social media of peaceful co-existence and to attract youth and sustain their reconciliation. engagement in peacebuilding and social change-focused During the next stage, the activities. participating teams produced The project was carried out in stories of co-existence from two phases: In the first phase - their communities and the entitled “GO Challenge” - Search best 27 stories selected by an Sri Lanka and its local partners independent panel of judges conducted mobilization activities were featured in a social media

SFCG 2019 11 “I learned how to work with different regional partners who represent different ethnicities, religious and work cultures. It was different and unique than the conventional interventions we often use for peacebuilding work”

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed, it means the damage no lon- ger controls our lives.”

“Taking part in the go chal- lenge boosted our con- fidence and determina- tion to work as a team to achieve a common goal”

“If not for this inter-cul- tural event, we would not have understood the im- portance of reconciliation. Everything was new to us. Interactive games, phys- ical activities and history challenge were very useful to improve our teamwork and leadership skills.”

The Five Winning Teams and links to their Video Documentaries

Illadhan by Fordycia (Hatton) Nawathimuda Eka Thathparayak by 4 star https://www.facebook.com/welankaofficial/ (Colombo) videos/215356022692616/ https://www.facebook.com/welankaofficial/vid- eos/627748071077895/ Helidarawwa by Dream Catchers (Galle) https://www.facebook.com/welankaofficial/ Manitham 2 by Blossom (Mannar) videos/2336002023394411/ https://www.facebook.com/welankaofficial/vid- eos/695573210903517/ Yawarum Nihare by Avengers (Hatton) https://www.facebook.com/welankaofficial/ videos/711236842648230/

12 SFCG 2019 Cyber Guardian: Empowering Youth to Combat Online Hate Speech in Sri Lanka

Misinformation and hate speech related contents disseminated via social media platforms can have dangerous, precipitous effects as have proven in the recent Sri Lankan context during religiously-motivated riots that took place in places such as Aluthgama and Digana. During both these riots, extremist groups and mob organizers took to social media and internet Audience Responses to National based mobile communication Champions’ Post-Training apps such as WhatsApp and Social Media Posts Viber to spread misinformation and even to share information No of likes : 3810 about riot activities. No of Shares : 30192 No of views : 58345 In a measure to counter the No of comments : 4541 spread of social media-based fake news and hate speech, Search Sri Lanka supported two empower youth to be champions related requirements related tech-savvy youth groups based that play a positive role in the to their social media platforms. on a methodology known as social media space promoting The training has enabled both Capacity, Counter and Content reconciliation and pluralism; to groups engage with their peers which addressed related facilitate a collaboration with and local communities across needs among selected youth external stakeholders to share different identity groups to participants. The first youth group lessons learned and ideas for promote social cohesion and was made up of experienced and improving the country’s social reconciliation. established social media users media for positive change. who were also referred to as National Champions; they were District level youth participated empowered to be more involved in a three-day bootcamp where in peacebuilding utilizing their they were introduced to different existing social media platforms aspects of social media, social to counter fake news and hate media’s potential and the role speech contents. The second it can play to promote peace group of youth were selected and reconciliation. The youth from ,Batticaloa, participants also received Kandy and Badulla districts opportunity to improve their and they were trained to use technical skills such as creating social media responsibly while contents, posts, video editing, also capacitating them to use etc. In addition to receiving social media positively for training in the above-mentioned reconciliation. areas, the National Champions group also received training in The project was implemented the conduct of digital marketing to achieve two specific aims: to addressing sustainability

SFCG 2019 13 Facilitating a Collective Impact Approach to Ensure Inclusive Urban Development and Address Urban Conflicts and Spatial injustice We Build Colombo Together

We Build Colombo together by the organizers to invite all (WBCT) is an initiative that has the religious groups to locally been advocating for a Collective organized religious events to Impact Approach (CIA) to ensure pass the message of strength inclusive urban development of coexistence to all. The video while empowering urban documentary prepared parallel communities to address conflicts to the event was on social media “WBCT has showed me, and spatial injustice arising from platforms to share the message gentrification. In 2019, the WBCT country-wide. how creative a govern- project consolidated its advocacy ment officer can be with- activities with government Improving education and officials and public and private employability of local youth: in his mandate if he truly institutions to ensure that new The systems map prepared by wishes to serve the city and mega city and metropolis the WBCT group showed strong its people!” - development projects are based connections between the quality on collaborative problem solving of education, employability, approach and take into account income and quality of life in the collective impact they have Kompannya Veediya. Hence, “Being a member of WBCT on communal eco-systems WBCT looked into a network in areas,which have been of partnerships with a local core team has allowed me earmarked for such development school, private sector members, to expand my knowledge projects. Furthermore, WBCT and Community Development on collaborative urban de- supported co-existence focused Councils (CDCs). The interventions and capacity improvement made through these partnerships velopment and has given needs of the Kompannya Veediya aim at improving educational me an opportunity to serve communities. The Kompannya infrastructure, opening up new communities beyond my Veediya communities that fields of employment, giving are living in urban slum and opportunities to gain experience neighborhood” under-developed areas have in private sector jobs, etc. been identified for relocation to the Navam City Development “Everyday Politics of Kom- Housing complex in few years by the Urban Development Authority. pannaweediya is the rea- son behind success and Inter-Faith Wesak Celebration in Slave Island: failure of anything that is In response to Easter Sunday started here. Knowing how bombings and heightened to navigate such challeng- hate speech and anti-Muslim activities, WBCT teamed up with ing environment and hav- local youth to bring together ing flexibility to do so is the all the religious leaders in biggest strength of WBCT. Kompannya Veediya to celebrate Wesak at Gunawardhanaramaya I am happy to lead it to- temple. The success of the event gether with the core team!” was reflected in the decision

14 SFCG 2019 WBCT engaged with 115 communities and over 330 community leaders on its Identity Cards Project bringing together public, private institutes to Search Sri Lanka work with communities on collaborative urban development projects that are identified and Resources planned by community leaders.

A video prepared by WBCT in response to the Search Sri Lanka has a great variety of open source documents and audio/visual material, which can April 21st Easter Sunday’s violence reached over be accessed online by interested individuals and 40,000 within the first week since release organizations for use with creative production ownership and source acknowledgement for 45 youth were given digital media training to Search where relevant. The resources available work in community -led projects enabling them online include: to actively contribute toward mainstreaming collective impact approach.  CMP tool kit – The CMP tool kit has been produced to document and share all lessons learned experiences gained during implementation of the project. The documents have been compiled with a view to inform and improve similar activities on memorialization.

(https://www.Search.org/tag/sri-lanka-toolkits/)

 www.memorymap.lk : This online platform has archived 320 village histories and life stories of individuals and groups collected by the Herstories and the Community Memorialization Projects. These stories have been instrumental in initiating dialogues within and between different groups on Sri Lanka’s past and the future they want to create together.

 Sikka team Tele series – The thirteen-episode teledrama series was produced by Search Sri Lanka under “The Team” radio and drama series. Although “The Team” has used the global appeal of football in most of the global south countries where the drama series has been produced, in Sri Lanka, the story of the Sikka team was built around the popular game of cricket. The Sikkar team conveyed the significance of reconciliation and co-existence in post-war Sri Lanka and was broadcast in 2016 on Swarnawahini channel. All thirteen episodes are available to watch on YouTube.

(https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ query=sikka+team+teledrama)

 Thriloka Tele series: The Thriloka teledrama is the second teledrama produced by Search Sri Lanka to communicate the messages of co-existence and reconciliation. Thriloka was telecast on ITN channel in early 2019 and all fourteen episodes are available for viewing on YouTube

(https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ query=thriloka+teledrama)

Other project related documents and external evaluations are also available on Search’s website:

https://www.sfcg.org/sri-lanka/

SFCG 2019 15 Searchers of 2019

Photos by Sharni Jayawardena (cover) and Search Staff

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