By James Crook

Generations For Peace is aiming to unite the Tamil and Sinhalese communities through sportSeptember 2 - Jordan-based international peace-building organisation Generations For Peace has led a Sport for Peace Training programme in Sri Lanka to help rebuild links between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities, four years on from the civil war that devastated the territory.

The training bought together 31 voluntary youth leaders from both communities to assist in the post-conflict transition for young people by teaching new skills to allow them to run carefully facilitated sport-based activities with the aim of using sport to build bridges between the two communities and to break down stereotypes, change mentalities, and begin to develop an understanding between ethnicities.

This also coincided with the first visit to Sri Lanka for the Generations For Peace Institute, which conducts ground-breaking research into the impact of sport on peace building and development in war-torn countries.

"I am a believer in building relationships and bridges with everyone in spite of the differences and difficulties we have been through," one of the volunteers from the Eastern Province participating in the training, Gardi Geethanie, said.

"This training will certainly help me do more in my community because I live in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic community.

"I know that the skills I have learnt will be very useful and that I can do something to make a real change."

Generations For Peace has led a Sport for Peace Training programme in Sri Lanka to rebuild links between the Tamil and Sinhalese communitiesGenerations For Peace has led a Sport for Peace Training programme in Sri Lanka to rebuild links between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities




Nitharsan Chandrasekaram, a volunteer from the Northern Province, echoed these sentiments, saying: "I have had a lot of experience working on training and capacity building for community-based organisations, but the content covered in this training is new for me.

"I am very happy to be part of this training because I can take all my new skills and combine them with my existing knowledge and experience.

"There are so many issues that we need to address in this post-conflict era and Generations for Peace is coming at the right time to help us address them.

"We have learnt new theories which we can apply practically in the communities."

Generations For Peace was founded by Jordan Olympic Committee President and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Prince Feisal Bin Al Hussein and his wife, Princess Sarah Al-Feisal, dedicated to sustainable peace building and conflict transformation through sport, arts, advocacy, dialogue and empowerment, and has been recognised as one of the world's top 100 non-governmental organisations for 2013 by The Global Journal.

Generations For Peace programme officer Dinesha Suppiah said: "This training and research visit gives these amazing volunteers skills and confidence to lead change.

"It was a chance to meet and work together, which they are doing without barriers, and they will now continue to work together on programmes in their own communities in October.

"The powerful sport-based techniques they have learnt will help them to promote tolerance and trust, and to bridge these conflict divides."

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