The National Seminar of the Youth Action for Just Peace was conducted from 21st to 23rd April 2017 at Chinthana Center, Nainamadama, Sri Lanka.
The purpose of the seminar was to train the youth leaders of YMCA as Peacemakers and facilitated by the leaders of YMCA of Pamunugama.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the seminar, Mr. Lahiru Sameera, the chairman of the steering committee of the project said that; “We came a long way through this project, step by step and now we have reached the most significant event of the project.”
He further said that; “ Our country was involved in a deadly war for more than thirty years. We lost thousands of lives and wealth because of war. Our people, especially our brothers and sisters in North and East suffered a lot because of this war.
Finally, the war was ended in May 2009 in a deadly manner but still we have to ask the question; do we have real peace in our country?
The absence of war does not mean that we enjoy real peace…
If we want real peace each citizen of this country should be able to feel that they are equal to each other no matter what community they belong to.
At the same time, people should be feeling that they are respected and accepted in all aspects. Today we do not hear the gun firing but in many aspects we experience injustice is taking place.”
One of the significant activities of the seminar was a session on Citizen Journalism that was conducted by Freddy Gamage, the editor of “Meepura News”. The youth leaders expressed their interest and consent work as Citizen Journalists after this session.
Youth Peacemakers – YMCA of Pamunugama