A progress review meeting was conducted for NPC’s partner organizations and DIRC coordinators under the Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project. Discussions on the economic
crisis and the outlook for the future were facilitated by Chief Executive Officer of Advocata Dhananath Fernando and Export Development Board Chairman Suresh de Mel. Participants were shown ways to improve the local economy and how to find resources for growth.
Coordinators of 17 District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) presented their achievements during 2022 and demonstrated how project activities had impacted their communities. They also shared the challenges they had faced during the implementation of the project and how they had overcome these challenges.
A Hambantota DIRC member shared one experience where a teacher at a school was harassing another teacher who was of a different ethnicity. Some parents and students were also treating the teacher badly. A DIRC member spoke to the people concerned and after that the matter was resolved and the teacher was no longer under threat.
Several workshops were conducted under PACT for capacitating local women leaders, youth and government officials. A workshop on pluralism was held for senior government officials from the Badulla District. An official dealing with disaster management said he had undertaken several projects to resettle people who were displaced due to the natural disasters but that now he understood he had to consider people’s feelings, their wants and needs before resettling people who were leaving their homes where they had lived for many years and going to live in a different area.