Several activities for youth were held under NPC’s project, Youth Engagement with Transitional Justice for Long Lasting Peace in Sri Lanka, including a training workshop on Transitional Justice (TJ) for 46 participants in Ratnapura, a stage drama on TJ for 650 new students at the Eastern University students and information sessions in Trincomalee and Batticaloa.
The stage drama was organized by workshop participants as a follow up of the university training programme. The information sessions were also project follow ups.
Forty six participants including youth parliamentarians, Red Cross volunteers and war affected people attended the workshop in Ratnapura. The young people were critical of the country’s politics and pointed out that they were not represented in Parliament. They were hearing about TJ for the first time and expressed enthusiasm to change the situation. Activities included a stage drama and group sessions.
After the TJ workshop conducted at the Eastern University, participants organized an introduction course on TJ for 650 new students.
Students trained by NPC on TJ performed a stage drama in Tamil about TJ, a different approach to the usual lecture format. The drama was written and performed by students themselves. In the play, students represented the four pillars of TJ and answered questions. The new students were asked to fill out a survey on what they had learnt.
The students said that this was the first they had heard about TJ and they wanted to learn more.
School, university and vocational training students in Batticaloa and Trincomalee had follow up information sessions to raise awareness on TJ led by the youth who had been selected at a previous training programme.
Each session used different methods such as question and answer sessions, discussions and lectures. Games and activities were used to make the sessions interactive and to build team cohesion. The participants said they had gained knowledge on TJ and understood why it was important.
Youth leaders felt their knowledge and leadership qualities had improved. They wanted to continue raising awareness through social media platforms and, for a start, they created a WhatsApp group and Facebook page.