Community conflict assessments were carried out in two villages in the Buttala area under NPC’s project, Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE). Community facilitators and civil society representatives trained by NPC did the assessments using Participatory Rural Appraisal tools.
The assessments were done to identify the current and potential conflicts, development measures that would bring social cohesion at the local level and the existing local capacities in implementing the measures.
One problem that was identified was that when there were conflicts at the national level, they could serve as triggers for violence among different ethnic and religious groups in the area.
Another issue was in a village in Buttala where the Tamil community was a marginalised group with no access to education in the Tamil language. Many were domestic workers in Sinhala households. They did not have the facilities to practice their own religion or culture.
As solutions to these problems, it was decided to undertake inter religious activities and cultural events to bring different ethnic and religious communities together. Youth clubs will be reactivated to engage young people in reconciliation activities.