We have defined the mission of this workshop as “Bringing Kalyana Mittata into Human relationships – creating caring communities”.  The workshop has a strong focus on internal transformation of individuals, groups, organizations and societies. Some of the aims of this workshop are;

# to provide activists the opportunity to experience and share with others their innermost responses to the present conflict realities in Sri Lanka

# to provide people the opportunity to compare with others their own perceptions and innermost feelings regarding heritage , tradition and identity and confront and compare different constructs of identity , patriotism, nationalism by engaging in exercises and responding to selected art works such as films and music

# to provide people with concepts, critically drawn from   theories of conflict transformation ,  cultural anthropology and other branches of critical cultural studies that can illumine their own power to take part in the ‘transforming and healing work

# to provide approaches and methods by which they can dismantle problematic cultural constructs and create alternatives

# to enable people to support each other , forging better relationships clarifying their intention and affirming their commitment to the healing   of the Sri Lankan life.

Who should attend this workshop

The workshop is designed for social activists who are engaged in dealing with more challenging aspects of culture and structures of the conflict. FLICT partners who are working in the cultural domain and other key actors of civil society such as media personnel, communicators, artists, religious leaders and teachers are among the target group for whom the workshop was designed.

Basic knowledge on conflict transformation is a prerequisite to attend this workshop. It is advisable to first attend the ACT workshop before taking part in this workshop. 

The workshop runs for 2 1/2 days. 

Most Recent Workshop

The workshop was held in Sinhala medium. The focus was on understanding the structural and cultural dimensions of the conflict along with the role of the actor/ agency in conflict transformation. The workshop methodology was designed to be participatory and had a repertoire of exercises, reflective group work, case studies, film appreciation and games.

“We used a lot of exercises from image theater and found that participants really warmed up to it. From our first workshop, we have worked a lot on methodology. Our focus is on experiential learning, which in itself must be a trasnformative journey for the participants of our workshop.” says Hasini Haputhanthri, co-facilitator of the workshop. Dr Sunil Wijesiriwardene has been working on this theme for a long time and has been the think tank behind the success of the workshop.