One Country; One People
An Interactive Workshop Series in Kattankudy to Celebrate All Faiths of Sri Lanka
As January dawned, it filled me with excitement, as the long-awaited journey to Kattankudy was finally upon us. I was in charge of two Interfaith workshops, one at the Bismi Institute, arranged by Mr. Firthouse and the other, at the Harmony Center, coordinated by Mr. Jawahir.
Icebreaker
Whenever I organize a workshop, I try as much as possible to make it interactive and interesting. We began with an icebreaker, and after a few minutes of mayhem and chaos trying to locate family members according to a very long, sometimes unpronounceable name, we formed our families and posed for a photograph. It was just the start we needed to get the girls into a receptive mood.
Group activity 01: learning & unlearning about other religions
Our next activity saw the participants playing a sorting game with the four major religions of Sri Lanka. There were ten facts from each religion, all jumbled up, and the girls, in groups, sorted them into each category. Each group was responsible for providing feedback on one of the religions, and any fact placed erroneously brought about a healthy, much needed discussion across all the groups. It was encouraging to see the shy, timid girls opening up and asking questions and offering their opinions.
Group activity 02: Drama on religions
We then ventured into some drama, where the girls acted out stories from Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. The playscripts were all in English, and the girls were told to speak in Tamil, if they felt more comfortable, but every single person spoke their lines in English, unwaveringly and confidently. It was wonderful to witness the transformation of the girls during the drama segment, as they found props and other items needed to enhance their performance. It was awesome to see how well they communicated in English and were able to deliver excellent performances for all the skits.
Group activity 03: identifying similarities to respect diversity
The final activity planned, was to analyse and appreciate the similarities we find in all religions. The girls, once again worked in groups to identify key criteria that is found in all the major religions and we ended the session with a discussion about how important it is to celebrate our similarities, instead of identifying our differences.
The workshop concluded with the message that all religions have core values that are the same, even though there are many differences, and identifying these similarities is what is paramount to honour and value, in order to be respectful and tolerant about everyone around us.
The SLRM team wishes to thank Tassy Dahlan for facilitating this workshop and Aboobacker Siddeeque for translations.
All photos captured by: Aamilah Abdurrahim – Volunteer at SLRM.
Tassy Dahlan is serving the SL Reconciliation (SLRM) and the Easter Attack Survivors Project (EASP) as a valuable volunteer. She is a teacher by profession and a social activist for a variety of causes. She has lived overseas for a major part of her life, most of which was in Africa. She strongly believes respect, tolerance and being open minded to others’ views will bring about a peaceful coexistence for all.