Humanist volunteers have been active in Sri Lanka since the1980’s, generating a variety of development projects mainly in areas of health, education, housing, personal development and quality of life.

The main task of this movement is simple: to strive to place the human being at the centre of society with nothing placed in a higher position and no human being above another.  Today the movement has gathered several thousand members in Sri Lanka and its work in promoting peace needs more support than ever to help bring an end to the violence which has torn apart the two communities of Tamils and Singalese.

The philosophy is based on a concept of overcoming violence. It defines violence as existing within the whole strata of human existence. Acts of physical violence are all around us in the world but they usually have their roots in other forms of ‘violence’ which are more difficult to see at first.

The world now has far more awareness of these issues and when we examine our own lives, we can probably identify many types of ‘violence’ although we may not give them this name.

• Witholding respect for the viewpoint or ideas of a person (psychological violence?)
• holding back, ignoring or denying your own feelings or the feelings of another person or the believing that your own feelings are more important than someone else’s (emotional violence?)
• denying  a person or group the right  to express themselves in their spiritual or religious belief or practice (religious violence?)
• stopping individuals or groups from having access to enough money for their well being and an adequate standard of living and the monopoly of money and resources which causes others to suffer (economic violence?)
• institutions such as the government creating laws  which are not unanimously supported through consensus and consultation and which clearly serve the powerful few (institutional violence?)

Education and personal development have a special priority amongst Sri Lankan humanists in the light of the huge problems generated by over 20 years of violent confrontation between the Singhalese and Tamil communities. This conflict has created thousands of victims and sunk the country into human and economic misery.

Central to these projects are techniques on

• conflict resolution
• acceptance of diversity
• reconciliation
• as well as the understanding of the relationship between individual and social violence

When setting up a project emphasis is placed on its continuity and self-reliance. Efforts are focussed on creating an organisation capable of taking responsibility, generating funds (by way of fundraising or self finance) developing skills, volunteering their work, liasing with like-minded groups and local officials.

Humanist initiatives of these type exist in more than 40 locations in central and southern Sri Lanka, as well as in universities particularly at
Jayewardenaphura University whose former Vice-Chancellor, Dr Seneviratne Epitawatta is the founder of the movement in Sri Lanka. Most projects operate at village level and are all carried out by VOLUNTEERS.  Examples of these are:

• the prevention of dengue fever
• English teaching
• electrical and building skills development workshops
• the development of home gardens with a complete variety of vitamin and protein rich plants and vegetables
• the collective construction of homes
• the collective cleaning and repair of wells, water supplies and sewerage etc.

After the tsunami disaster volunteers collected and distributed food, clothes and medicines in several affected areas. Humanist volunteers took responsibility for the reception and distribution in both Tamil and Singhalese affected areas of more than 30 thousand euros in medicines and equipment sent by European humanist organisations.

Your contribution to these efforts is greatly appreciated.
A regular or periodical contribution to the Charity Foundation for Human Development can be organised.