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| Monday, 11 March 2002 |
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By Ananda Pathiraja Half a million persons from 15,000 villages will congregate at the Mahamevna Uyana in the sacred city of Anuradhapura to perform a Sama Samadhi Bhavana, Peace meditation on March 15. The event organized by the Sarvodaya Movement will begin with the ringing of temple bells opposite the Sri Maha Bodhi at 1 p.m. Simultaneously bell will ring at several other religious sites including the Kiri Vehera in Kataragama, Munneswaram Kovil in Chilaw, Nallur Kovil in Jaffna, St. Joseph Cathedral, Vinayagar Kovil and Muslim Mosque in Anuradhapura. The meditation program will be conducted by the Sarvodaya leader Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne. Simultaneously, starting on the peace mediation day one thousand villages in the War-torn North and East will be linked to 1,000 villages in the South as sister villages. Villagers in the South will continuously go to the villages in the North and East with necessary skilled and unskilled labour and material to start rehabilitation of houses, wells, tanks, schools, toilets and place of religious worship. The two decade long war has devastated the economy of the entire country. However, its effects are most acutely felt in the active war zones of the North and the East. Sarvodaya's Sister village Link - up Programme will encourage local villagers to help each other in providing basic services. Another goal of the 'village to village link - up programme' is to bring together villages of different ethnic, religious and language groups together. This will help people to overcome their fear, anger, animosity and prejudice of each other, while providing opportunities for people to express care, concern and loving kindness toward each other. The slogan of the link-up programme is 'village to village, heart to heart'. |
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