Monday, 19 July 2004  
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Sharing experiences, inspiring hope

Rashida is a lawyer, an activist and a member of the Commission on Gender Equality in South Africa. After a briefing on the peace process in Sri Lanka on her arrival, from the 22nd - 27th August, Rashida and the MWRAF team criss-crossed the island from Colombo to Batticaloa to Puttalam in order to meet the peace activists and community based organisations working on peace issues at the grassroots level. We sought to move away from the Colombo centred approach to peace and reconciliation and to support and strengthen peace initiatives of MWRAF partners at local level in the East and in the IDP community in Puttalam.

The field visits highlighted some of the ground realities impacting on the current peace process as well as the persistent problems and challenges in realising peace. Rashida's input highlighted that any peace process is a difficult one and is bound to be marred by various obstacles. She particularly emphasised the role that civil society can play in overcoming these obstacles. We also took the time to visit Butterfly Peace Garden which is a garden of reconciliation and healing for war affected children from the Batticaloa district.

Through engaging in what the garden refers to as Earthwork, Artwork, Heartwork and Healing, it assists both children and adults who have suffered the horror and helplessness of war to reconnect with themselves and their outer world. The garden left a deep impression on Rashida who was keen to share what she had learnt there when she went back to South Africa. She felt that although children and youth in South Africa had been immensely traumatised, there had so far been no similar effort to address and heal the trauma.

Back in Colombo, Rashida met with some members of the Sub Committee on Gender Issues in the Peace Process and discussed possible future follow up action and also took time to give two presentations. One on 'Peace and Reconciliation in South Africa' and the other on the 'South African Commission on Gender Equality'. Both presentations were very useful and we hope to publish them as occasional papers in the near future. Overall the visit was helpful to reflect on our work in the area of conflict resolution and highlighted the need for intense monitoring at the field level.

The discussions also highlighted the need for immense patience and sustained efforts in the long term to keep the peace process on track and the need to seriously reflect on the factors that will unite us as Sri Lankans. With the current turmoil in the country, civil society needs to seriously question, where the peace process is heading.

(Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum (MWRAF) newsletter)

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