Community involvement in peace sensitive tourism Sarvodaya Experience in Sri Lanka

Transcription

1 Community involvement in peace sensitive tourism Sarvodaya Experience in Sri Lanka Dr.Vinya Ariyaratne General Secretary Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement Sri Lanka

2 Community involvement in peace sensitive tourism Sarvodaya Experience in Sri Lanka Introduction to Sarvodaya Philosophical approach to peace and reconciliation Community involvement in tourism Sarvodaya experience Lessons learned

3 Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement Sarvodaya Awakening of All Shramadana Sharing of Time, Thoughts and Energy Individual Family Village Urban Nation World Spiritual Moral Cultural Social Economic Political

4 Sarvodaya Strategy Spread the philosophy Initiate process of selfdevelopment Support those who pick it up as best as we can

5 Beginning of a Long Journey , , Sarvodaya

6 Village Development as a Continuing Holistic Process Sarvodaya Village Development Financial Center Grama Swarajya (Self Governing Village) Stage v Sharing with neighboring villages Stage iv Income & employment generating and self-financing Stage iii Satisfaction of basic human needs and institutional development Stage ii Social infrastructure development and training Stage i Psychological infrastructure development

7 Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka Outreach to 15,000 villages 5400 registered village societies 26 District Centers 8 Development Education Institutes and 4 multipurpose community centers 11 legally independent organizations Sarvodaya

8 Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka Stages: Ealam war 1 ceasefire Ealam war 2 ceasefire Ealam war 3 ceasefire Ealam war 4 Norwegian Facilitation Timeline: months months The Impact of the war 60, ,000 killed 23,327 service personnel killed, 60,000 wounded 27,000 LTTE cadres killed 11,644 LTTE cadres surrendered/taken into custody Impact on economy, property, livelihoods War coming to an end through military means

9 CONSCIOUSNESS How we think about ourselves, our inner being, our spiritual lives, our interactions with others ECONOMICS POWER How we maintain our physical existence and obtain our basic needs How human beings govern other s behavior for the good of all (politics)

10 Path to Paurushodaya Personality Awakening Four Brahma Vihara s (Sublime Abodes) 1. Metta Loving Kindness 2. Karuna Compassionate Action 3. Muditha Altruistic Joy 4. Upekkha - Equanimity

11 Tourism and Reconciliation Sarvodaya annually receives hundreds of foreign visitors to learn its unique development philosophy Hosts formal academic programs for leading foreign Universities Locally - Facilitates People-to-people exchanges

12 Voluntourism

13 A Two-way process

14 Impact of Community Tourism Contributing to village development through participation in social and economic activities. Living in and Learning from the community. Knowledge and skill transfer Individual transformation as well as creating better international understanding of country s reality.

15 Creating new economic opportunities for youth Vocational Training in Tourism

16 Reintegration of war affected youth Vocational training in Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Trincomallee and Batticoloa. Integrated programme Employment oriented knowledge and skill development. Phycho-social development. Spiritual development Reintegration with families Employment

17 People to People Contact to promote reconciliation Building young leaders, encouraging co existence, and empowering youth in their Communities Three camps of 4 days duration held in Trincomalee, Kalutara and Jaffna. Participation of 100 youth in each camp - making up of a total of 300 Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim youth

18 Lessons Learned Country is still in a transition it s a slow, complicated process First do no harm social and cultural sensitivity. There has to be an integrated and holistic approach (economic, social, spiritual and environmental). Tourism should contribute to healing (mind, society and environment).

19 Thank You!