“AHIMSA exists to promote and develop moral, educational, spiritual and mental development and psychological well being among diverse ethnic groups and society at large through conflict transformation.”
-AHIMSA’s website
I had a task to complete in Sri Lanka. Within two months, I would have to settle down in a total unfamiliar country, get used to my new internship, learn as much as I can about Sri Lanka in terms of the conflict. My internship site was at AHIMSA, a Sri Lankan non profit organization (NGO). But it seemed only like yesterday that I was making my thrilling daily journey to work. I can still feel myself being squeezed on an old rusty bus that carried triple its capacity. It makes no difference how you are dressed or how much money you have once you are on a Sri Lankan bus. Around me were housewives, businessmen, workers or even beggars all trying to get hold of the handle as the bus swirled around each corner. I got off this bus, walked through several busy streets with no sidewalks and arrived at AHIMSA sweating and face covered with dust every day.
The first day at the AHIMSA, I was given a welcome pack with all the important information and was welcomed with ice cream during lunchtime. Monica, one of the directors, gave me a mini “orienation” of the job by giving me a brief history of AHIMSA and its current situation. AHIMSA was established as a conflict resolution NGO by Kassapa Diyabedanage, Monica Alfred and Indika Pushkumara in 1999 after the three had worked together in another organization. Kassapa and Indika are both male Sinhalese Budhists and Monica is a Tamil Catholic. Indika is mostly in charge of accounts while Monica and Kassapa runs programs. The term “Ahimsa” is a religious principle of commitment to non-violent actions. AHIMSA has done many peace projects, dialogue groups, training workshops and activities for adults and children throughout the country. It is also in the process of building a resource center for conflict resolution books and videos. The directors’ long-term plan is to develop AHIMSA into a Barefoot University for Peace and Development to motivate and provide individuals and communities with the skills to live in peace.
The AHIMSA office is located in Nugegoda, a suburb of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. It is a nice two-story house hidden behind a big metal gate in a small alley just off a busy junction and a huge bustling market. The house built originally as a family home was rented and converted into an office building. The office is just like a family, as there are only three directors, eight staffs and couple of foreign volunteers and interns. Besides the two directors Kassapa and Indika and the housekeeper Wasantha who are males, the rest of eight staff and volunteers and Monica are women. All except Indika are single and unmarried in their twenties or thirties. We all walked barefoot in the building; eat lunch together using our fingers (that’s the only correct way to eat rice and curry, in case you are wondering) and wait patiently to use the few computers available.
The six main projects AHIMSA is working on are: A level school project, Children’s club and Microcredit for mothers in Merihana, USAID Viewer Circle project, Tsunami Psycho-social workshops, a Resource Center and a newly launched Peer Mediation project for children. I was lucky to get to know a bit of each of the projects except for the A level school project. The school project was a long term initiative managed by Sureka to integrate peace studies into the Advanced level curriculum (also called A levels, is an examination students have to pass in order to get into universities) by having students start projects about peace for their A level projects. The Resource Center is Himali’s effort to collect and organize resources on conflict resolution to make it into a library accessible to everyone. The USAID Viewer Circle is Kassapa’s idea to bring a movie about the war to show to people in villages to change their thinking. The tsunami psycho-social program is a series of workshops over a course of two years to help tsunami victims overcome their trauma. Monica designed and implemented these workshops by herself. I shared a flat for one month with my fifty seven year old flatmate Martha. Martha was asked to come to Sri Lanka for a few months to design the Peer mediation program and give staff training to implement it.
Thanks to AHIMSA’s good ongoing relationship with foreign universities and organizations, AHIMSA always had a good flow of incoming volunteers and interns. Unfortunately, most volunteers and interns lack the skills or language required for the job so there has always been a problem with getting the most out of each person’s ability. AHIMSA even reached a point where they had to have a staff meeting on “Why we should have volunteers and interns”. Luckily for me, after considering the pros and cons, AHIMSA decided that having interns and volunteers is still worth the trouble. Therefore, as part of an agreement between the Ethics Center at Brandeis and AHIMSA, I was sent there to work as a Coexistence Intern. Having no real experience of conflict resolution and only basic information of the conflict from a course I took at Brandeis prior to the internship, I could be considered totally unprepared. I didn’t know what was expected of me and had no plans of what I would do. For me, everything was new and I viewed it as a learning experience. Indeed, I learned a lot. Within my two months with AHIMSA, I learned what it is like to operate on a grass root level as a local NGO, I traveled with them to their workshops, partied with them and tried my best to somewhat be a part of the family. Among the NGOs in Colombo, AHIMSA did a good job of establishing themselves and has a good reputation. They also did a good job of welcoming me.
Disclaimer: My blog is for entertainment purposes only, please do not take it seriously or personally. Thank you!
