PEACE VIGIL to promote unity

In 1969, the Rotaract youth movement was introduced to Sri Lanka which has now grown to 4300 members across the country. These members aged 18 to 30 hail from various backgrounds, communities, private and state universities, educational institutes and corporates. On Saturday 25 May, 250 of their members attended the Rotaract District Conference at the Sri Lanka Foundation under the theme, ‘Inspire the Future’. The conference was held to highlight the club’s achievements, future planning, provide networking opportunities and participation in workshops on achieving peace and coexistence through youth volunteerism.

As part of their evening programme, a Peace Vigil was held to provide a platform for the youth to share their thoughts and views on peace, co-existence and ways to build a resilient community.

Many Rotaractors spoke on the role of the youth in maintaining communal harmony and their determination to ensure lasting peace and that one of the main benefits of being in Rotaract is that it doesn’t look at things like caste, religion or culture as a difference. That it doesn’t really matter who you are, but how you work together as one team.

The Peace Vigil included the lighting of lamps in the shape of Sri Lanka and several musical performances which included popular singer, Sajjad Hassan, two finalists of the Rotaract Friends in Action talent programme - Vikum Gunawardhana and Uvindu Jayasinghe and Rtr. Elon Newton –the joint- club service director of Rotaract District 3220.

NETMEE

“For me, Rotaract is friendship, unity and inclusiveness. If not for Rotaract, I wouldn’t have seen people from different cultural backgrounds and different races and religions coming together for one cause. Because of Rotaract, we have friends, and it’s a place where friends have become family. Given the recent happenings, we as Rotaracters didn’t really think twice about judging people or judging a race because we work so inclusively with people of different religions and races”.