WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES?

Q uite a philosophical statement, isn’t it? Well, that’s what Ashan Perera was here to talk about. Ashan recounted how he set up a small playhouse in his backyard so that the poor children in his neighborhood could come and read and learn as they couldn’t go to school.

He grew up and went on to join a number of NGOs and other organizations with the hope of bridging the gap between facilitated communities and non-facilitated communities. Why? Because he identified the purpose of life as serving one another.

“It’s time to think beyond what we have been doing”, Ashan emphasized. Today we have enough human resources to address almost all pressing issues in society, both locally and internationally. A key factor that needs to be addressed is education. Education is fundamental in building capacity in people.

Education is all about knowledge, skills and attitude. If you do not have a balance of these 3, you cannot properly utilize edu cation. Through education, we can become more helpful as we know how to serve one another. If people were more helpful, we would be in a society that was more united than ever before.

Ashan then went on to speak about Human Rights. These, he said, should be a set of values and responsibilities, rather than using them when you have somethin to fight. Today’s society has changed. There’s no thick line between peacebuilders and what the average person does. Everyone is a peacebuilder. Everyone can contribute. As Ashan says, if he can do it, so can we. We just have to bring that desire out of us and use that to make a change in our life or someone else’s life. It begins with you.