Children from all over Sri Lanka are singing for peace. As part of World Vision Lanka’s Empowering Children as Peace-builders (ECaP) Project, children from different ethnic communities have come together to write and sing a song for peace.

“I am so happy to be a part of this song,” says Kathirsan, 14, from Paddipalai, a remote village in eastern Sri Lanka. “When I sing about a world without fences and boundaries I feel so proud because it is from the song that I wrote.”

“Music is a universal language that can transcend all cultural barriers,” says acclaimed musician and lyricist Nilar Cassim, who lead the children through the creative song-writing process. “This song is special because it was composed using the children’s own sentiments,” he says.

The peace song began in April at a workshop which gathered 40 children from five World Vision Area Development Programs (ADPs) -- Horowpathana (central), Sevanagala, Thanamalvila (south), Ambagamuwa (upcountry) and Paddipalai (east). The children followed a two day song-writing workshop, and then 15 of them were selected to sing the final rendition.

“I never thought children like me who come from very rural villages could contribute to building peace in our country,” says Madushika, 17, from Velangahaulpatha, Horowpathana. “The workshop helped me realize that I can be a peace-builder.”

For some of the children, it was their first time in Colombo. For all of them, it was the first time they met children from different ethnic backgrounds. But how they crossed the ethnic and language barriers and forged new friendships was a testament to the project’s success … and it’s something they all talk about!

“After the workshop I returned home and told all my friends how I met Sinhala children and how we became friends,” says Kathirsan. “I told them we even sang together, and my friends were excited to hear about my experience.”

“We were used to seeing Tamil children during the bitterness of war, but this workshop gave us a chance to get to know them and make new friends. Since the first workshop, we have exchanged phone numbers and have constantly been in touch,” says Madhushani,16.

“It is not difficult to live in harmony with other ethnic groups in our country after all,” says Kethisweran,18.

According to World Vision Lanka’s Lalindra Ranasinghe, coordinator of the project, “Generation after generation of children has been armed with resentment and mistrust of other ethnic groups…it is time to empower them for peace and harmony.”

World Vision’s ECaP Project supports children and youth to become empowered peace-builders in their own communities and to help them understand that ethnic diversity is something to celebrate and not something to be feared. Since 2002, ECaP has conducted more than 110 workshops and exchange programs directly and indirectly benefitting more than 9,000 people from different ethnic groups in different areas of Sri Lanka.