LDJF joined hands with Helvetas Sri Lanka and GCERF on Preventing Violent Extremism

LDJF joined hands with Helvetas Sri Lanka and GCERF on a new project to promote Preventing Violent Extremism among Universities

Lanka Development Journalist Forum (LDJF) entered into an agreement with Helvetas Sri Lanka and GCERF to initiate a 7-month project on Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) among youth in Sri Lanka on 16th August 2022. The event was held at Movempick hotel with the presence of Mr. Raja Goonaratne, Director General of National Non-Governmental Organizations Secretariat, Ms. Subashi Dissanayake, Country Director of Helvetas Sri Lanka and representatives of 5 sub grantees.

“You are selected through a rigorous three tier screening process. We had 19 applications for the round 3 of the sub grant but we have selected only 5 sun grantees out of 19. It is an endorsement from our end to the sub grantees who are here today to sign their contract that you have performed well in the past and have a very good track record and fulfil our compliance. I wish all the sub grantees for your dedication and commitment and hope you can even do better with this project,” said Mr. Raja Goonaratne in his key note speech.

“Youth are the fore front in violence and peace. We have history in Sri Lanka to witness this. We have experienced in Alutgama and Digana incidents and the recently the “Aragalaya”. Youth need opportunity and platform for interaction with each other from completely different faith and religious backgrounds. They need space to learn and understand others’ culture. What is missing here is the platform and opportunity. The proposed project is aiming to bridge this gap with the use of creative and new media tools,” Azad Mustaffa LL.B, Attorney-At-Law and LDJF Program Director pointed out in his speech.

The project titled “Increase inter-religious understanding, hate speech, diversity through Forum Theater, Digital drama and dialogue among university students from Kandy, Ampara and Colombo,” has a focus on educating on PVE and use of media in promoting PVE. The primary objective of this project is to increase understanding and knowledge of driving factors for violent extremism, Hate speech and misinformation among university students. The project expects to transform the target university students as ‘change makers’ to spread peace, co-existence, PVE among peer university students from multiethnic backgrounds through Forum Theater, Digital drama and dialogue.

LDJF, LIFT, ADT, EPSEO and SWAOD are the sub grantees selected for the 3rd round of the funding cycle.

Altogether 13 organizations have now received sub grants from the project title “EMPOWER” implemented by Helvetas and funded by Global Engagement Community  and Resilience Fund (GECRF).