Tuesday, August 17, 2010

SITHAMU - Let's Think to Build the Nation!

සිතමු එක්ව රට ගොඩ නගමු !!!

The war is over! Finally it met its end. No matter how it happens, it is over. It only resulted in thousands of dead bodies, disabled and orphan, sourness of miserable people, bunch of abysmal memories and debris of land because war does not determine who is right - only who is left. There may be hundreds of reasons for such a war to exist or there may be no reason at all. Whatever it is, the time has passed and war has come to an end before it ends us!!! Now we should make it a point that such a situation may not occur again in the future. That’s all we need. This article is not a serious analysis of war situation or post war situation, but here we are talking about youth and unity. The main purpose of this article is to show the importance of unity and how to develop our nation by sticking together.

The word unity has a deep meaning. Sri Lanka is a country with few nationalities, few religions, and few languages. The word “few” refers while comparing it with other countries like India. Sri Lanka is a country which has mainly three nationalities Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims. Building our nation is developing all Sri Lankans with the contribution of above nationalities. Now it is the time and let’s ‘THINK’ about that, and we called it ‘SITHAMU’. The meaning of ‘Si;Tha;Mu’ is to think and it identifies the first letters of those nationalities Sinhala Thamil and Muslims.

We should understand that the SITHAMU is not another ordinary program that select a group of Tamil children, take them a tour around Colombo, Victoria Park and Zoo. SITHAMU is another sub event of Java World Congress and a significant idea of Dr.Ishantha Siribaddana and Mr.Dilanthe Withanage (Chairperson of JAVA World Congress) which was set up with the intention of gaining some goals of Java World Congress. They have executed this program under the goals; Education for all, Livelihood for all, Science and Technology for all, Information and Communication for all, youth and cooperation, and Building Social Capital and they are willing to cover these goals into some extension through SITHAMU. That is not all humanity is another prime goal of this program.

People behind these massive projects; Java World Congress and SITHAMU program (Dr.Ishantha Siribaddana and Mr.Dilanthe Withanage ) are not the richest person in Sri Lanka, even though they can carry out such projects because they are rich in their hearts; they can do such projects because they are standing on this earth. The most important thing is they are setting an example and they have already taken an initiative and made their followers to reach unity by teaching unity. That is Java Force!!!

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, the main target of Java Force is to build the nation. On the way to fulfill that target we have decided that there is no point of building our nation without the unity of our people. Because we have realized the meaning of “United we stand; divided we fall”. We have identified that Sri Lanka is a country of Sri Lankans and country needs us all. Dr.Ishantha Siribaddana (founder of Java Force) had affiliated the SITHAMU program with Java Force and created and awesome strategy to get its target success.

SITHAMU program includes over 50 Tamil youths who had been affected thoroughly from the war. Our goal is to build a brotherhood relationship between them and others. For that our Java Force has got no weapons but the strength of youth, thoughtfulness of hearts, brotherhood and technology!!!

We Java Force and the youth in Jaffna had to participate in few lectures to get a better idea of unity and brotherhood and in that lectures we realized the word ‘us’ refers to all of us! As I mentioned they were taken here to give a vivid knowledge in IT and the lectures will not be done by the lectures of IJTS but by the members of Java Force!!! In return we will be getting a sturdy friendship, meaning of unity and the feeling of Sri Lankans. Finally they can also help to build our nation under the goal of Brain Based Economy. (Brain Based Economy; another enormous idea of Dr.Ishantha Siribaddana.)

As a member of Java Force I also got an opportunity to participate in SITHAMU program and here are my true feelings about that:-

When I heard about this program and was asked to meet them I got little bit nervous as I had never got a close connection with any of Tamils before. I had already visited Jaffna before but didn’t get any chance to meet or talk with anyone except army personnel. Before we meet them Mr.Dilanthe Withanage had given a priceless lecture about unity, how to be with them, how to respect them and their culture. I wish all the people realize that being divided is a foolishness.

At first we met them at Maha Bodhi organization and there was some kind of occasion to launch that program. Many of noble people including Minister of National Languages & Social Integration (S. B. Navinna) had participated for that occasion. After that meeting Java Force and they were asked to talk with each other. It was little bit complicated as none of us couldn’t understand Tamil and none of them couldn’t understand Sinhala. But we were able to communicate with each other because our hearts are opened. Later on we didn’t find any difficulties to communicate. They were ready to be friends with us and we became friends quickly because we didn’t show them our good faces but our good hearts!!!!

Later on with the progress of SITHAMU program Minister S. B. Navinna agreed to give government assistance too. It was good news to all of us and we met again on 12th August at Victoria Park. Java Force and they were divided in to several groups and asked to join with them in groups. So in my group it included 3 other members of Java Force and other 4 in their group. Selomia, Amudani, Jensi and Gajendran were their names and all of them were around in their twenties. Gajendran became friendly with me quickly and he was very keen to teach me Tamil words. He didn’t know to speak Sinhala at all before he arrived to Colombo but within 3 days he was able to manage in Sinhala. I also taught him many Sinhala words and he told me if he would be here for three months he will speak in Sinhala fluently. I was so happy about that. We did several games like singing, dancing and also we got an accidental chance to join a musical show at Victoria Park.

In our conversation we identified the problems we have; and we found that all of us have same problems like unemployment, unclear future, fewer opportunities, dreams of luxurious life etc. and nothing else. We didn’t find any problem in communication or in language or in culture. It was just a fun to get to know both languages. They have same dreams that we have and same needs.

Most of Java Force members have invited them to their homes and they also had made that invitation. Anyway our next objective is to teach them IT and Computer Science and nowadays our Java Force members are doing that at IJTS premises. All the lessons are conducted in 100% practical environment and we enjoy teaching very much. It seems that they are also enjoying it and we saw their enthusiasm in their faces when getting that knowledge. Most of them have not even touched a computer before but they were able to catch it very quickly because they are so interested about that and now they have already covered the Basic of Windows and MS Office package. We should state here and appreciate the sacrifices of Java Force members as they contribute their time, money, knowledge and tiredness for the good sake of our Tamil brothers without any kind of charge. And again a special thanks to Dr.Ishantha Siribaddana for providing us all facilities including his fully facilitated computer labs and another special thanks to Mr.Dilanthe Withanage for giving such a precious chance to us. We have planned few other events like a trip, cricket match, paduru party, few other tours and many other events to enjoy with them within this period.

Society is unity in diversity!!!!!!

Written by

Monthila Gurusinghe

(Colonel in Java Force)

(House Leader – Juventa)

(Head of MicroXerox)

IJTS - Batch No: 27

Student of Ananda College

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