[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 718

[Garry & Anne Krischock]

 1. 1380: Once divided, two Sri Lankan alumni make peace 
Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:09 am (PST) 
Once divided, two Sri Lankan alumni make peace
By Dan Nixon 

The first encounters between two classmates in the Rotary Peace and 
Conflict Studies program were anything but cordial. 

>From July through September 2006, Raveendra Pathiranage and 
Thevananth Thevanayagam participated in the program's inaugural 
session at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. For weeks, 
they argued about the long-standing conflict in their native Sri 
Lanka.

"But we talked about our problems and gradually understood each 
other," says Thevanayagam, program manager for the Tamil Refugees 
Rehabilitation Organization in Sri Lanka, who was sponsored by the 
Rotary Club of Jaffna, Northern Province. The agency provides food, 
shelter, rehabilitation, and other assistance to displaced Tamil 
refugees.

"We erased the hard feelings and went on to What can we do to solve 
the problem? What can we contribute?" says Pathiranage, senior state 
counsel in the attorney general's office in Sri Lanka, who was 
sponsored by District 3220.

He was especially moved by Thevanayagam's stories of children who had 
been orphaned or couldn't go to school. In November, when conflict 
forced the main road into the Jaffna peninsula to close, Pathiranage 
asked, "Theva, can I do anything?"

Thevanayagam explained that the region was barely surviving on twice-
monthly dry rations and many people, including his two young children 
and the rest of his family, were suffering from Chikungunya, a 
disease that causes high fevers, rashes, and joint pain. Pathiranage 
used some of his personal connections to get a month's supply of dry 
milk and medicine to Thevanayagam for his family.

In June, the two men traveled together to the first Rotary World 
Peace Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, held just before the 
2007 RI Convention, to see their former classmates.

"The link between myself and Theva will be very important in the 
future to discuss the peace-related issues [in Sri Lanka]," says 
Pathiranage, who sees a direct connection between what he learned in 
the Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies program and his work.

Source: Rotary International News 
Courtesy:eFlash_Rotary

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