Sunday Times 2
Oblates empower the nation through peace education
There is no country in the world, in the whole history of humankind that has not experienced some form of violence which has fractured society. Our Mother Lanka is no stranger to such scenarios. What is of importance is to examine what lessons we learn from a particular conflict. As Sri Lankans our duty is to learn from past experiences and transform conflicts into opportunities of creating a better Sri Lanka.
As a missionary and visionary congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), has left indelible footprints of innovative and insightful education in the sands of Sri Lanka’s education history. As Oblates celebrated their Bi-centenary Jubilee on May 21, 2016, they took the initiative to face the challenge of building sustainable peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka by establishing The Oblate Institute of Higher Learning (OIHL) which awards a Diploma in ‘Peace Studies’.
The OIHL diploma in National Reconciliation and Peacebuilding consists of four certificate courses (60 credit hours each), namely, Certificate Course in Conflict transformation, Certificate Course in Psychological Counselling, Certificate Course in Inter-religious Dialogue and Certificate Course in Social Engagement. At the end of the first course, conducted by eminent local and foreign resource persons, participants were able to illustrate creative conflict transformation from the transcend perspective.
The second course also was conducted by local and foreign specialists in psychological counselling. They helped the participants to have a basic knowledge of counselling with special reference to trauma counselling. They learned how to understand the process of grief and support people in their grief: one instance being participating in the final ‘farewell rites’ of the deceased.
The third course helped them to realize the role of faith and cultural traditions in reconciliation and peacebuilding process. The course helped the participants to appreciate and value a pluralist Sri Lanka. The course on Social Engagement guided the students out of a classroom setting and helped them get immersed into concrete conflicting situations. Their field exposures to war-memorials and war affected areas of ‘border villages’ of Horowpothana, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mullivaikal and Vavuniya under the direction of experienced animators gave them new insights into the root causes and consequences of conflict and war in Sri Lanka.
OIHL wishes to invite all who are interested and already involved in Reconciliation and Peacebuilding through Conflict Transformation to follow the OIHL Diploma course and get qualified thereby becoming well trained advocates of peace promotion and reconciliation.
For further information call 0775176772 or visit OIHL website www.oihlomi.org or write to oihlomi@gmail.com / OIHL, 281, deans Road, Colombo 10.