Vakarai children vow to build a Colombo

Shocked by the disparity in development, students visiting the city speak of peace, the futility of war and their dreams

They are the children of war. They live in difficult circumstances caught up in a conflict not of their making. But recently they had a chance to see that life could be different when they spent a few happy, fun-filled days away from the sounds of mortar fire and the tension of uncertainty.

"Everything in Colombo is so massive -- huge buildings, wide roads, and a lot of vehicles. We'd love to see Vakarai becoming a city like Colombo," said Annadurai Baskaran, 17, a bright-eyed Vakarai student who was visiting Colombo for the first time.

Sixty-two students from Vakarai visited Colombo on Saturday, May 26, thanks to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sewa Lanka Foundation (SLF). The group of seven teachers with the students from Palchenai Government Tamil Mixed School and Kadiraweli Vigneshwaran Vidyalaya visited the Museum, the Zoo, Viharamahadevi Park, Galle Face and Ratmalana Hindu College during their stay in Colombo.

"We didn't know that such things existed until we saw them in Colombo," Baskaran said. "We never thought we'd get a chance like this. We learnt a lot about other cultures as well. And if we all live happily as humans there won't be any of these problems. We love to learn Sinhala and English and communicate with people here."

Comparing Ratmalana Hindu College with his own school, Palchenai Government Tamil Mixed School, he said it had all the facilities which students in Vakarai cannot even dream of. "They have a lot of facilities, good buildings, good teachers and above all, a peaceful environment."

"If we get an environment like this to study, we'll make Vakarai a little Colombo by 2025," he said determinedly.

Finding an educated person in his village was very rare, he said, pointing out that there is hardly any chance to develop the village, as a result. "But at least we should study well and develop it," he said.

The war, the tsunami and the heat have prevented them from studying, though the teachers do their best to teach the students well, he says. "There aren't any buildings for us to study at school. Some were destroyed by the tsunami and the others by war," he said. The shelling is awful. Sometimes, our classmates are killed," he said thoughtfully, adding that finding employment too is a major problem they face.

As much as the city's attractions, Baskaran said he had enjoyed the journey as well, particularly the trip through the hill country as he had never seen hills before. He was looking forward to visiting Kandy, to see more hills on the way.

The students are to visit Dalada Maligawa, Kandy town, Murugan Kovil and Muttumariamman Kovil in Matale during their visit to Kandy on their way back home to Vakarai.

Captain Roshan Karunathilaka who was in charge of the students said that the main reason behind this trip was to show the children of Vakarai what the rest of Sri Lanka looked like and that what they saw all the time was a part of it that had been destroyed by war.

"These children have been through two major wars. One between the Karuna faction and the LTTE and the other between the Army and the LTTE," he said adding that every effort is being taken to make the mindset of the people more positive. Among the students was Mayuri who came forward and introduced herself in English, "Hello, I'm Mayuri".

"There were a lot of new things to see here in Colombo," she said adding with girlish enthusiasm that she thoroughly enjoyed shopping in Colombo. "We went shopping with the Rs.1000 given to us by the Sewa Lanka Foundation and saw quite a variety of clothes. We all are wearing the dresses we bought today," she said.

Mayuri said they had learnt a lot about history and what sort of a country Sri Lanka had been before the current conflict. "We understand that there is no point in war. We need peace," she added.

"Colombo is a beautiful city. We wish Vakarai too was similar. We find the noise of war there and the voice of peace here," she said adding that she wished all her friends could come and see what they had seen.

"There is no electricity there. We live in dim light so we are happy to spend a few days in light here," Mayuri added.