Student Power for Peace

The Young Christian Students Movement (YCS) who call themselves the "sayanu pahe samajaya" are trying to build a society with the five qualities of equality (samanathmathawaya), peace (saamaya), truth (sathya), brotherhood (sahodarathwaya), fairness (sadharanathwaya). They along with the peace unit of the Seth Sarana-Caritas Colombo, organized a programme to educate students on peace.

And as you can see, one such quality of the YCS is peace, therefore with this concept in mind, and with the aim of uniting teenagers, a peace convention was organised on November 17, 2007 at St. Joseph's College, Colombo. The founder of YCS Cardinal Joseph Cardijn's 125th birthday was on November 13, 2007 and "this convention is a gift to him, for what he has given to the world," said Rev. Fr. Lawrence Ramanayake, Director/Chaplain, Young Christian Students' Movement, Archdiocese of Colombo.

Students from the YCS movements, who are between the ages of 13 – 19 years, from Chilaw, Badulla, Jaffna and Colombo, as well as children from various deaneries’ under the theme "Student Power for Peace," were present at the convention.

Prior to the convention a walk was organised and children in various groups had written wishes for peace on banners and they walked a few yards on the road without disturbing anyone. What Fr. Ramanayake said was that they want to deliver a message of peace thus the quiet walk, adding, that they wanted to "just give an example for those observing." He went on to say that, the "Purpose is to not attack anybody," all they wanted is for these "children to get together to voice out to elders that they want to live together as one family."

On their way back to the auditorium, the children let balloons out into the air. The convention consisted of a cultural show and prize giving. The programme was organised with permission given by the Archbishop.