Inter Religious Forum

The Matale District Inter Religious Forum was held at St. Thomas' Church hall, Matale, on the 28th of July 2011, under the theme of "Let us build Social Cohesion through Unity".

Buddhist monks, Priests from Catholic, Anglican, Baptist and Salvation Army Churches, Hindu Kurukkal and a Maulavi from Isalm faith were among the religious dignetaries who enlightened the gathering.

The main objective of this programme was to contribute to build a virtuous society with mutual trust and harmony. Rev. Fr. Desmond Perera, Coordinator-"SETIK" Organization, Matale District, took the initiative actions to organize this forum. Various conflicts and confrontations erupted in the society, the way of their meditation and their experience gained while sloving these conflicts were among the topics discussed. Further, they were also able to gather some knowledge about the religious and cultural diversity and to discard the misunderstandings they had. After this religious forum the following divisions were taken by the religious dignataries to show their religious harmony.

1) To hold a religious observance programme to display inter religious harmony and solidarity.

2)To arrange a visit to Jaffna areas, especially to places of religious significance and to hold further forums in religious places.

Now, this religious forum has been organized as a formal structure as "Matale District Religious Forum". The Chairmanship will be held by Ven. Malakotuwe Wimala Dhamma - Registrar, Sasanaraksha Balamandalaya, Matale and Rev. Father Dilan Fernando -Parish Priest of St. Thomas' Church, Matale will function as Secretary.

Enlightening Programme for Police Officers.

The enlightening programme for Police Officers, organized by the Human Rights unit of the Caritas Kandy (SETIK) organization was held at Galaha Ramakrishna Hindu Vidyalaya on the 16th July 2011. "Will minimize the hindrance caused to the public in receiving of complaints and issuing of police character certificates and police reports for Legal matters" were the main themes of this programme.

Mr. Halangoda, senior police superitendent (Lecturer police training college - Pahalagama) was the Resource Person. 36 Police officers attached to Galaha police station participated to this programme.

Preserving the rights of the people in obtaining their legal documents and enhancing the cordial relationship between the people and the police officers were the main intention of this programme.

This type of enlightment programmes are being frequently conducted by us to create virtuous attitudinal change in the officers in serving the people, expressing their views said that they were able to identify their short comings and weaknesses and to improve their knowledge. They also said that this programme was a great advantage for them to render their services friendly and efficiently.

CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING PROGRAMME AND AWARDING OF CERIFICATES

With the help and support of the CAFOD organization, the Capacity Building training programme was conducted to develop the capacity of our CAFOD HR unit staff and the Co-ordinators of the other relevant units i.e. Youth, Eradication of Child Labour, CRS, Migrants', Training, Plantation & IHDP projects. The resource contribution for this programme was rendered by Mr. Mahinda Gunaratne, CAFOD Programme Accompanier.

A seminar was organized at the commencement to identify the requirement of the field of capacity development. Two main requirements were identified as follows;

1) Planning of Projects
2) Field Evaluation

Three training sessions were conducted and the M.S.C . practical training was held at the Medawala field.

After the conclusion of this training course, the trainees were awarded with certificates at the 'SETIK' auditorium, Kandy, on 30th April 2011, which was presided by the Rev. Fr. Camillus D. Jansz-Director SETIK, and with the participation of Mr Maninda Gunaratne-the CAFOD Programme Accompanier, Mr. N. C. Gregory-Manager/ Administrator 'SETIK'. Fifteen (15) staff members who successfully completed the training programme, received the certificates.

This training course immensely benefited the staff to plan their future programmes very efficiently. We are sure, in our day to day work, our staff members will use this 'Most Significant Change' methodology for field evaluations.

Universal Human Rights Day 2010

All Human being are born with rights. Nobody has the right to deprive the rights of the other. A world renown writer named “Morris Kenston” describes this right as a birth right. This right may be reduced or controlled. But cannot be deprived. These rights are common to all over the world.

The Universal Human Rights Day was proclaimed by the United Nations’ Organization on the 10th of December 1948. This day was celebrated by SETIK Organization, Kandy at St. Thomas’ College, Matale on the 11th of December. Over 750 people from rural and plantation areas belong to all ethnic and religious groups took part in this celebration.

The theme of the celebration was “Ensure Human Rights” by ending discrimination. This programme was conducted in Sinhala and Tamil mediums. Rev. Father. Niroshan, Treasurer of Benadictine Congregation, Buddhist Monk-Rev. Pandit-Kosgoda Gnanaseeha, Lecturer University of Peradeniya, Hindu Priest-Rev. Brahma Sri Murugeswara Kurukkal, and Mr. M. N. M. Riyal Retired Administrative Officer and translator, represented the religious groups and delivered their lectures citing examples from their sacred books of religions respectively.

The Resource contributors were Attorneys-At-Law Mr .C . Galapaththi and M.S.Faizer Ali. They enlightened the gathering on Human Rights, duties and responsibilities of the Citizens and the action to be taken in case of any violation of Human Rights, in Sinhala and Tamil languages.

We sincerely hope that this programme would have definitely helped the gathering to gain a good knowledge about Human Rights. In addition to the above, a short drama “On Workers Rights” was presented by the students of the Faculty of Fine Arts, university of Peradeniya.

One Day Seminar for Government Officers

An awareness programme was conducted by the HR unit of the SETIK organization, for the Divisional Secretaries in the Central Province, in order to enhance their knowledge about the rights and responsibilities of the public servants and the human rights of all citizens in the society.

This programme was held on the 18th of September 2010, at the Government Officers Training Centre, belongs to the District Secretariat, Kandy. Rev. Fr. Camillus D. Jansz-the Director, Mr. N. Clarence Gregory-Administrator of the SETIK organization were present.

There were 47 participants at this programme. Divisional Secretaries, Samoordi Commissioners and some Administrative Gramaseva Officers were among the participants.

The resource contributors were Mr. Lal Wijenayake-a Senior Lawyer, Mr. Gotabaya Jayarathne-the District Secretary, Kandy and Mr. Pujitha Gunawardena-the Deputy Inspector General, Central Region.

Basic Human Rights, Administrative Law principals of Good Governance and the contribution of government servants for good governance were the main topics, which were reviewed widely.

International Human Rights Day

International Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2008 at Ambagamuwa Divisional Secretariat office. The programme was organized by Setik Human Rights Unit in coordination with the divisional secretariat of Ambagamuwa. The main aim of this programme was to obtain the birth certificates, national identity cards and other relevant documents of the tea plantation people in the district of Nuwara Eliya. The tea plantation people have to face lots of hardships in obtaining the above said documents to get the citizenship. During this programme we completed the relevant documents and prepared separate files for each individual who don’t have the above mentioned documents. Meantime we were able to issue 68 birth certificates on the spot for 68 people since they were able to provide us all the relevant documents. Meantime 24 people were registered and 14 birth certificates were amended and provided to the relevant persons.

During this programme an art exhibition on human rights violations and children’s rights, was organized for school children. 365 children took part at the art exhibition and 100 certificates were given for the selected arts.

Exhibiting of cutouts on domestic violence, police torture, child labour and migration issues were also took place during the programme. A sticker campaign was carried and 4000 stickers were distributed during this day under the theme “Human dignity and justice for all of us”

Education Programme for Lawyers

The Setik institute organized an awareness programme for lawyers on 29th August 2008 in Kandy. Thirty Eight lawyers took part in the programme. Civil Appeal High Court judge Honorable Mr Leon Senavirathna was the resource person who gave a talk on “the Civil Appeal High Court and their responsibilities."

Our main aim was to help people in order to protect their basic rights. We were able to reach-out to our aim through the guidance of Rev. Fr. George Sigamoney and the lawyer Mrs.Suranji Wijenayaka and through the help of the staff.

It was highly appreciated by the lawyers and requested us to organize more programmes for them.