1. PRANAV KUMAR GUPTA 1
Initiative for Peace
Peace Conference organised by UWCSEA, Singapore
June 2013, in Kundasale, Sri Lanka.

2. PRANAV KUMAR GUPTA 2
Introduction
Initiative for Peace (IfP) was founded in 2001, by a group of students and teachers of UWCSEA,
Singapore. An action-based programme, it offers students an opportunity to actively promote
international understanding and reconciliation in areas of conflict through leading youth conferences.
The IfP conferences bring together youths from two sides of a conflict to work on conflict management
with the aim of creating permanent youth-led conflict management organisations around the world.
UWCSEA IfP participants spend a year planning and organising every detail of the conference,
including sending out applications, selecting participants, planning the conference programme and
activities, finding speakers and raising funds. They then facilitate and run the conference, supported
by UWCSEA staff.
The summer of 2013 marked the first year with IfP groups on both our campuses with combined teams
going to Timor Leste and Sri Lanka. The programme supervised by Anthony Skillicorn and Theodora
Birta-Skillicorn, was held from 20th to 25th June, 2013, in Kundasale near Kandi.
My Experiences at the Peace Conference
I was selected as a facilitator in a reconciliation IfP conference, and went to Kandi, Sri Lanka. The
delegates of the conference were Sri Lankan students as old as me from all three ethnicities- Tamil,
Sinhala and Muslim.
For youth, peace comes through contribution to the best of our ability towards a better tomorrow. It
sometimes also comes from helping others to contribute to the best of their capacity, through the
promotion of simple yet crucial values such as respect, friendship and mutual understanding. Such is
the message that was recently imparted to me by the IfP programme pertaining to peace and
reconciliation.
Sri Lanka has been torn by communal unrest for nearly five decades. Although each participant came
from a background very different from the other’s, we did find one common basis- Peace. We had
discussions during the day where every person participated with dedication to our objective. And in
the evening, all the facilitators and delegates were a part of a common lodging. This made everyone
equal. Different experiences were made, but the goal always remained the same. During those two
weeks, no one asked another person about his/her race; nobody questioned each other’s beliefs;
everyone felt the unity that had sprung up within the small group that we were. We had become a
community that strived towards peace.
The programme comprised lectures by visiting speakers, as well as workshops and discussions.
Throughout the week, Sri Lankan delegates who attended the programme from across the island

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were engaged in various icebreaker activities including trust building, and group/individual activities
with the constant support of their facilitators and friends. Every night we would have to reflect on our
thoughts and write our own journal. On the last day, the delegates took a pledge on what they intend
to do once the programme ends.
As striking as it may seem, half of the
delegates present on the first day
admitted to having friends who only
belonged to their own community.
Some could only speak one
language, whereas a few did not feel
like they could stand up for their
thoughts and ideas in their everyday
life. The truth is that the scars of a
protracted war, such as the one that
took place in Sri Lanka, run deeper
than one could even imagine. When
we think about it, those young
delegates were born and educated
during the war. Though the war had
come to an end, they never really had
the opportunity to experience peace
and build sustainable bridges through
intercultural dialogue, hence furthering social inclusion.
Peace, education and reconciliation are intrinsically linked. Such correlation is even more crucial in
the current socio-economic context. This type of initiative proved to be one of the most efficient ways
to raise awareness among youth of all communities. It enabled us to develop a stronger sense of
responsibility towards one another, to ultimately enable us to build together and from below, our own
notion of peace.
Apart from raising individual and collective awareness through self-reflection activities and
conferences, Initiative for Peace provided a unique platform to Sri Lankan youth from across the
country, and from all communities, to express themselves freely and share their views and
perspectives on peace. The initiative successfully enabled all participants to reflect productively on
their commonalities as well as their differences. Most importantly, it enabled them to develop critical
thinking outside of their usual circle of reflection, through the simple bonding of friendship.
By promoting peace through its education curricula, UWCSEA set an example that every school in Sri
Lanka should implement – that is, the promotion of reconciliation by the youth, of the youth and for

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the youth (to adapt Lincoln, of course). Peace, education and reconciliation are intrinsically linked.
This type of initiative is one of the most efficient ways to raise awareness among youth of all
communities. It enables them to develop a stronger sense of responsibility towards one another, to
ultimately enable them to build together and from below, their own notion of peace.
Therefore, reforming the education sector adequately is potentially one of the most important
challenges we face in the ongoing transition towards peace. This means understanding the realities
and conditions that affect children who are educated in a post-war environment. Likewise, the
detrimental effect of war on the formal education system must be taken into account. Indeed, many
children from war-affected areas tend to miss out on education, resulting in different access levels to
education and ultimately different types of education throughout the island.
Conclusion
We believe that in this post-war context, access to a more adequate participatory education system
of good quality is a factor that can make relationships change from vertical to horizontal. It is an
equalizer that fosters respect and friendship between children; children who are supposed to be
tomorrow’s future. Education that gives hopes and opportunities for the future through an improved
quality of life is hence essential to building and maintaining a sustainable peace in Sri Lanka.
Even after it is over, we still remain as a community to fulfil the goal that remains. My part in this
community is to be a person that believes in peace and the humanity’s ability to achieve it and to
always remember the strength in unity.