Dear All,
In the tenth anniversary year, on the Sri Lankan soil we are making history. The unique session of the first official training program under the URI Travelling Peace Academy was formally inaugurated by Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, who is considered by one and all as the Gandhiji of Sri Lanka. This one week long session is being held at the Sarvodaya Higher Learning Institute in Colombo. Dr. Ariyaratne is the chief of Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, which is our CC with units in 15,000 villages in this country. Yesterday we visited the headquarters of this great Movement and spent a few hours with their leaders and officers. Their programs are numerous, starting from orphanages to micro financing.
Several dignitaries attended our inauguration today. Herm weaver and myself addressed the assembly on behalf of URI. 32 participants, resource persons and many invitees were present. Dr. Jacob Kunjappy , Prof. Geevarghese Jacob Ravi Kandage and Nalin Vikramasinhge are also here to help us. It is heartening to see that three of our participants of the Kottarakkara MI training are playing key-roles in the conduct of this event. Number of links in the chain increase day by day.
The participants are amazingly talented people. Groups include Sarvodaya CC leaders, delegates from the Women’s Movements, University students, clergy and civil servants. We started sessions right after the inaugural function and introduced the MI book and “creative Beginnings” straight away. The four stories and discussions followed. We could give them an overview of the whole course and the delegates seem to be excited. Of course, we had the morning exercises (instead of morning walk due to rain), dream song, joke of the day and our similar items.
We are happy that things are moving in the right direction and thank you for all your support and guidance.
Warm regards,
Dr. Abraham Karickam
