Third Eye and Seelamunai community participation programme
The Third Eye Activists Group planned an Invisible Theatre session in the Vyravar temple of Batticaloa, for the people from the village of Seelamunai, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Invisible Theatre is a form of theatre in which actors plan a small scene to perform in a public place where the audience does not know that it is witnessing a piece of theatre. The aim of Invisible Theatre is to promote lively and active discussion about issues of vital interest and importance to the community. However, when starting this programme in the welfare centre for the Seelamunai community, Third Eye members quickly found that there was little need for Invisible Theatre.
The people in the centre immediately involved themselves in the dialogues and the result was an open discussion. The community raised their voice in an animated discussion about their future. Their demands were varied. They wanted a safe place to live, a place for peaceful sleep. At the same time they insisted on their right to a livelihood and thus they claimed the site of Seelamunai village as their own – especially the lagoon for fishing and prawn catching and the coconut trees for toddy tapping.
Men and women contributed equally and with one voice. However, what was interesting here was that the children disagreed with their perspectives. They wanted to move to a place other than Seelamunai! They discussed the choice of a place for their future and selected Naavatkerny. This place is safe and near to Seelamunai and the Vyravar temple and also land is cheap. Showing great determination and insight, they wanted to shift as a whole community!
The following day members of Third Eye went back to Seelamunai to meet the community and read the written version of the discussion. A report on this issue was also published in Thinakural and a final version of the written discussion is to be sent to the wider media. A committee of women, men and children has been set up to deal with all the community’s concerns when meeting Government officers and Non-Governmental Organistion officials. The committee does not have fixed members. It will function in rotation to include all the members of the community. All in Seelamunai have the right to be involved in the action – to be involved in developing their village to meet the needs of their future.
When plans are being drawn up across the country for rebuilding communities, the experience of Seelamunai is that all community members can be involved in actively setting an agenda and advocating for their voice to be heard. When decisions are being made in government and non-government circles about the future of villages and communities it is vital that mechanisms are developed for community’s to have their say – to demand that they are not marginalised from the decisions that will affect their lives.
