Where we work
We work throughout Sri Lanka but focus on the east and south. Through our membership of SAPA (South Asia Peace Alliance) we run workshops and deliver joint peace projects in various South Asian countries. We have become part of the Conflict Sensitivity Consortium where we are working with peace building organizations in Kenya and Sierra Leone also.
Our main office is in Ampara in the Eastern Province, although we have a strong presence in Matara in the Southern Province. We regularly set up offices in other areas of the country depending on the projects we are developing at the time. PCA works in Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, Jaffna, Matara, NuwaraEliya, Trincomalee, and Vavuniya districts of Sri Lanka. We recently completed the main body of our work in Matara, and are now conducting follow up projects there. We focus on Matara in response to the needs of rural communities who live in poverty and the disruption to coastal business and livelihoods following the 2004 Tsunami.
There remain high levels of conflict and a lack of social cohesion within communities, which we are supporting
communities to overcome. After the civil war, there continues to be a lack of understanding of the needs of other, minority, communities and the role that the Sinhala majority in Matara can play in the reconciliation process. This has led to many exchange visits between vulnerable people, community leaders, and local government in Matara and their counterparts in districts such as Ampara.
We recently completed the Equal and Active Voices in Amapra project to empower vulnerable people from Tamil, Muslim and Sinahla communities, and to increase their access to and dialogue with local government. Ampara has a balanced demographic, with almost equal number of Muslims, Tamils and Sinhala people.
Poverty, ethnic mistrust, and division are challenges in Ampara. High unemployment and decline of traditional livelihoods stands alongside interethnic rivalry and a lack of intercommunity understanding. Also we are implementing a ACTIVE (Advocacy for Community Transitional Initiation Voice and Empowerment) project in Ampara in which we have established very strong community based group at division and district level to work for reconciliation and Transition in the country.
With the support of ISD we are coordinating a project is called TRF (Truth & Reconciliation Forum) in the Eastern province in this project we work with many different partners in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara district and we deliver workshops on Transitional Justice & Reconciliation island wide under this project.