Alliance News Issue 3 2019

ALLIANCE

www.nceasl.org

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NEWS

www.adtlanka.org

I S S U E

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DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP TOOLKIT TRAINING FOR THE YOUTH FROM KANDY

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They were exposed to methods of combating online harassment, maintaining and cultivating ethical online behaviour and enhancing cyber security to name a few.

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Livelihood support for Easter Bomb Victims

Volunteer Christian Teachers’ Camp

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“An Encounter with God” in Batticaloa

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Community Based Youth Peace Ambassadors

GET IN TOUCH

Act Now Initiatives Stand for Life

P.O. Box 113, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka

Prayers for a New Dawn

+94115511358

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Sanctuary House

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TCT - Kingdom of God

IN-BRIEF

info@nceasl.org

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Volunteer Christian Teachers’ Camp The annual Volunteer Christian Teachers’ Camp was held between the 5th to the 7th of August with the participation of 35 teachers. Some of the topics addressed and discussed were child rights, leadership skills and teaching skills. As there is a lack of Christianity teachers in government schools, these teachers have volunteered to teach. They are supported by the NCEASL as they work under tremendous challenges as most of these schools have not fully endorsed their services.

Livelihood support for Easter Bomb Victims The NCEASL continues its relief work with the Easter bomb victims from Batticaloa, Negombo and Kochchikade. The relief provided included dry ration packs to families, nutrition packs to children, financial support for medical needs and livelihood assistance. The picture shows Roshani who received a sewing machine from the NCEASL to commence a livelihood since her husband who was a mechanic was injured and is unable to provide for the family.

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Alliance News Issue 3 2019. For private circulation only.

Alliance News Issue 3 2019. For private circulation only.

FEATURE

STORY DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP TOOLKIT TRAINING FOR THE YOUTH FROM KANDY The Digital Citizenship Toolkit (DCT) is an ongoing initiative carried out by MinorMatters. The main purpose of this trilingual toolkit is to promote ethical online behavior amongst the youth of Sri Lanka.

Based on this toolkit, a DCT training was held at Sanctuary House from the 23rd – 25th August. It was conducted by Nalaka Gunawardene, one of the main contributors towards the DCT. Fourteen youth from the Kandy region participated and were exposed to methods of combating online harassment, maintaining and cultivating ethical online behavior, and enhancing cyber security to name a few. This 3-day training also gave the participants an opportunity to share their negative experiences online that they or their counterparts would have faced, and were educated as to how they could practically resolve such issues.

There are only 30% girls online as per stats shared in the workshop. It is the 70% boys, who are often perpetrators of online harassment. Therefore, they too need to be made aware on these topics.

Some of the participants of the training shared their views and opinions after the training.

I am now not afraid to open my own Facebook account, as I have learnt to be secure online.

By coming for the workshop, we learnt that human “ rights extend to the digital world too. These are fourth

Digital Citizenship is very topical, as both citizens “ and the government engage more online. I have heard

generation rights. Many people face issues online, and this has to be prevented. We want to create awareness on this. This awareness must be shared among parents as well as in schools. We need to create awareness on the positives and negatives of the digital world – about how it can make or break us.

about cyber-crimes before. However, now I know how we can combat this. I also learnt how students are vulnerable and exploited online. I now know how online platforms can be used securely. This is very important information. We want to share this information with others as well. Therefore, NCEASL is helping us to take this message out to our family and friends.

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Alliance News Issue 3 2019. For private circulation only.

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workshop we learnt how we can avoid these issues.

We want to create awareness on this topic among our juniors at the university. We can train a few students from each batch and they can take the message to their batch-mates.

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We only think of running away from the issues we “ face online – we uninstall or block. However, at this

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After this workshop we realised that we can use platforms such as Facebook and still be secure. We need to create awareness.

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Further the youth were also encouraged to script their ideas, as to how they could use the learning they received to create awareness and instill change amongst their peers and communities and they were issued small grants to carry out community level programmes to extend their knowledge gained through this training. They were also given pen drives containing drafts of the Digital Citizenship Toolkit, as resource material to help carry out these programmes.

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We only think of how to run away from the issues we face online - we uninstall or block.

However, at this workshop we learnt how we can stop these issues.

“ This training was the first of three trainings on the DCT. The other two training will be for the youth from Batticaloa and Galle. The DCT training for the Batticaloa youth was held from the 26th – 28th of September, at Sanctuary House. There were 35 youth that participated and they too were given resources and encouraged to create awareness amongst their peers and community.

Alliance News Issue 3 2019. For private circulation only.

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NEWS IN BRIEF ACT NOW Street Campaigns Act Now held successful street campaigns on the 20th and 21st of July 2019 in Nuwara Eliya and Monaragala reaching out and engaging with more than 1000 pedestrians. Approximately 40 youth created awareness on the importance of Democracy by distributing leaflets and striking up conversations with the public.

Stand for Life The Youth Wing of the NCEASL facilitated a programme ‘Stand for Life’ on the death penalty. Discussions included highlighting the current legal structure governing capital punishment and the biblical view of the death penalty.

Prayers for a New Dawn The NCEASL together with the Navodaya Ministries held a prayer meeting in Batticaloa on 9th August gathering church leaders, pastors and believers. Prayers were sought for revival and a new dawn in the East.

Sanctuary House During the period under review the Sanctuary House hosted 28 events attended by 1524 participants. These included 13 experiential training programmes and sessions on team building, leadership, financial planning, strategic planning and project implementation.

Truth Centred TransformationKingdom of God 30 participants from 25 districts attended a Truth Centered Transformation programme titled ‘Kingdom of God’ on the 29th and 30th July. The participants were challenged to cascade the training to at least 4 churches in each district.

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Alliance News Issue 3 2019. For private circulation only.

“An Encounter with God” in Batticaloa On the 31st of August, the NCEASL together with the People’s Church Assembly of God, conducted ‘Encounter God’, a programme for the women and children of Zion Church, Batticaloa. The programme included a workshop on a True Encounter with God, sessions for healing the soul, a cookery demonstration and times of fellowship. The programme was a great success and was attended by 251 ladies and 117 children.

Community Based Youth Peace Ambassadors The ADT launched a community based project to mobilise Youth Peace Ambassadors to improve inter ethnic reconciliation and social cohesion in the regions of Samagipura, Kattaparichchan and Samboor East in Trincomalee.

Members of the community, including youth and other relevant stakeholders were in attendance.

The selection of youth for the youth wing is currently in progress.

Alliance News Issue 3 2019. For private circulation only.

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PROJECTS AT A GLANCE MISSIONS AND EVANGELISM • A prayer gathering held in Batticaloa partnered with Navodaya ministries.

• 17 TCT programmes held in Ratnapura, Puttalam, Colombo, Matale, Badulla, Monaragala and Galle • A provincial leaders meeting held in Colombo.

• 12 church planters receive ongoing support.

• 76 pastors’ children affected by the war received ongoing educational support.

• Meetings with Pastors’ Fellowships of Wayamba Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mannar.

• Donated 50 Tamil and 40 Sinhala theology books to the Lanka Bible College and 95 Tamil and 64 Sinhala theology books to the Colombo Theological Seminary.

• A day of prayer dedicated for the nation was conducted together with the Pastors’ Fellowship Kandy.

• A national prayer day was jointly organised with the Colombo North Senior Pastors’ Fellowship.

• A pastoral training programme was held in Gampola on reaching out to M-con community

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY COMMISSION • Number of legal letters: 2 Number of cases supported: 11 • Three advocacy seminars held in Batticaloa, Jaffna and Vavuniya benefiting approximately 150 participants • Two workshops on Digital Citizenship: for the youth from Kandy and Batticaloa reaching a total of approximately 60 participants • Ongoing research on judicial response to religious freedom cases and case studies of religious freedom violations faced by the Church.

• Provided legal advice to pastors facing religious freedom violations and guided them in lodging complaints with relevant authorities and filing cases where necessary.

• Media Monitoring reports produced for July, August, September • Produced a draft Digital Citizenship Toolkit • Comic book on Digital Citizenship being produced • 5 informational videos being produced • Produced 5 testimonial videos • Field visits being conducted for the online photo exhibition (being produced) • Over 2800 Bibles distributed • A camp held for volunteer Christian Teachers. 46 Christian teachers being supported on a monthly basis • Follow up field visits conducted in Batticaloa, Kotahena, Hambantota, Avissawella, and Negombo for Easter Sunday victims & Persecuted Pastor visits • 6 youth supported through the Youth education scholarship • 218 kids are being supported through the children’s scholarship • Pending 14 livelihood applications, 15 Evangel Care applications and 2 teachers’ applications

• Emergency assistance provided for 6 pastors • Act Now Workshop was held in Nuwaraeliya while street campaigns were held in Monaragala and Nuwaraeliya • 13 incidents against Christians reported during this period • A training workshop on human rights documentation held in Batticaloa

RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT • A total of 551 children from Vavuniya children’s circle went on educational trips to Sigiriya and Trincomalee.

• Trainings held for the Village Child Development Committee in Vavuniya on Child Participation, Mapping of children in vulnerable situation, VCDC office administration and coordination.

• Under the Child Sponsorship programme (CSP) school bags and stationary were distributed to 272 school students.

• More than 200 children, 150 women and more than 10 duty bearers (school principals, teachers, child rights promoting officers, child protection officers etc.) have been reached through creating awareness on the child rights and protection in Vavuniya district.

• Conducted trainings for Self Help Groups in Maharambakulam (25 participants) and Sriramapuram (19 participants) • Book writers Basic training was done in Srirampuram for 7 participants • 9 children from the Badowita Children’s club conducted a house to house dengue awareness programme Relief for victims of Easter Bomb Attack • Nutritional packs were distributed in Colombo and Negombo for 39 children and dry rations packs for 26 families • A healing and fellowship event for women and children from Zion church, Batticaloa • Resources and machinery required for livelihoods were distributed to 8 families from Negombo and 7 families from Colombo.

• Community Based Youth Peace Ambassadors for Improved Inter Ethnic Reconciliation and Social Cohesion is initiated in Seruwila and Samagipura in the Trincomalee district.

• 44 students gained employment in hotels, guest houses and other business establishments.

• 8 Interfaith committee meetings in Badulla and 6 meetings in Galle.

• Leprosy screening for over 90 persons through the mobile screening camp in Kilinochchi.

• Interfaith medical camp for 300 persons in Gampaha.

• 13 Leprosy awareness programmes organised by the Interfaith group in Anuradhapura , Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Badulla, Monaragala, Gampaha, Galle, Hambanthota and Matara benefiting 2250 people • 8 Leprosy sundays conducted in 3 districts during the period under review.