I’m sure your thinking “Well, that’s an odd headline”, It been another year of war in Sri Lanka between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers, a war that has now been raging for over two decades. It will also be the 25^th anniversary of OfERR soon. After 25 years of working as OfERR, By, for, Of, Refugees, one wonders is it actually a date to celebrate? Guess that depends on whether the Title of “Refugees” is a mantle or a shroud? Perhaps we can celebrate the fact that OfERR and the Sri Lankan refugee population who had borne the Shroud of a Refugee, now wear it like a mantle! We can celebrate their metamorphosis from refugees to resource people. Celebrate the fact that their intervention in the 2004 tsunami was the first documented incident of a refugee population helping the host population. When the Tsunami struck the coast of India, it was the Sri Lankan refugees who rushed to the aid of the Indian tsunami victims. It is fitting to point out that come the 26^th and it will be 4 years since the tsunami, yet OfERR and its refugee Volunteers are still working in the tsunami areas.

They came so broken, they stood together, and they have been weathering the storm. So many refugee children have been born in India. Beautiful children, born as refugees, in refugee camps, to live the temporary life of one that has no homeland. ‘Violence breeds Violence, and is as Martin Luther king aptly put it “a vicious circle”. This vicious circle has been spinning on and on, and the children grow older, they study to be doctors and lawyers, then they wait for the circle of Violence to break. They wait in hope for Peace. Only with the onset of Peace can they return home. Only with the onset of Peace can they actually dust out those hard earned degrees and work as doctors, lawyers, administrators and rebuild their war torn homeland.

An exhibition of the children’s drawings is premièring in Chennai and touring the USA come Spring, and can be seen on our website as well. It is a beautiful Expression of 500 Refugee children living in 117 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu India. It’s a window into their souls. It’s a window into a very disturbed place. Blood runs freely and sadness dominates these Drawings, and hope is drawn as Peace.

There has been a surge of protests in South India as the Tamil Nadu government and its people call out to end the war. Why now? Perhaps because since the 2006 Cease fire the fighting has gotten worse then ever, more Human rights violations are being committed on both sides, NGO’s and INGO’s are silenced and banished, and too many innocent civilians are falling prey to the incessant cross fire. The Sri Lankan army is closing in on the north, the Tigers are fighting back, entrenched in between the innocent civilians, vital roads are being cut off, food and medicines are scant, and the death toll rises all around. One child drawing touched me in particular. It was titled “Dreams for my future”, she had drawn the outline of Sri Lanka, green, lush, beautiful and prosperous. Untouched by war.

Need I say more? 80,000 refugees in India dream the same dream. They “exist” in India, have existed for 18 years, but they want to “live” again, in Sri Lanka.

In Hope For Peace!