Bringing Christmas to Sri Lanka Hindu children still victimised by the civil war
Colombo (AsiaNews) - "Christmas is a time of celebration and sharing, a time to teach children and adults how to work and live together without barriers and divisions," said Fr Ashok Stephen, director of the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR).
Speaking to AsiaNews, he described the spirit with which his association organised a Christmas celebration for a group of Tamil internally displaced people. Many of those who enjoyed the event were children, almost all Hindus, who marked the birth of Jesus with dances in traditional clothes and songs.
The event was held on 21 and 22 December in a Tamil school in Nedurnkerni. It was attended by about a hundred war victims. Most of the children who took part are fatherless, their mothers forced to do odd jobs to support them.
It is important "to train citizens not to care about differences of race, caste or religion because we are all children of God," the priest told AsiaNews. "To do this, we must learn from an early age, and events like this are a good way" of doing so.
The children sang and danced, performing nativity scenes, which they learnt with the help of the Sisters of the Holy Family.
Some of the nuns along with a missionary of Charity and two CSR lay volunteers work in the refugee communities, focusing on the educational and spiritual apostolate.
"Although we are Hindu, we are happy to receive the support and advice of the nuns and fathers," the mothers of some of the children said. "They helped us rebuild our tormented lives. We need a future, and thanks to them we can make it."
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20/12/2018 16:35
