The third and final capacity building, training programme organized by the Migration Unit of Caritas Sri Lanka was held recently for the Diocesan Staff along with other stakeholders in the Safe Labour Migration Programme. The sole objective of the training was to enhance the knowledge of project staff of the 13 Diocesan Centres, civil society members, community leaders and local government authorizes who work for the betterment and welfare of the migrant workers and their families. To achieve this, three separate programmes had been designed and of which the final one was held on 29th and 30th of June 2017 at the SEDEC Auditorium.
Addressing the participants, the National Director, Rev.Fr. Mahendra Gunetilleke stated that migration cannot be stopped but only be regulated. He urged the participants to support this objective, especially in their work since our work among migrant workers and their families directly or indirectly contributes towards fulfilling the Church’s mission.
Under the programmes, three thematic areas such as advocacy, capacity building, and guidance had been covered and technical tools, methods and concepts related to the above has been disseminated among the participants. At the final training workshop, more focus was drawn towards the advocacy elements and with the gained skills and knowledge, the DC Staff had designed an Advocacy Plan to be utilized at Diocesan Level before the end of August with the respective Government Officials and other stakeholders.
In addition, the experts had shared information on latest migrant issues and trends and had explained about the available supportive systems, especially at national and local levels to address them. Similarly their roles and responsibilities and the activities undertaken by them had been introduced to the participants with the objective of supporting the migrants and their families.
A total of 60 participants attended all the two-day trainings held in a series of three separate programmes held in February, March and June. Out of them 57 participants received certificates.
All three training workshops were facilitated by the Caritas Sri Lanka and the Resource persons were from SLBFE, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Legal Aid Commission, ILO and by several experts and Consultants on Safe Labour Migration.
