Caritas Sri Lanka is an organization which reaches out to uplift the lives of people in a holistic approach. We are concerned about the financial, social, psychological and spiritual aspect of every individual we serve and right now it is an urgent need to respond to the cry of the planet which is being destroyed drastically and causes severe changes in the climate and affect our environment.
Being open to the appeal of our mother nature Caritas Sri Lanka initiated virtual workshops on 22nd and 23rd of June 2021, under the title “Challenges of Climate Change and the role of Religious Leaders to mitigate them”, in Sinhala and Tamil langauges. There were four such sessions organized to create awareness among various religious leaders throughout the country with the participation of 54 Catholic priests and sisters, 26 Islam Maulavis, 23 Buddhist Monks, 20 Hindu Kurukkal (Hindu Priests) and 9 Christian religious leaders in total 114 religious leaders. Mr. Gayan Rajapaksha and Mr, Remo Shihan facilitated the sessions and led the audience in to the greater consciousness on:
- Challenges of climate change and how we contribute negatively to this change in our daily life
- Best practices to adapt to the changes
- The possible ways and means to mitigate theses issues
It was a successful programme where the religious leaders of all the districts were able to gather in one platform to discuss on effects of climate change and its causes. Religious leaders were also able to come up with social activity plan to implement in their locality.
This programme had its two fold benefit, first was to address environmental issues and the other was to bring all the religious leaders together in unity to work for the common good of the society. Caritas Sri Lanka looks forward to mitigate at least some of the identified issues with the help of diocesan centers and the Caritas inter-religious forums.
