Linked with Mothers and Daughters of Sri Lanka.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: “The most important thing actually is to give time for every one to participate in the discussion. Everybody’s voice must be heard and we have to respect all the ideas. We may be a great expert on some issues but giving others a chance will be greater”.
They say about her: « Even at 71, an indefatigable Dulcy traverses the country talking to people on both sides of the ethnic concertina, often risking life and limb ».
Dulcy de Silva – Sri Lanka
She works for Mothers and Daughters of Sri Lanka (see on WomenWarPeace.org).
She is the co-ordinator of National Anti-War Front Women’s Sectio, Cofounder of the Mothers and Daughters of Sri Lanka, Dulcy de Silva (born 1933) is convinced that because women are the most severely affected by conflict, they are also the key to peace efforts. She has founded a dynamic peace movement that has gained in influence and recognition. At 71, an indefatigable Dulcy continues to travel throughout the country, braving personal danger. She is known in all of Sri Lanka, respected by Tamils and Sinhalese alike as an honest negotiator, and talks to people on both sides of the ethnic divide. She has been politically active since her school and university days.
After she finished her education, she began teaching, but recognized that she needed to involve herself more deeply with the sociopolitical movements in Sri Lanka. She joined the NGO, the National Peace Movement in Sri Lanka, in 1970, working with the peace movement for nearly two decades before co-founding the movement « Mothers and Daughters of Sri Lanka », in 1989. Dulcy continues to co-direct this movement, whose mandate is to end the civil war. She also coordinates the World Solidarity Forum Sri Lanka. Mothers and Daughters of Sri Lanka is based on Dulcy’s unwavering conviction that women are the key to all peace efforts: the most severely affected by situations of conflict, they handle grief as mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives. Although conditions are slowly improving, travelling in Sri Lanka is a hazardous proposition. Bus accidents are not uncommon, and news of the armistice might still not have reached some remote areas. For many years running, Dulcy’s clear standpoint has made her a target of antagonism. She has founded a dynamic women’s peace movement, and is spreading the idea both among the informed population and those incapable of reading or accessing television. So, although everybody in Sri Lanka benefits from her activity, its main beneficiaries are women and poor farmers. For more than three decades, she has slaved for a new kind of peace in Sri Lanka, one that depends on new ways of thinking and negotiating. (Read all on 1000peacewomen 2005).
Dulcy de Silva is from Sri Lanka. She is the coordinator of World Solidarity Forum Sri Lanka Group, and president of Mothers Movement for the Combat of Malnutrition. Dulcy has extensive experience in working with women from conflict regions. She is currently the president of WILPF Sri Lanka. (text).
Read: Report from the One Day Workshop – Women’s Journey to Peace: Strengthening the Next Steps Forward, 30th January 2003, Colombo Sri Lanka.
Read: Child abductions haunt mothers in Sri Lanka’s east.
Read: SRI LANKA: Twenty Years Later, Wounds of Anti-Tamil Riots Fester.
Read: Mothers From Sri Lanka Working Overseas.
Read: Archive for Community Events.
There are four lakhs (one lakh is equal to a hundred thousand) of war widows in the country, said Vice President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the co-ordinator of National Anti-War Front Women’s Section, Dulcy de Silva. She was speaking at a seminar organised by the National Anti War Front, held at the Ranliya Rest, Hambantota, recently. Ms Silva said our main objective was to take the message to the people not to have another war in the country. Absence of war does not mean that peace is prevailing in the country. It is our aim to organise all forces against war and promote peace in the country. She said that women were the most affected, apart from children, due to the two decades of war in the country. Twenty per cent of families are female headed. therefore, many social problems have been created. Most of the women widowed due to war were between the age groups of 20 and 30, this has really affected the lives of these young women, whom the society looks in a different angle. Our Front is open to every women irrespective of their religion, caste, creed or any other differences. Our only hope is to form a strong organisation to oppose the war. (full text).
links:
WOMEN’S CONCERNS AND THE PEACE PROCESS;
International Officers Report, International Executive Committee Meeting;
Sri Lankan women condemn Tamil Tigers – use of women as suicide bombers;