ethnically mixed group matches into their programme. This strategy took away potential issues of ethnic rivalry within contests, and instead provided a neutral context for minor sport competition. Ranil hoped that the youth would take their experiences to their families and communities, talk about their new impressions and subsequently influence people’s perception of ‘others’. Four broad areas were identified as opportunities for maximizing peaceful outcomes from sport events: (i) youth as catalysts for peace; (ii) uniting people through ethnically mixed team sports; (iii) event-related social opportunities; and (iv) leveraging events for peace.
Youth as catalysts for peace
The ISM event specifically targeted children and youth groups between the ages of 6 to 16. Ranil argued that a focus on the Sri Lankan youth allows the organizers to communicate their ideas and peace message to fresh open minds, as ‘it is easier to influence young people who are not yet full of prejudices … As a secondary target market the adults may be influenced through the experiences of the children and their stories told. Once interest is there for the adults to witness such events they might be won over, and they may develop their interest in participating at the next events’. Ranil therefore described children as ‘an ideal catalyst for establishing contact’ and hopes for a social development process that will be instigated:
So when people go home after the event they might tell their parents or friends
‘Hey, the Tamils are no terrorists, we had a great time together’ … This way we can reach the parents through the children and the communities through the children and parents together … So everyone is affected by the program … From connecting sportspeople to connecting families and one day whole communities.
To allow for additional contact between young sportspeople beyond sport events, Didi proposed the introduction of ‘event pen pals’. He noted:
In order to have a continuous link [between children], which is not possible with telephone because the infrastructure … we shall introduce a greeting card system, where the children communicate through postcards among each other … The cards are a type of comic card [that] have that type of collection phenomenon, because they are very colorful and very attractive.
Didi felt that the pen-pal system will require ‘a bit of effort from the children, but in return they receive postcard-presents from their new friends as well’. He believed that event pen pals can sustain ‘feel good moment’ beyond the event, enable new friends to stay connected and it is hoped foster more peaceful relations between divided communities.
Uniting people through ethnically mixed team sports
Respondents recommended minor changes in the style of the event programme and suggested that a clearer focus on integrative team sport activities would
benefit relationships between divided communities. Dan believed that team sports have proven to ‘unite people successfully’, and particularly ‘smaller teams with pupils from each school’ were central to achieve ‘a team building effect’. Building on Dan’s comment, Tom argued that in order to ‘achieve more long-term effects … we have to [focus on] something like football teams with different ethnic members’. Both respondents highlighted that more integrative interethnic team-sport activities were essential to establish common ingroup feelings. Axel added to this and believed that the introduction of
‘national games’ – where ethnically mixed Sri Lankan teams play different international teams in different sports – could be a successful step forward towards inclusive social identity and team building.
Event-related social opportunities
Respondents discussed the idea of providing additional social contact opportunities for participants and stakeholders around the main sport event.
For example, Raj argued that:
as a programmer, you can make [sportspeople] get to know each other
beforehand … We should share some cool drinks, or have all the sportspeople sit together to develop some interpersonal relationships. Like passing the ball and two people will come together, and they have to sing the same song or something like that. So … they will come to know each other [and] then, when they are running, they will also try to keep that relationship.
Additional recreational activities that are linked to the events were expected to advance further intergroup relationships between communities, domestic visitors and international tourists. Mano suggested:
Every time we practice together, we eat together, we play together, it gets a bit better. So for the upcoming events it will be important to not only connect people through the sport, but also at the events or happenings around the sport activity.
Lunch, recreation, relaxation, tea breaks, educational lessons and so on.
Didi recommended that the event organizers should also plan for social entertainment opportunities after the event. Such opportunities would give participants, tourists and in particular the community the chance to mingle and celebrate their contributions and achievements. He suggested staging activities that allow for ‘a party type of atmosphere, where musicians are taking part and entertainers. There is the opportunity for having chats, [where people can]
talk freely and extend invitations to meet again out of the sport context.’
Leveraging events for peace
Respondents suggested follow-up events and a focus on regular sport programmes to sustain and leverage the social outcomes of inter-community events. According to Didi, follow-up events should have ‘the same group consistence, because [participants] got used to each other … We should repeat
the ISM event and should not wait for too long’. Didi expected a strategy of deepening or strengthening relationships to lead to lasting social outcomes.
Sinhalese community member Gerd shared this view:
When [the Tamils are] coming two, three times, then only we can get their ideas and … something bigger can develop. It is like this: when I meet one guy in the ISM, then I can say ‘Hello’ to him. So when I meet him at the second Sport Meeting, then I can talk to him a little bit. So if I meet him a third time, we might have a friendship.
Andy on the other hand suggested the implementation of large-scale follow-up events such as the IR4P to open up the events to more people from different groups and communities. He argued that ‘if we can do four events per year, then you get more impact. … If we can have four events, these mega events, then definitely we can build up larger interest in the peace theme and achieve our aims’. This strategy aims at widening the circle with a focus on new local participants and tourists who get involved and emotionally affected by the
‘Peace through Sport Events’ message. Ranil argued that ideally both the deepening and widening approaches towards community development should be combined:
A week-long [sport] program would allow you to connect people with locals who reside in the host community. Here, on a micro-level you could establish contacts and connections, which are promising to be sustained beyond the program itself.
These more structured sport [programs] focus more on … connecting groups, while the one-day large-scale events are focusing mainly on creating awareness, an awareness of peace in Sri Lanka.
Suto believed that in order to leverage a peace message to the wider community, A.G.S.E.P. ‘needs to link the message to … the political sector!’ At the IR4P and the ISM the involvement and support of the Sri Lankan Government was only of a representative nature, which made local sponsor Niro say that ‘the Government really needs to make some greater contribution for these [events].
That is what I’ve seen lacking at this event’. Mark believed that the Sports Ministry could provide A.G.S.E.P. with great leveraging opportunities:
When important people like politicians or the Government support those [events and] if these key people are excited about the idea of community development using sport events, the idea and the message can grow further. Because these people act as multipliers, because they have a good network and they may contribute in some way.
A key area identified for improvement was in media management. According to Shanto, various media outlets could be approached before, during and after the event to create awareness of and publicity for the inter-community celebrations, and to achieve positive news coverage regionally, nationally and internationally. He believed that event leverage through the media will lead to
‘higher participation numbers, extra social benefits and in the end a better image for us, the communities, and A.G.S.E.P. also’. Finally, several respondents discussed the idea of educational leverage for social benefits. For example, Andrew and Dominic suggested the cooperation with schools to
provide language classes in the lead-up to inter-community events to organize management workshops for support staff and to create educational exchange programmes:
A special program for a week could be integrated into the school calendars, which maybe focuses on cultural education in combination with sport. This way the children have the chance to get to know each other under a real-life situation, because a week will set a different framework than a two-day event. [Further,] an exchange between teachers could happen. This would be a good way, for example, if Sinhalese teachers could guest-lecture at a Tamil school and vice versa. And this could lead into student exchange programs, because the students would follow the ideas of their teachers.