Search Light

Search Light is a Facebook page dedicated to the recording of accounts of violence that have taken place in Sri Lanka during the last 40 years. We have had 2 insurrections and a 30-year civil war in our country. Search Light was designed to provide space for people to tell their story so that it would be included in annals of history and the future generations would learn from it and make sure that war and conflict will not reoccur in our land.

Search for Common Ground, an NGO in Sri Lanka conceptualized a project titled “Community Memorialization Project” which captured many stories of war widows, men, and women who underwent tremendous hardships during the war, lost their loved ones and who are now physically and emotionally scarred for life.  My task was to place these stories before the general public through social media.

The only way we could light up the way ahead and see where we are headed, as a community, country or as the human race is to turn on the search light and look at our past. We are not talking about a 600-kilowatt Searchlight here. That is why this page is named Search Light, not Searchlight. Our history has been filled with violence. If we are to learn from our history we need to search for stories that speak of human suffering amidst, violence and conflict, listen to them again and again, include them in annals of history written by the people, for the people, so that future generation will not make the same mistakes.