‘Light a candle for the IDPs’ was the focal point of the open-air ‘Evening of Harmony’. The evening was a spontaneous reaction to pitiful plight of the IDPs by our senior members of the Peace Gang Panchali Premachandra, Traveen and Gishaan Manuel, Giovanna and Erica Sapumohotti and the La Petite Fleur Montessori and LPF Academy. The concert was held on a Saturday at the school campus in Dehiwela.

As twilight deepened into dusk, children of La Petite Fleur between the ages of 5 and 15 sang, danced, recited poetry and shared thoughts, all focusing on peace, harmony, love, brotherhood, and making our world a little better. The performers were tiny, but the enthusiasm was huge as they took on the task of making their audience more aware of and sensitive to the situation of the IDPs and the vital need of re-designing the fabric of our society to include the colors of peace. As one parent expressed: “It was so inspiring. It touched my heart and moved me to tears to see those little children performing with such solemn expressions.”

There was a 1960’s Peace, Love and Flower-Power atmosphere at the concert and the music certainly tapped into the most famous and evocative peace songs of the last two generations, from Where have all the Flowers gone? to Heal the World. There were songs in Sinhala and Tamil and tri-lingual songs like We are Sri Lanka. The students, in whom thoughts of peace and unity are instilled in the early years on a daily basis, were joined by adult staff members and guest singers, musicians and speakers who also contributed their music and thoughts to the chosen themes.

At one point during the evening, parents, friends and guests [including a group of children from Puniakami Vidyalaya, Badowita accompanied by Sister Concepta) lit candles as a symbol of empathy for the suffering of their displaced brothers and sisters in the war-torn areas. The audience were standing while enjoying the show, sometimes in the rain, too – a gentle reminder of the hardships suffered by thousands. Cards hand-made by the students were sold to invitees so that messages of peace and good will could be sent to IDPs.

La Petite Fleur {French for The Little Flower} is one of the only two schools in the country to implement an internationally-accepted Peace Curriculum [The other school is Bridge to Peace in Lunugamwehera, founded by the same dynamic directress], and arguably the ONLY school in the island to have a Peace Gang plus an original Peace Anthem. The Montessori and Academy were founded in 1993 and 2007 respectively by current directress, Mrs Bernadine Anderson, whose vision of education is firmly rooted in the teachings of Dr Maria Montessori who said that politics can only stop wars, but peace comes through education.

The school had already donated dry rations so that children in camps in the north could have a decent meal or two – an initiative spearheaded by the Air Force and the Lions, organised by Lion Lady Marlene Jayawardena, a guest speaker at the concert whose community service has taken her all over Sri Lanka for over 40 years.