Butterfly Peace Garden in Sri Lanka

Hivos Butterfly Peace Garden

Allowing traumatised children in Sri Lanka to once again be ‘butterflies’

Children should be able to play, to laugh, to enjoy life. But for years now in eastern Sri Lanka they have not been able to do that. Countless children there have been victim to horrifying experiences. The main cause for this is the armed conflicts between the country’s different ethnic groups. Trauma centre Butterfly Peace Garden hopes to help these children regain their zest for life.

Butterfly Peace Garden wishes to allow children to crawl out of the cocoons in which their war traumas hold them – in order to make ‘butterflies’ of them again. To that end, this Hivos partner uses a special method. Each year it selects, together with parents and teachers, fifty traumatised pupils between 7 and 15 years of age. These children are invited to a special garden two days during the school week plus weekends. There, in a green and safe environment, they can play games, cuddle animals, take care of plants, make music, paint, draw, sculpt, put on stage performances and tell stories.

‘That is not only fun, but it also helps them to process their traumas calmly and to heal,’ says the Canadian Paul Hogan, instigator and advisor of the centre. ‘For nine months the children are coached by creative therapists. These therapists have often been traumatised themselves. Many even spent time in the Butterfly Peace Garden as children. They know from their own experiences that art and play are elements of a healing therapy.’

Hivos has been supporting the Butterfly Peace Garden in Batticaloa since its founding in 1997. ‘If children overcome their traumas and heal, they are much stronger for it and are able to then console traumatised family members or neighbours,’ says Hivos staff member Artien Utrecht. ‘That stimulates peace.’ She visited the trauma centre several times and saw with her own eyes how children’s creations helped them learn to talk about their pent-up experiences. ‘A wonderful thing about this is that they also learn to interact with peers from other ethnic groups,’ she says. ‘Tamil, Muslim and Christian children play side by side in the garden.’

The support for Butterfly Peace Garden is part of the Hivos programme Human Rights and Democratisation. In conflict-prone Sri Lanka, Hivos gives special attention to initiatives that stimulate peace and inter-ethnic relations.