‘The Survivors Speak’ video series to mark two years since Easter Sunday attack

EASP team with some of the survivors of the Easter attacks

A video series titled ‘The Survivors Speak’ created by the Easter Attack Survivors Project (EASP) comprising interviews with the survivors of the Easter attacks will be released on 21 April to mark two years since that tragic day. These interviews take a different approach because the survivors are invited to address issues of the strained relations between religious communities.  

The Easter Attack Survivors Project (EASP) is an initiative to memorialise the victims of the Easter attack as well as the stories of those who survived. Via advocacy through story-sharing, EASP wishes to build awareness of the survivor community, and contribute to reconciliation and peace building efforts in Sri Lanka. 

Starting off with the dawn of 2021, EASP launched its website www.easterattacksurvivors.org to document the stories of the survivors on a single platform. This platform is for the survivors to share their stories or tributes so that others (including other survivors and family members) may use the narratives to aid in their healing process, and so that the general public can be made aware of the struggles and battles the survivors face on a daily basis coping with their losses.  

The EASP team wishes to use this platform to build bridges and to instill hope in the survivors. They believe the survivors can become great voices for positive change in Sri Lanka and that through their stories they can play a phenomenal role in preventing our country from future threats of terrorism.   Thus, EASP’s aim is to create an atmosphere and dialogue that will aid in communal healing through sharing and receiving stories from the innocent survivors of the fatal Easter attack that left Sri Lanka wounded in many aspects. 

A project of Global Peace Institute Lanka, the Easter Attack Survivors Project was co-founded by Aamina Muhsin and Seth Ganepola; and comprises a dynamic group of volunteers which is Co Lead by three youth representatives from the three ethnic groups of Sri Lanka: the Sinhala, Muslim, and Tamil communities. 

‘The Survivors Speak’ is a series of short documentaries that take the viewer through the survivor’s life - their loss, pain, and coping mechanisms, as well as their thoughts on harmony in Sri Lanka pre and post Easter attack and Sri Lanka’s journey forward.  

The EASP team collaborated with Rev. Fr. Prasad Harshan from the Cardinal’s office and together documented the stories of the survivors in video format. They visited the St. Sebastian’s Church at Katuwapitiya and interviewed some of the survivors at their homes. These videos address not only the grief, the pain and the loss the survivors face on a daily basis, but their impressions and thoughts on the inter-community rifts and the state of disharmony the country fell into overnight.  

The pain of the survivors is heavy, the devastation caused to them is inestimable, and no amount of social service or justice will be adequate to restore what they lost. Nevertheless, the team believes that every citizen can play a part in paying homage to this most patient and excellent community of survivors by aiding in healing, rebuilding, and reconciliation between all communities.  

The team is grateful to the survivors who have been the epitome of love, and who have inspired the entire team with their quest for strengthening relationships between communities in spite of what befell them. The team is also grateful to His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith for his leadership, Professor Rohan Gunaratna who is part of the EASP team for his vision and guidance, and the entire team of volunteers who have come together to work on this cause.  

‘The Survivors Speak’ video series will be released on 21 April and can be viewed at www.easterattacksurvivors.org, or on EASP social media pages: https://www.facebook.com/easterattacksurvivorsproject and https://instagram.com/easterattacksurvivorsproject 

EASP team at the Katuwapitiya Church