Sudharson Jayakumar

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Name: Sudharson Jayakumar
Organization: Shanti Ashram
Location: INDIA

Please explain how you have implemented the Learning to Live Together Programme, including the adaptation of its conceptual framework, approach, learning process, methodologies and activities. (600 words)

My journey with LTLT began in the year 2010 as a trainer in Tanzania. In the year 2011, I attended the training program in Srilanka and a training program in Geneva in 2013. In 2014, I began my carrier as a facilitator in India. I learned the process through practice in Shanti ashram as a team. Young people and children can be made attentive by the art of interaction and creating a friendly environment which makes them alive through our LTLT approach. My session methodologies are welcomed by the participants when it is properly approached after understanding the participants and their background. I always spend time in Pre- workshops preparation to make sure the reach gives a sustainable result which I learnt from my LTLT trainers. Children love the session through different techiques which is always effective way of making them to understand the session objectives. Learning to live together has been developed for use in different religious and secular contexts as a resource for everyone concerned with promoting ethics and values. We organize a one day program called ‘journey for unity’ with children and youth from our city. We understand about different religious values from different religious leaders which had given a great shift in the mindset of children and youth. I conduct workshops on interfaith and ethics in government schools as children are under the cling of poverty, lack of access to basic facilities and education. Children and youth discover themselves and accept that change is very essential in the society they live for the united world. I found an intense need to nurture these children with values that will make them ambassadors of peace and harmony in the near future through follow up activities which will result in complete action. 7 years of journey in LTLT has influenced me and many children who were in need of guidance. These training sessions showed up an universal growth in me and them.

Explain how the implemented program has been sensitive to the local context. (400 words)

Children in the Indian society have been subjected to diversification of religions and culture. The togetherness in them is hindered by various economic backgrounds. The richer are given good education while the poor cannot afford for it. The children in government schools are yet in need of education to the mind and the soul which can be solely met by LTLT workshops. Language barriers are to be noted as there are thousands of different languages all over the country. Politics also plays as an important role in affecting peace in the state. But children accept positive views and ethical ideas when taught through effective interaction and friendly ambiance which was easy for me through our LTLT activities and methodologies. The barricades of peace in the society can be broken by educating the children with hopes of understanding self and other. Respect and responsibility towards the norms of the society and empathy and reconciliation for a transformation society has been achieved in the young minds through LTLT.

How has the implemented program fostered interfaith and/or intercultural learning among participating children and young people? (400 words)

India being a land of diverse religions has children and students from different cults and cultural backgrounds. People accept religion of the other but very often fail to respect the religion which is the reason for most issues of disturbance in peace in my community. Interfaith prayers and interfaith ideas in schools and universities has developed a sense of brotherhood in children and students.When I hold sessions on interfaith, children are made to sit with children from different religions and are made to communicate, make friends with and mingle with their ideas and way of rituals. Reading one another’s religious books gives them an extremely different outlook on the diversity of religions. The concept of interfaith though not accepted at first was made them to understand through the interactive methodology of LTLT. This has created a peaceful change of mindset among the young minds and developed interfaith in them for peace.

How has the Learning to Live Together Programme influenced a positive transformation in you, in a personal and professional level. (400 words)

I was a Master in Electronics by academic qualification but LTLT has changed my life by changing my carrier into a trainer of ethics and interfaith among children and youth. It first removed the strains of orthodoxy in me by transforming my thoughts and ideas into a inter-religious person. Exposure to people from different countries and cultures broadened my mindset and made me think on the problems faced world-wide. It made me a practical person adhering to reality by celebrating universal brotherhood for universal peace. It developed an urge in me to create a positive atmosphere for children among youth to uplift the essence of peace in the society. I learned to respond to situations with problems to solve them than to react to it. This developed in me a motivational speaker and I travel around the country among children and young people to teach and implement understanding self and other in order to transform the inner self and the society for brotherhood and peace. LTLT has transformed me as a whole.

Please explain how you exemplify a strong role-model of the principles of Learning to Live Together. (400 words)

I strongly believe that a person can be a role model only when he lives what he teaches. Learning to live together has made me a transformed individual who responds to problems instead of reacting to it. This gives a better solution to various problems.. A role model inculcates in an individual, the eyes to see, a heart to recognise and makes him/her use it in their personal life for betterment in self and in the environment. LTLT has made me such a facilitator who imbibes such values in children, young people and adults whom I meet through LTLT workshops and also in personal life. I make sure every individual I meet gets the message of learning to live together by me being a role model of it’s objectives and ideas. Living it in our personal lives influence more children as they learn through observing people. Teaching cannot contribute much knowledge than that of being an example to it. I contribute an effective part as a role model to learning to live together in the society being cautious about my observers who are children and younger generation of the multitude. As a saying goes “ Children never do what you say, children do what you do”, I think it even implements for a young people in the form of association they associate with. LTLT association has proven with more testimonials for the unity and transformation.

Please provide further information on how you initiated, implemented and sustained the programs based on the LTLT, and how you have mobilized necessary support from stakeholders. (600 words)

Being a facilitator I began my journey from Shanti ashram.We conducted workshops in the ashram with children and young people in and around coimbatore. Personal interaction with them and with the stakeolders brought out their expectations and ideas about the society. We conducted many projects with Shanti Ashram on this regards. I also facilitated workshops in universities, colleges, schools and corporates in and around Tamil Nadu. I met corporates and colleges in Bengaluru and spoke on ethics and interfaith which developed a lot of transformational changes in them . I also facilitate sessions in Pondichery in government schools as a regular program. I regularly visit 3 schools with 250 children and train them on ethics and interfaith ideas through various activities.Insitutions Staffs also attend demo sessions and the idea of learning to live together was welcomed readily by certain institutions . More than 20 adults attend regular training sessions for the last three years in Pondichery. Over 20 sessions are conducted every month in various places for the individual and universal development of children and students. I also studied Child psychology to study the children who are my listeners and are going to be ambassadors of brotherhood through interfaith and unity. I conduct sessions even for my stakeholders for this influences them to let the children enjoy the celebration of brotherhood. I adhere to effective follow up activities after my sessions in order to sustain the message delivered and for visual transformations to be seen in the near future.Learning together is not a product to be sold but a byproduct which has to be implemented in the minds of the next generation by effective communication, interaction and the soft skill of the facilitator.
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