Muslim Aid Sri Lanka has been creating awareness on peace building and good governance from 2007 onwards in Sri Lanka with the support of many community based organizations. MASL was one of the partners organizing the International conference held in December 2008 under ‘Moving beyond Conflict’ – Spirituality as a Resource for Reconciliation and Reconstruction. Based on the resolutions of the conference MASL provided financial and logistic support to the inter faith organization which is, ‘North East Interfaith Forum for Reconciliation’ (NEIFR). NEIFR is a group includes all religious leaders from all faiths practiced in Sri Lanka and residents from the war affected areas such as Northern, Eastern and North Central provinces of Sri Lanka. NIEFR has been involving in reconciliation activities since 2010, after the end of three decade of war. A program, ‘ Reconciliation through Interfaith Initiates’ was implemented by the North East Interfaith Forum for Reconciliation started in Jan 2012 till August 2013.
It was constituted on the basis that reconciliation is a long process, and has to start from the forgiving hearts of the affected people and not by the declarations which are signed by the heads of conflicting or warring parties. Since its inception, NEIFR has made significant progress to bring diverse communities together through repeated counseling, persuasion, and empathy. NEIFR also went before the LLRC and submitted its request to recognize the role of spirituality in healing wounds. The LLRC recommended in its report a significant role for the religious leaders in the reconciliation efforts. NEIFR has a Central management committee and also committees at the district levels in the three provinces mentioned above. Those committees will be connected to the villages in the respective districts through villages committee of religious leaders.