The Sri Lanka-United Nations Friendship Organisation (SUNFO) will take over 3,000 people to the North on January 19. Their main aim is to promote cordiality between the people of the North and the South. Members of students welfare organisations and civil movements will participate in this mission of peace, Dr. Deshapriya Wijetunge Director SUNFO said yesterday.

The visit is being organised in collaboration with the Lions Club.

The delegation is scheduled to travel through Negombo, Chilaw, Puttalam and Anuradhapura into the Vanni. "We will be travelling into the villages of Vavuniya," one of the organisers of the Friendly Peace Visit, Ms. R. Rashad told ‘The Island’.

The main feature of the visit will be that the peace motivators will give the children of the Vanni gifts from the people of the South, Rashad said.

"We expect gifts from all parts of the country to flow in by the time we set forth on our journey of peace. We have taken steps to open centres to which people could bring in their gifts."

The participants of the friendly peace visit hope to return to Colombo on January 21.

"The period of 2001 to 2010 has been named as the World Decade for Peace and Culture by the UN. It is expected to bring permanent Peace to the world. We consider this as a move for construction of a peaceful Sri Lanka," Dr. Wijetunge said. — (DJ)