COLOMBO (UCAN) -- Children's paintings on display in the yard of St. Fatima's Church in Colombo on Oct. 4 told stories that needed few words.

The 250 paintings exhibited for Universal Children's Day contained young artists' depictions of war, empty roads, broken houses and trees. More than a few included the word "peace."

The Oblate-run Lakrivi children's center in the churchyard organized the exhibit, along with a program of songs and dances, to encourage children's creativity. The government's National Child Protection Authority co-sponsored the event to remind people of the vulnerability of children during wartime.

Although the main battlegrounds in the 20-year civil war have been in the north, where they are now, and in the east, children in Colombo have not been immune to the dangers.

Sunil Chandaruwan, 11, standing in his blue and white school uniform with his pregnant mother, remembers being terrified when a bomb exploded in his area of the city recently.

"I ran in panic, and when I returned, I saw burning cars and trucks," he recalled. Sunil told UCA News he helped rescuers extinguish fires by bringing buckets of water from a street tap. "One does not have to be rich to help others," he added.

The young boy said he listens to neighbors talking late into the night about the war.

Lakrivi, short for Lanka Kriyakari Virayo (Lanka's active heroes), is the national chapter of the International Movement for the Apostolate of Children, begun in France in 1929. French Oblate Father Marie Felix Mevel introduced the movement to Sri Lanka in 1954, and today it counts 15,000 children aged 5 to 13, of all religious backgrounds, as members. It operates through 120 cells around the country with 500 lay animators.

At the St. Fatima's event, members staged various plays and songs and dance, including skits that taught about helping others, including disabled people.

While speaking to mothers of the children, Father Rohan De Silva, director of the Oblate-run Center for Society and Religion, explained how they could help their children in this war situation that pits ethnic Tamil rebels against forces of the ethnic Sinhalese-led government.

"Children, who know nothing about war, now have learned new words: T-56, AK-47, multi-barrel rocket launchers, claymore mines, Kfir fighter jets and so forth," he said.

To counter this, the priest told the mothers they could be a force to shape their children.

When not attending a state school, Sapna Begum, 9, accompanies her mother as she sweeps the streets, while Begum's father washes cars for money. Police and ambulance sirens frighten her, she told UCA News, associating them with "bombs, killings and blood on the streets."

Pointing at her own image of peace, she explained: "We want a happy life, so for a different view, I drew a vegetable plot."

Oblate Father Joseph Cooray, national director of Lakrivi, told UCA News children do not just face the threat of war. "They also face humiliation, discrimination, threats, fear and scolding in their day-to-day lives."

The priest said they wanted the children to feel free to "develop their own thoughts and feelings" through their paintings for the exhibit.

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