Sri LankaJUNE 2009

2

Published by ASB/SoLidAr

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ASB Representative: mAtthew todd

SAH Representative: kAthrin BergmAnn

Head of Communications: SuLochAnA peiriS

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Information Officer: merySe tiSSerA

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Photographs richArd Schmidt

And otherS

Welcome to the June 2009 edition of the Solidar Newsmagazine.

This issue goes to press before the dust has settled on the frontlines of the Mullaitivu district, which has been the theatre of the fi-nal act of the three decade war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Much has been said and written about the Government’s ex-ecution of the final episode of fighting that witnessed unprecedented collateral damage on civilians who were used as human shields by LTTE. The end of the civil war represents a historic and unprecedented opportunity for Sri Lanka, perhaps the most important since independence, to make amends for the costly and grave political miscalculations made by past regimes. Sri Lanka needs to seize this chance to find a sustained and an acceptable political solution to the ethnic Tamil issues that lay behind and provided the raison d’etre for the emergence of an armed group like the LTTE. Such a solution has to be rooted in safe-guarding democracy, human rights, equal-ity and justice for all communities. Now that the LTTE is out of the equation, Government should make every effort to work with mod-erate Tamil political representatives as much as other political parties to achieve this goal without further delay.

The immediate task, however, is to provide effective and appropriate emergency assis-tance measures such as shelter, food, water and sanitation, medical services and other

basic needs for nearly 280,000 people who have been displaced and fleeing for their lives for nearly 3 years. All assistance must be extended in accordance with UN Guiding Principles on IDPs (Internally Displaced Per-son) and this includes facilitation of humani-tarian access for the UN, the ICRC and other I/NGOs by the authorities. Restraints on ac-cess to IDPs continue to be one of the grave concerns that all humanitarian agencies are confronted with and have voiced their frus-trations over. The Government’s commitment to provide emergency assistance to displaced populations will be closely monitored by the international community and be a litmus test for its ability and will to address the long term grievances of the entire Tamil population in the North/East.

The underlying theme of this edition of the Newsletter is ‘looking back-looking forward’. In parallel with the historic changes taking place in the country, Solidar Sri Lanka has ex-perienced some structural and organizational changes to its own modus operandi, foremost amongst these was the departure of Norwe-gian People’s Aid from Sri Lanka in April and a reorientation of the Consortium with ASB in the lead. An article by Matthew Todd, ASB Country Director on page 13 sets out the fu-ture direction of ASB/Solidar Sri Lanka pro-gramme.

The start of this new era also seemed an ap-propriate time to review and take stock of the extent of the Solidar Consortium contribution

editorial

Sri LankaJUNE 2009

news. June 2009 3

Inside2 Editorial

4 Challenges of an Unprecedented Humanitarian Mission

9 Interview with Dr. Palitha Kohona – Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

13 ASB/Solidar in Sri Lanka - Looking Forward

14 The Solidar Consortium 2005-2009: A Review

16 Emergency Relief and Humanitarian Response

27 Housing/Reconstruction

33 Social and Economic Development

45 Some Reflections from the Outgoing Solidar Representative

47 QIPs News

48 War On Want in Sri Lanka

49 Solidarité Laïque, A Long Standing Partner of Solidar

50 Opening of the Housing Project in Vaharai

51 SOLIDAR General Assembly Pays Tribute to the Humanitarian Commmitment and Courage of Solidar Volunteer Staff in North Sri Lanka.

across the whole country to social and economic development, re-construction and emergency relief. This section runs from page 14 to 44. Despite the impression given by some commentators it is worth emphasizing that 80% of our project budget has been spent outside of the Northern province. This point and others is made in a valedic-tory article from our very own Guy Rhodes, who was Solidar Sri Lanka Representative from January 2005 to April 2009. I take this opportu-nity thank Guy on behalf of the Solidar family and wish him all the best for his future endeavours.

On page 9, is an interview with Dr. Palitha Kohona, the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who provides answers to a range of issues pertaining to Sri Lanka Government’s conduct of war against LTTE and other related topics.

Along with a number of other INGOs, ASB/Solidar provides assis-tance to thousands of displaced families currently sheltering in IDP centres in the district of Vavuniya. The challenges we are confronted with pretty much echo those of other humanitarian actors on the ground. An interview with Richard Schmidt, ASB/Solidar Vavuniya Programme Coordinator describes some of the immediate problems that need to be addressed in order to continue our assistance efforts in support of IDPs in a meaningful manner.

The ASB/Solidar Sri Lanka Programme has ongoing funding and oth-er types of support from SOLIDAR Network members in Europe. This edition includes further details of two such members - War On Want and Solidarité Laïque and their project activities in Sri Lanka.

We hope you will find this issue as interesting as our previous editions. Please do not hesitate to send us your feedback to solidar-info@sltnet.lk or to our new postal address mentioned in the top left of page 2.

Sulochana PeirisEditor

4

Challenges of an Unprecedented Humanitarian Mission

Prior to the Tsunami, Richard Schmidt was the Senior Technical Advisor with the NPA Mine Action Programme. As Deputy Programme Manager of NPA in 2005 he was a founding staff member of the Solidar Consortium in Sri Lanka. After 2 years away between September 2005 to October 2007 Richard returned as a Project Manager for ASB’s construction activities in the North, based in Kilinochchi. From July 2008 Richard took on the responsibilities as Programme Coordinator North and Head of Office for Solidar’s field offices in Vavuniya and Kilinochchi. He closed the Kilinochchi office following a mandatory withdrawal of all aid agencies from the ‘uncleared area’ in September 2008.The evolving situation has created continuous challenges for those most directly involved in managing and coordinating the programme’s activities and staff. In the following interview, Richard Schmidt talks about the challenges of implementing an unprecedented humanitarian mission in support of thousands of displaced families currently sheltering in IDP centres in the Menik Farm area,Vavuniya District.

news. June 2009 5

What activities has ASB/Solidar been recently implementing in the North?

As part of an integrated IDP programme, ASB has mostly focused on the WASH, Shelter, and NFRI sectors. We have constructed emer-gency and semi-permanent shelters and latrines, provided clean drinking water through bowsering and well cleaning/rehabilita-tion, hygiene promotion and the delivery of non-food items. These projects were implemented previously from our office in Kilinoch-chi and now from our Vavuniya base. Our Solidar partner SAH con-tinues to deliver livelihood support through projects such as home gardens, small business support and cash grants.

What other agencies are participating in the emergency response in the North?

All agencies that relocated from Kilinochchi in September 2008 such as Oxfam, CARE, Save the Children, World Vision, Danish Refu-gee Council, ZOA, as well as the main UN agencies continue to be working in Vavuniya. Other agencies like ACTED and Handicap In-ternational have more recently joined the emergency relief efforts. A number of LNGOs are involved, mostly working in partnership with larger agencies. Sewa Lanka is one of the largest LNGOs man-aging multiple partnership contracts.

Until February this year when 30,000 IDPs arrived in Vavuniya in 1 week, few emergency activities were implemented in Vavuniya. Af-ter the relocation from Kilinochchi, using the “Aid Worker Volunteer” mechanism, implemented under the direct supervision of the GAs of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, some agencies were able to continue to support activities in the uncleared areas of the Vanni, providing much needed assistance to thousands of IDPs.

Was ASB/Solidar able to implement such activities through the GAs ‘Aid Worker Volunteer’

mechanism?

Yes. Whatever resources we were unable to relocate to Vavuniya in September 2008 were handed over to the GA to manage along with 29 staff who were able and willing to work. From September 2008 to April 2009 we supported the construction of hundreds of temporary shelters, dozens of latrines and the delivery of millions of litres of water. Volunteers were also attached to hospitals main-taining generators, electrical systems and plumbing systems.

How challenging have these influxes been to deal with?

Apart from providing basic survival needs we also work to maintain human dignity. These people arrived in huge numbers from the war zone and needed immediate assistance with food, shelter, wa-

ter and sanitation, NFRI and health care. The first thing most newly arrived IDPs do after their journey is bathe. In order to do this they need sufficient water supply with privacy screening, NFRIs includ-ing a container to scoop the water, a towel to dry themselves, a clean change of clothes and soap from the hygiene kit.

Agencies contributed with all their resources but it still took some time before stability was maintained for the IDPs. The inter agency coordination mechanisms were definitely tested in February and improvements were made in preparation for the expected arrival of many more IDPs. Even with the large number of agencies working on the ground, it has been a real logistical challenge to address the needs of so many people in such a short time. In the last 2 weeks of April when over 100,000 people arrived in about five days, many had to wait days to be processed and housed in the camps. NFRI distributions were delayed until families were registered with the government administration and delayed even more until a safe en-vironment was ensured for distributions.

I had two trucks holding over ten thousand bottles of drinking wa-ter that, due to crowd control concerns, we were unable to deliver for 2 days. Even when we had assistance to manage people into or-derly lines it was extremely difficult to keep control of. People kept surging towards the truck with their hands out and desperation in their eyes and voices.

It seems that now, since the government has declared a military victory, no more IDPs will arrive. This should give us a chance to reassess the gap between the needs and the capacity available to do the work required.

How is the work organized or coordinated between the agencies?

All active INGOs and a number of local NGOs participate in sector groups for the shelter, NFRI, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), education, health and food sectors. They meet at regular intervals according to the level of emergency and discuss any common is-sues. At these meetings worksites are allocated to agencies for their

6

activities and completed activities are recorded. All this information is brought together in a coordination matrix that is distributed back to all agencies. Each sector usually feeds their information into a master matrix with population and activity updates for every loca-tion which UNOCHA distributes at least one a week.

The coordination works better in theory than in practice, but it still works. It’s far from perfect because it takes a lot of energy and time to coordinate such a complex operation. There will always be room for improvement but many agencies and individuals are putting in a real effort to make it work.

Can you describe ASB/Solidar’s approach to providing humanitarian assistance to displaced

families?

Our humanitarian assistance is based on a holistic approach. Through our Integrated IDP Programme we aim to provide a com-plete package of relief assistance from shelter to water and sanita-tion and hygiene awareness, as well as cash grants and home gar-dens for livelihoods support through our Solidar partner SAH. For example, when we undertake to build shelters on a site, we also build toilets, provide water, and implement hygiene information projects as well as livelihood support to that same community.

In terms of ASB/Solidar capacity, do you think we are prepared and well equipped?

We have secured funding for a significant contribution to the emer-gency in the North and we continue to seek funding according to our implementation capacity. This current funding enabled us to stockpile prefabricated emergency shelters, emergency latrines and water tanks, as well as procuring NFRIs ready to deliver wher-ever is needed. Over the last 18 or so months we were able to antici-pate certain eventualities and plan accordingly. As it turned out, our planning was appropriate to the events that actually occurred and we can be quite proud of that. At the beginning of 2008 we iden-tified the fact that our Vavuniya capacity needed to be strength-ened. At that time it was a very small office supporting a few small projects. Our efforts were focused on Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu

Districts where the IDP needs were greatest. We anticipated how-ever that Kilinochchi was likely to be the next battleground and we would need to operate from Vavuniya. During the year we added new projects such as hygiene promotion and moved into a bigger and better office. We hired new staff and secured storage space for logistics. Resources such as vehicles, computers and staff also strengthened the Vavuniya office during the relocation in Septem-ber.

Some people allege that those IDP camps are open prisons. As someone who is on the ground having

much closer observation of the set up, what is your view on this?

To date there has been limited success with the release of some elderly people and most of the UN staff from the camps, but there are now over 250,000 IDPs in Vavuniya district out of which the ma-jority of them sheltering at Menik Farm making it one of the biggest IDP sites in the world. We work to maintain human dignity for all IDPs and this becomes more challenging with IDP sites arranged the way they are. It is alarming to realise that all these people are completely dependent on what comes in through the front gate of each site including food and water. There is severe over-congestion of sites, with four or more families sharing a shelter designed for one family. Water supply does not meet the minimum require-ments and communal cooking has a number of its own challenges.

At one point the Government indicated that IDPs will have to re-main in Menik Farm for two to three years but they more recently declared that the return process will be initiated this year. Other en-couraging news was when the Vavuniya GA this week announced that all camps will now be fully administered by civilian authorities and that the military will not enter the camps. I am sure the govern-ment is keen to accelerate the return process for many reasons, one being the obvious un-sustainability of existing IDP camp arrange-ments. Even at a dollar a day to feed and provide water to each per-son it would cost over a quarter of a million dollars per day to keep the camps running. Hopefully more people will be released from the camps as the Government gains confidence in their screening process to correctly identify non-combatants and provide them with the same rights regular citizens of this nation enjoy. Now that a military victory has been declared it would be very helpful if the government provided a detailed recovery and return plan for this year and next year. This would give agencies and donors confi-dence in the temporary nature of existing camps as well as provid-ing background information for funding future projects.

Are you satisfied with humanitarian access to these IDP camps?

Until now we have managed to continue delivery of aid in all our sectors but it is becoming increasingly difficult. More restrictions are placed on the type of vehicle allowed into the camps. Some-times we are asked to remove flags from the vehicles before enter-ing and other times we are told to leave the car outside the front gate. Normally for national staff it’s simply a matter of providing appropriate personal and professional identification, however last week all agencies had to apply for special ID cards for their staff to access the camps. A few months ago one of our teams, the HIP (Hy-giene Information Project) team was denied access because they had mobile phones in their bags. They were told to come back the following day which they did and were allowed entry. The inconsis-tent policies are frustrating because each delay or denial of entry reduces our effectiveness to deliver vital aid.

news. June 2009 7

Are these type of issues taken up at the coordination meetings you have with the GA and the military?

They are, and sometimes our concerns are heard and dealt with, for which we are grateful, but other times our issues are ignored or giv-en the run around. Generally, specific issues are dealt with on the ground. Our staff show due respect to camp authorities and comply with any reasonable instructions given. For access issues we would contact the senior official on site and explain what we are involved in and the specific purpose of our visit. At a senior level the authori-ties are approachable and mostly reasonable.

Are you hopeful that the Government will be able to resettle displaced communities in their places

of origin over the next 12 months or so?

I think there are enough people in the Government who realise this

as the only practical solution. Financially, nobody, including the Government and donors will have money to support hundreds of thousands of people for a long period of time. I am guessing how-ever that the defence/national security strategy may not be com-pletely compatible with the recovery/resettlement/development strategy. The MOD do not want to risk anything and they don’t want to send people back in an uncontrolled way for fear of hav-ing another uprising so I think they want to have a lot more control of what goes back into the Vanni and when. Musali returns have started but some of these return plans take time. There are many IDPs in Mannar who have been waiting for years and still have no indication of a return to their homes. Hopefully the end to the war will enable the return process to accelerate. It would be encourag-ing but I don’t anticipate much return occurring during 2009. We may see some returns to north Vavuniya and Manthai West, north of Mannar, but I don’t see significant returns to Kilinochchi or Mul-laitivu Districts until sometime in 2010.

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© 2009 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Sri Lanka# 202-204, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7, Tel: +94 (11) 4528689, Fax: +94 (11) 4528690, Email: ochasrilanka@un.org ,Website: www.humanitarianinfo.org/srilanka, http://ochaonline2.un.org/srilanka

This map is designed for printing on A4sizeThe boundaries, names and thedesignations used on this map do notimply official endorsement or acceptanceby the United Nations.

Projection /Datum

Produced on:Transverse MercatorKandawala

29-May-2009

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Produced through the generous support of:

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Data source:UNHCR Colombo.

Vanni IDP MovementsAs of 28 May, 2009

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Jaffna 11Vavuniya 25Mannar 2Trincomalee 2

Can you update us on the status of the 29 member team of ASB-Solidar Aid Worker Volunteers

who were working under the supervision of the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu GAs?

As I mentioned earlier a number of our staff were able to continue working under the GAs Aid Worker Volunteer Mechanism. In Sep-tember 2008, when we left the Vanni, we had 73 staff employed. 29 of them registered with the GAs of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu and continued to deliver aid where directed to by the GA. Most of our former staff are now in IDP camps and we were saddened to hear last week that one staff member Mr. Sellathurai Arulventhan who had been working as GA volunteer staff, was killed on 14th of May 2009 at Madduval, Mullaitivu. Our staff working as GA Aid Vol-unteers did a commendable job since September under unimag-inably difficult conditions. They were displaced many times from September 2008 to April this year from Kilinochchi towards Mul-laitivu where they ended up in the government declared ‘no fire’ zone north of Mullaitivu town. We are in the process of requesting their release from the IDP camps so they can continue working with us, helping those in greater need.

Do you see any gaps that need to be filled in terms of IDP assistance measures?

The biggest gap continues to be in the provision of adequate water

and sanitation. As for other emergency activities like shelter and NFRI, we are still struggling to satisfy the needs but they can even-tually be met. Inadequate supply of clean water and insufficient waste disposal facilities is leading to the spread of disease. Already there are outbreaks in the camps such as chicken pox, hepatitis and diarrhoea, which will only get worse if water and sanitation does not improve.

Personally do you feel that you are making a difference?

Absolutely. My input however is just to provide a bit of leadership and support to a great team of staff. We have skilled and motivated people who have come together as a team and delivered more than I could have imagined. Our activity reports speak for themselves but I believe that we had contributed between 5 and 10% of the aid delivered across our sectors during the initial emergency from February to April. This is a considerable contribution for a relatively small agency. Because of the rapid and significant aid we have de-livered so far, stocks have been depleted and budgets exhausted. Programme management is now seeking additional funds to en-sure that we can continue our work and that our capacity to imple-ment is not sitting idle. I am pleased to work with good people and honoured to participate in the delivery of aid to the less fortunate citizens of Sri Lanka.

news. June 2009 9

In the final stages of the military conflict between the Sri Lankan Security Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) there were growing international calls for the protection of thousands of civilians trapped in the tiny not so ‘safe zone’, the two sides blamed each other for the mounting civilian casualties, including women and children. Out of nearly 280,000 displaced civilians who made that perilous journey across the frontlines to government controlled areas, the majority are sheltering in transit IDP (Internally Displaced Person) centres in the Vavuniya district. Whilst the LTTE has been repeatedly condemned for famously holding civilians as human shields, the international community has asked the Sri Lankan government to show its full commitment to uphold international rules and norms as expected of any democratic government. In this interview given to Sulochana Peiris, the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Palitha Kohona responded to a wide spectrum of issues that ranged from the Government’s alleged failure to adhere to international rules and humanitarian principles in its war against the LTTE to the nature of a political settlement to win the long term peace in the country.

(The interview took place in late April before the final phase of the armed conflict ended. )

Interview with

Dr. Palitha Kohona – Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

10

The Sri Lankan Government has come under criticism both nationally and internationally for its

alleged failure to safe guard the civilians trapped in the Vanni. What is your response to such allegations?

I must categorically state that the government’s policy is to safe-guard the civilians. That’s the priority. Because these are our people and the government has a responsibility to protect them. There are some criticisms. But unfortunately we feel these criticisms simply reflect the propaganda of the LTTE. There is no other government in the world which has been confronted by a terrorist group of this nature, a brutal terrorist group and which has taken so much care to protect its civilians. What we have launched now is a mission to relieve the civilians from the clutches of the LTTE. It is also a very cynical comment to say that the government is not protecting the civilians. To begin with, LTTE herded them and I use that word de-liberately, into a very small area. Then it placed its big weapons in the middle of the civilians. As the government troops approached the LTTE, they started screaming that the civilians were being hurt. The civilians would not be hurt if they were allowed to go. When the civilians tried to leave on many occasions, the LTTE actually used force to prevent them. They shot at them. A suicide bomber came to a check point and blew up a large number of civilians. We know from statements made by those who managed to escape that the LTTE is keeping these people forcibly within the confines of that small area that they control. Mr. Des Browne repeated this himself. There is a simple solution to all this. If LTTE lets these people go, there will be no humanitarian crisis. The world has asked the LTTE to let the civilians go, the UN, the European Union, the Australian Foreign Minister and a range of other people have asked the LTTE to let these people go. They are simply bleating about civilians be-ing hurt, by their own actions a situation which they created delib-erately and callously. I think it’s just disingenuous.

What about alleged reports about shelling going into the safe zone?

If you look at the current situation, it’s impossible to shell that area without hurting our own soldiers. The area is so small and if you shell that area the chances are that shells might hit our own troops, because they are so close now. So I think it is very cynical to say that shells are being fired by our own troops. I am sure that civilians must be getting hurt because bullets don’t distinguish between ci-vilians and hard core terrorists. They hurt whoever happens to be in the way. Unfortunately that is a fact. But that is a situation that the LTTE has created. The LTTE manipulated this situation to save its own skin. I think it’s very important to remember that LTTE created this situation in order to save themselves and now they are blam-ing the government. Unfortunately some in the international arena seem to have picked up this LTTE line. I also should mention that the frontlines are so close and its just not possible to use artillery in that area without hurting our own people. We are fighting man to man and in the process we are incurring casualties ourselves. If we pulled back and used heavy artillery we could have wiped that place out. But because the government has a very strict policy of not harming civilians, we are not doing that.

What types of assistance efforts have been put in place by the Government in support of those

civilians who have arrived in the Vavuniya district?

Over 188,000 people have already come into government con-trolled areas that is as of 1st of May. Every day, thousands take every

opportunity to run away from the LTTE so the number will continue to grow. What we do is as soon as we receive them in the govern-ment controlled area, they are bussed down, processed, and taken to transit camps where they spend, maybe, a few days and then they are sent to the welfare villages. The welfare villages are well setup. There is decent accommodation. Better accommodation than any other similar camp anywhere else in the world. I know this from my 10 years of experience with the UN. There are adequate supplies of food, adequate healthcare, there is even a school for children where over 600 children are currently studying. There are postal fa-cilities and we are told that telephone facilities will be installed so that outgoing calls can be made. People receive money from their relatives, even from overseas, through the bank, some people have been receiving money in excess of USD 1000 per month so there is a lot of money coming in. Of course there maybe others who don’t have that sort of assistance. But many people are receiving assis-tance from relatives overseas. A number of NGOs are already oper-ating in these camps. The UN is present in these camps. So by and large, the facilities in these camps are good. There haven’t been any complaints about the facilities by the people themselves. Of course this is not an ideal situation. We would like to see these people re-turned to their villages as soon as possible. At the moment there is a plan to return the people from Mannar within the next few months, maybe two to three months. Others might take a little longer. The main goal is to clear their villages of landmines and UXO before they go. It is also a requirement that the UNHCR authorizes their return to their places of origin. So the UNHCR has to go to these places first and certify that these villagers can go back to their own villages. It will be a gradual process. We hope that within the next few months we will be able to return most of these people to their homes. Hopefully all of them can return within 2009. Because keep-ing them in temporary IDP locations is a costly affair. Its much bet-ter for people to go back to their homes and become economically productive. And the government will welcome that and currently every effort is being made to restore, the roads, the schools, clinics and the electricity supply so that when the people go back to their homes, they can start living normal lives almost immediately.

What do you have to say to allegations that these IDP camps take the form of concentration

camps?

We have an UNHCR report issued April which contradicts that per-ception. The camps are surrounded by barbed wire. In Sri Lanka there isn’t private property that is not surrounded by barbed wire. It is cultural. The moment you buy a piece of land, you put a barbed wire fence around it. In Europe they put palings. In some places they put up walls. In this country either you build a wall or, if you are not that rich, you put two strands of barbed wire, that is nor-mal. It has nothing to do with concentration camps. Its only people who invented concentration camps and used them extensively in history who seem to be obsessed with this concept. I can categori-cally say that these are not concentration camps. Of course there are security measures that have to be taken. When we established these camps in the East, there were no fences around them and it was the UN that wanted fencing around these camps. Because at the time, supplies that were stored in the camps were looted by people in the area. There were paramilitaries who came in and took young boys out. So, in order to prevent that sort of activities in Vavuniya, we started out with barbed wire fences. We know that stability has not yet returned to these areas, and there maybe LTTE cadres in the region, we know for a fact when they retreated they buried huge caches of weapons wherever they withdrew from. We

news. June 2009 11

know there are LTTE cadres in these camps. We’ve identified 4000 of them. There is a question of security and we need that fence. We also need the fence to ensure that people from the area do not come in and help themselves to items that are within the camps. There is a very well stocked shop in there. But as of this week, I be-lieve that the Ministry for Rehabilitation has taken over the running of these camps, so the camps will be run by civil authorities and the government agent of the area is in charge. The military will provide security around the area.

The Government is supported by UN and other humanitarian agencies in the design and

implementation of IDP assistance projects. How crucial is their role in terms of provision of assistance to displaced civilians?

The main cost of running these camps is borne by the government. Its a substantial amount that the government spends on running these camps. That is why we need to return them as soon as pos-sible to their homes. The World Food Programme provides a signifi-cant amount of food supplies. The ICRC provides health care needs to a certain extent. But the main part of healthcare needs is being supplied by the Ministry of Health. Its important for the UN to be in-volved. Because we have always worked closely with the UN and we hope that this close association will continue. Other humanitarian agencies are there too but their contribution is limited, in fact it is a minimum. I hope they will make a more substantive contribution. What we get at the moment is a lot of gratuitous advice rather than substantive contributions.

The humanitarian community feel that they have been unjustifiably targeted by some elements

including the local media that they have supported the LTTE whereas it is the Tamil people that they have been helping all along with the full knowledge of national and local government representatives. What is your take on such allegations?

I think there is a perception that has to be dealt with. If these hu-manitarian agencies don’t take the trouble to deal with this per-ception then this attitudinal problem will continue. I have talked to a large number of humanitarian agencies and I have explained to them that it is up to them also to step out and deal with this problem. Because in my view, the vast majority of the people in this country feel that humanitarian agencies worked far too closely with the LTTE for a long time. And of course certain circumstances may have fed into this perception. These agencies worked in the North at a time when the LTTE controlled the Vanni. Their locally recruited staff were by and large LTTE sympathizers or active supporters. We know that when these agencies pulled out of the Vanni, many of them voluntarily stayed behind. And this does contribute to the existing negative perception. And there is also a feeling that a sub-stantial amount of funding was taken up to the Vanni by humani-tarian agencies during 4 or 5 years prior to the termination of the ceasefire. And there is not much to show for those huge amounts that were spent there while on the other hand we have seen an endless series of concrete and steel bunkers, endless fortifications, equipment which used to belong to these agencies has been used by LTTE to construct battle fortifications. So these are issues that they have to face up to squarely and explain to the public. Simply by complaining to their embassies about difficulties is not going to solve the problem. Humanitarian agencies must recognise that they are guests in this country. And it is important for them to be

recognised as valuable partners by the entire population. If they proactively engage the population, and the media, I think this prob-lem can be addressed. Otherwise it will remain a problem. There is a perception problem and they have to deal with this problem.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to build Sri Lanka’s somewhat damaged global

standing in a post war climate. You as Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have a very important job to embark in that regard. Have you identified what types of measures are required to this end?

I am not unduly disturbed by the allegation that Sri Lanka’s global image has been damaged. Let me talk about the international com-munity rather than the globe which is a different concept. There are 193 countries in the international community, the vast major-ity of them including, the majority in the Security Council do not consider Sri Lanka to be a country that has to be criticised. We have very close relations with countries in the region. And they have now stepped in and become the major contributors to our development programme. Countries like India, China, Japan, Korea, Russia and Iran, and I don’t think our image in these countries has been dam-aged at all. We continue to enjoy very close and warm relations with these countries. We may have a difficulty farther afield which is largely caused by the LTTE propaganda machine.

As a government, we do not have the resources to counteract the LTTE propaganda machine to the degree that it ought to be. As you know Jane’s International estimated that LTTE collects USD 100 -300 million a year and a large percentage of this is now devoted simply for propaganda against Sri Lanka. The amount of money we spend on propaganda is miniscule in comparison. We don’t have the resources. We are also a third world country. We have a range of other issues to deal with. We have to feed our people. We have to educate our children. We have to provide healthcare for our peo-ple. We have to ensure that infrastructure development continues apace. The LTTE has only a mass goal which is to conduct propa-ganda against the government of Sri Lanka, procure weapons and conduct terrorism. So the balance is not equal but given that back-ground, we have taken a series of measures to counter this and to a large extent we have been successful. We have used our diplomatic missions, media and other contacts overseas to counter the LTTE propaganda as much as possible. As you know, some people have been trying to vilify Sri Lanka in the UN context. So far it has not been successful. It did not succeed not for lack of trying on the part of the LTTE but because we have taken certain carefully calculated measures to counter this. Mainly we provide facts and the facts are certainly on our side we do not rely on innuendo, we don’t rely on unsubstantiated allegations, we simply place our facts before the public and I think many people are reassured by what they hear. Then of course we try to engage with the diplomatic community in Colombo as much as possible. Again we reassure them that Sri Lanka is a democracy and is proud of its democratic history and we will do everything to maintain our democratic traditions. We also are, I believe, reassuring them adequately that our goal is to protect our own people and our critical objective is to eliminate terrorism from this land. Given this background, our image, contrary what some people might feel and might want it to be, has not been dam-aged internationally. It is a constant effort on our part. Nothing has come to a standstill. We will continue to improve our democratic institutions. One of the things that the government did after lib-erating the East was to conduct elections and ensure that people’s representatives were in charge to govern the Eastern Province and

12

we will do the same in the North as soon as possible. And of course the East recovered democracy after a break of about 25 years. That is what we need to recognise. It is also important to recognise the East cannot be expected to be a perfect democracy, not having experienced it for over 25 years. It will take time and there will be shortcomings. Point to the one democracy in the world which is perfect including in those countries that criticise us, I don’t think there is a perfect democracy anywhere in the world. We are doing our best. We have limited resources. We are a developing country and also we are fighting a brutal terrorist organisation. Against that background I think this country doesn’t fall far below the expected standard for a democracy.

What kind of a support role is expected from humanitarian and development partners in

terms of long term socio economic development of the conflict affected North/East areas?

First and foremost it is important for humanitarian agencies to focus on the areas that they wish to work on be specific about it. Simply because they are humanitarian agencies I don’t think they should have an automatic right to establish an office here. They must know what they are going to do. They must be specific about it and importantly they must have the funding basis to support those focus areas. Sri Lanka should not be used as an IDP tourist destination or as a haven in the sun for unemployed NGO workers. They must have work to do and they must have funding for that. We are aware that the UN is very much focused and that they will design ways that are useful for the country. Having said that I per-sonally believe there is a valuable role for humanitarian agencies to play and its a critical role in a developing country. They can go and attend to areas that are not otherwise covered due to various fac-tors, especially due to the lack of resources. And Sri Lanka has not done too badly in these areas. We have extremely good indicators in the areas of health, education, sanitation, environment etc. So if an NGO comes here, it should be to enhance those areas rather than deal with basics. I have this example of an NGO that wanted to come to Sri Lanka with a view to teaching people the importance of using boiled water. I think that’s the type of nonsensical misun-derstanding which gives humanitarian agencies a bad image. In this country, even the poorest villager, knows he must boil his wa-ter before consumption, which is something that is taught to you in school even in Kindergarten. 97% of our children attend school. So we don’t need that sort of humanitarian agency in this country. We need serious humanitarian agencies who can work to enhance what we have rather than pretend to be doing things which we al-ready have achieved and surpassed.

There is a palpable fear based on the political circumstances that have characterized the past

30 years, Sri Lanka will slide back into war. On the assumption that the military aspect of the conflict will soon be over, what kind of political undertakings have been or will be taken by the government in order to ensure that this time round the root causes of the conflict will be constructively addressed?

As you know the government started off 3 years ago by saying that it will address the concerns and grievances of our minorities in a po-litical manner. Subsequently, the All Party Representative Commit-tee was set up. It is in the process of evolving a political approach to resolve the problems that are confronting this country. It is recog-nised that all stakeholders must be party to this process. As you

know, since the mid 80’s successive governments have presented political packages as solutions to our problems, one included the Indian government. Everyone of them has been rejected by the LTTE. So by simply imposing a solution from the top, we know that it will not succeed. That is why every effort has been made to bring all elements of the Sri Lankan political landscape into this process and so far it has been reasonably successful. We have now acknowl-edged the need to devolve power to the provinces and it is being done. The Eastern province, as I said earlier, has got an elected gov-ernment and they are now enjoying the same degree of power as the rest of the provinces. In addition, the government has made a firm commitment to provide funding for the provinces to manage their own affairs. So I think this process of empowerment is the first step in finding a political solution. But personally I don’t think this country’s problems were offered by political circumstances. There were a combination of circumstances which resulted in the current situation. The most critical of these circumstances was the fact that the LTTE, supported and inspired by certain groups within and out-side the country, was determined to carve out an area for itself by force. And that is why they refused to accept any of the solutions or even talk about any of the solutions that were tabled by previous governments. They entered the negotiating process in 2002 and despite, I think, the sincerity demonstrated by the government of the day, they walked out of that. In 2005 when the present presi-dent came to power and offered to go and talk to Prabakaran any-where anytime, he was rebuked with constant attacks. For almost six months the LTTE exploded bombs all over the country, killed unarmed soldiers and was bent on destabilising the South and pro-voking a popular reaction against the Tamil people. These things were not undertaken with a view to achieving a political solution to this country. These were done deliberately and in a calculated manner in order to bring the country to war so that this delusion of Eelam could be achieved through violence. I don’t think it is reason-able to conclude that our problems were caused only by political circumstances. There were a range of circumstances and we need to address them separately. First and foremost the government has now firmly dealt with the terrorist question. So terrorism is out of the way. There are of course questions of inequality in economic de-velopment, inadequacy of social integration, inequality of opportu-nity etc. These are being addressed. The government has pumped over one billion USD to rehabilitate and develop the Eastern prov-ince. It will need much more for the North and we hope that the international community as well as the Sri Lankan diaspora will as-sist in this process. I hope we will get the necessary assistance for this. And then of course as we go along we also should address the question of empowering our own people so that they can manage their own affairs. I do like to emphasise that our current problems were not caused by political circumstances alone. They may have contributed. The real problem was caused by a group of brutish terrorists who were determined to create a fascist state for them-selves. And the government has now defeated that element effec-tively. This is the first time anywhere in the world where a terrorist group that had actuality controlled territory has been comprehen-sively defeated. Now of course we need to address other questions like economic advancement, social integration, and also creating confidence amongst our own people. We need to re-establish the feeling that Sri Lanka is a good place for everybody and that is the hope of all of us. There should be no enclaves which are claimed as homelands by anybody. The whole country is the homeland for all our people.

news. June 2009 13

ASB first came to Sri Lanka in late 2002, with an initial visit to ex-plore possibilities for establishing a programme of activities to sup-port IDP resettlement and rehabilitation. At that time, during the early days of the ceasefire, there was a great degree of optimism and hope that it would be possible to assist people and communi-ties in the important transition from conflict to long-term develop-ment.

Now once again Sri Lanka is looking forward with hope to a future of greater stability and lasting peace, ASB is again trying to find the best ways in which we can support people who have suffered much trauma and hardship as they try to rebuild their lives and communi-ties.

In October 2008, at a meeting in Brussels at the Solidar Secretariat, when NPA first announced its decision to withdraw from Sri Lanka, ASB reaffirmed its commitment to working in Sri Lanka, and agreed that it was important to continue to maintain and build upon the linkages already established with other SOLIDAR Network mem-bers in Europe.

Furthermore, ASB made a commitment to continue to work along-side other SOLIDAR members where appropriate, through a range of possible interactions, from co-financing to seconding staff and expertise, to shared programming. As such, ASB recognised the strength brought through working together. As the Solidar motto puts it, “Together we are a force for change”.

So what is the future of the Solidar consortium?

The Solidar Consortium came into being in early 2005, in response to a particular set of circumstances following the tsunami, primarily as a means to allow members of the SOLIDAR Network to share ex-pertise and costs in order to enable more effective and efficient de-livery of humanitarian activities following the tsunami. At the time, NPA had a significant programme support infrastructure already in place, and it made sense for other SOLIDAR Network members to be able to take advantage of this, without wasting resources build-ing parallel structures. As the other SOLIDAR members evolved over the next few years, ASB in particular, has developed its own independent systems in order to support its activities and provide leadership to possible future partnership arrangements amongst SOLIDAR Network members in Sri Lanka.

The logic of this approach will still apply in the future. Any other SOLIDAR Network member planning activities in Sri Lanka, may

make use of the established ASB infrastructure in order to develop programmes. This allows Solidar members to establish activities without the need for large overhead costs.

However, for this to work, any Solidar member choosing to oper-ate in Sri Lanka under the Solidar umbrella would need to develop a programme that builds on synergies with the existing ASB One Country Programme, and possibly that addresses an area of exper-tise not currently directly addressed.

It would be foolish to simply replicate programmes and structures already in place, merely for the sake of operational presence – this is one of the things that attracts justifiable criticism of NGOs. Any Soli-dar member wanting to come into Sri Lanka to carry out activities already undertaken by ASB will be advised to do so through a co-funding relationship, rather than establishing duplicate structures.

Where it is appropriate to do so, in particular where there is a fund-ing relationship with another member of the SOLIDAR Network, or where expertise or resources are shared, ASB will also maintain the visibility of the Solidar brand.

ASB, currently identifies Sri Lanka as one of its priority countries. SAH has currently made a commitment to continue in Sri Lanka un-til the end of 2009, and it may continue beyond though Sri Lanka is not amongst its main priority countries.

As mentioned above, ASB does not see itself primarily, as an agency bringing emergency humanitarian relief alone – although that is a very important aspect of our work. Neither are we a long-term development agency – as we see, especially in a middle-income country such as Sri Lanka, that people, communities and wider society has the resources necessary to manage their own devel-opment without significant external assistance. Rather, ASB is an agent of transition – a catalyst – allowing people to transform their lives from the extreme hardship caused by trauma (be it caused by natural catastrophe, as in the tsunami, or human conflict), into a more normal existence.

Clearly, such transition takes time, and it would be unwise to put definite time-frames to what is inevitably a complex process. How-ever, currently, ASB has plans that extend into 2012, and some programmes are already identified as part of this overall strategy. Beyond that, much will depend on the pace at which resettlement, rehabilitation and reintegration take place.

ASB/Solidar in Sri Lanka - Looking Forward – by Matthew Todd, ASB Country Director

14

The Solidar Sri Lanka Consortium was formed in early 2005 by three members of the SOLIDAR Network of INGOs1. Two of these members, ASB and NPA had been working in Sri Lanka from 2002. They were joined by SAH in early 2005. Other members of the SOLIDAR Network have made specific contributions of expertise or funds in the pe-riod since then. In April 2009 this original structure of cooperation changed when one of the Consortium’s found-ing organisations, NPA, left the country. The Solidar Consortium will continue maintaining a comprehensive one country program. This time of change and reorganization however seems a good point to review the scale and nature of the Consortium’s contribution to the people of Sri Lanka in the period since the beginning of 2005.

Within hours of the tsunami striking NPA and ASB were mobilizing their staff for the relief effort. NPA already had several hundred staff in the North involved in de-mining work and these teams were immediately dispatched to help in relief operations and manage welfare centres in both the North and East of the country. The existing organisation was also able to provide transport for food and medi-cal supplies and medical staff from other organisations and to supply clean water to survivors. In the following weeks, and following the arrival of SAH humanitar-ian activities also spread to the South to Matara and Galle.

In the months and years that have fol-lowed the Consortium spread its work across the whole of Sri Lanka, engaging in re- construction and economic and so-cial development where it could, revert-ing to emergency relief and humanitar-ian work where it needed to, as conflict again flowed across the North. The work and funding of the core members has been supplemented over time by other Solidar members and by joint working with other local and international NGOs and with a variety of UN agencies.

1 SOLIDAR is a network of 50 mainly European NGOs who work in

the fields of social affairs, international cooperation and life long

learning. The Sri Lanka Consortium is one example of the way in

which SOLIDAR members engaged in humanitarian aid and de-

velopment projects work together.

2005 - 2009: A REVIEW Written and compiled by Peter Brannen and Meryse Tissera

THE SOLIDAR CONSORTIUM

(Trincomalee, Batticaloa)

(Batticaloa, Ampara, Matara, Hambantota and Galle)

(Vavuniya, Mannar, Batticaloa)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

(

news. June 2009 15

In the Southern province the original humanitarian work has evolved into solid development projects: training young people in management and computing, helping local authorities to comput-er map the provision of social services, running local development projects and restoring both livelihoods and the ecosystem along the Southern coastal belt. In the Eastern province the Consortium has worked with local authorities and other organizations to re-build housing and infrastructure, to improve access to nutritional food resources especially for children, to create income generating work and to reconcile communities and heal the wounds of conflict and trauma. In the Northern Province whilst it has been possible to help rebuild housing in Mannar, elsewhere reconstruction has had to revert to humanitarian aid though some small economic devel-opment projects have been possible around Vavuniya.

Over the period the members of the Consortium have increasingly recognized the advantages of joint working both to themselves and to others: they have developed a range of different types of

cooperation and evolved a common strategy. The Consortium has also been able to provide a single communication and access chan-nel for local and central authorities and for partners in the commer-cial, NGO and international communities.

The Consortium has also made a not insignificant economic con-tribution to the communities in which it works not only in terms of the projects it runs and their effects but also in terms of its own organization and expenditure. From a base of 120 staff in 2005 the Consortium had grown to employ 380 people by 2008, ninety three percent of whom were locally recruited; in addition its mine action programme employed a further 650 local staff at its peak. These

were not simply jobs however but quality jobs with contracts, good remuneration, training, and employment conditions as well as in-volvement in decisionmaking.

In addition of course the Consortium has subcontracted much of its work to local organisations some operating nationally and others rooted in the local communities they serve. It has had economic relationships with a plethora of suppliers and contractors and partnerships with a wide range of public and charitable bodies. Through this network of transactions it has also created and sup-ported many thousands of jobs indirectly.

Linked to this the Consortium has also contributed to the economy through its own direct expenditure. In 2005 the expenditure of Consortium members in Sri Lanka was €4,614,172.00. By 2008 this had grown to € 6,931,962.00 The total expenditure of the Consor-tium in Sri Lanka from 2005 - 2008 was € 22,960,635.00. In terms of both expenditure and direct employment the activity of the Con-

sortium in Sri Lanka has been equivalent to that of a large medium size firm.

The following three sections set out in more detail the activities of the Solidar Sri Lanka Consortium in humanitarian relief, housing and reconstruction and social and economic development over the period.

16

EMERGENCY RELIEF ANDHUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

The first part of the article below deals with the work of Solidar in the period following the tsunami of December 2004. Unfortunately as humanitarian aid was being replaced with reconstruction and development assistance the

escalation of violence in the North meant that humanitarian assistance was again needed as people driven from their villages and communities migrated away from the conflict areas. The second part of the article deals with this period and the Solidar response in terms of an Integrated IDP programme ( IIDP). Following the withdrawal of international agencies and NGOs from the Vanni at government request in September 2008 the Solidar response had to adjust to another new situation. The final part briefly sets out where we are now.

news. June 2009 17

Immediately following the tsunami Solidar teams were working within hours to bring help to devastated communities and families in the North East of the country. Utilizing the platform that was al-ready in place in the form of established ground presence, person-nel and physical resources and local knowledge, Solidar members, NPA and ASB began implementing emergency relief activities in the coastal villages of Vadamarachchi East. These activities included transportation of displaced persons to welfare camps, provision of emergency aid including food, clothing and medicines, and debris clearance in affected areas.

In the following weeks and with the arrival of SAH in the country, the Solidar Consortium expanded its support further in the North by conducting a broad range of transitional assistance activities by itself and in cooperation with and support of others. Hundreds of temporary shelters were constructed; and clean water provided through the rehabilitation of thousands of household wells, Solidar was also active in the construction of 4 transit camps (Maruthank-erny, Vaththiryan Arasadhi Veethi, Vaththiryan Vaarividan and Th-alaiyadi) including 265 transit houses with supporting facilities of latrine units of toilets and menstruation cubicles, 4 pre-schools and 5 community centres. It installed electricity in 38 transit camps in Vadamarachchi East and Mullaitivu –utilizing 114 generators, 250km of wiring and 8,000 light bulbs.

emergency Activities

y Casualty evacuation and recovery of bodies

y Supply of protective equipment, decontamination stores water supplies.

y Provision of 15 trucks and other vehicles and water bowsers.

y Transportation of people, medical staff, water, non food materials and food.

y Vehicle and technical support to other organizations eg Oxfam.

y Construction of 260 shelters in 4 camps and associated community and pre school buildings.

y Installation of electricity generators and supply in 38 camps in Vadamarachchi East and Mullaitivu .

y Mine and UXO clearance in 36 transit camps to facilitate the construction of temporary shelters.

y Distributed 16,000 suitcases to families in Vadamarachchi East and Mullaitivu.

y Nutritional security through home gardens in the North

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Post Tsunami Emergency Relief Assistance

Location : Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Hambantota and Tangalle

Duration : 2005 – 2006

Status : Completed

No of Beneficiaries : 150,000 (approx)

Donor/s : Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ASB Germany, Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH), Swiss Solidarity, Solidarité La-ïque, War on Want, La Ligue l’enseignement, Apheda, FOS, Soli-darite Socialiste, Volkshilfe Progetto Sviluppo/Prosvil

Implementing Partner : Directly Impemented

Following the immediate emergency Solidar’s humanitarian aid spread to other issues and other parts of the country taking differ-ent forms depending on need and the overall pattern of interna-tional and national assistance being provided. Around the transit camps in the North East experiments started with growing nutri-tional plants and establishing nurseries. Twenty families were se-lected and trained to form the backbone of a nursery system which would supply seeds and seedlings to the transit camps. Eventually it was intended to transpose the system to the permanent housing once it was established.

Two further different types of interventions are illustrated below. In addition much of the early intervention work and subsequent beginnings of reconstruction depended on making areas safe from unexploded mines and other explosives so this part ends with a description of the extent of this work undertaken by NPA.

Post Tsunami Programmes

18

The Tsunami was an unknown and unheard of phenomenon to many people in Sri Lanka until the giant waves struck their coastal backyards leaving chaos and mayhem in its wake. In order to mini-mize misinformation and fear and to raise local knowledge of the science behind tsunamis, Solidar together with the British Geologi-cal Survey (BGS), launched the Tsunami Education Project (TEP) in May 2005. The challenge was to create an educational tool for af-fected communities and schools in Sri Lanka that would engage a wide audience; from children to adults, from the educated to the uneducated.

A three-dimensional interactive presentation in Tamil was created to educate children and adults alike in order help catalyse the tran-sition from fear to understanding. The presentation was composed of concise information on the Earth’s systems and geological struc-tures including, plate tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes, and natu-ral conditions that create tsunamis and wave movements. Informa-tion was carefully combined into simple and easy to understand forms to explain the earth science behind a tsunami. The underly-ing message was intended to provide reassurance that a tsunami is a rare event and with monitoring systems in place, a human di-saster on the scale of December 2004 should never happen again.

TEP presentations were facilitated by local geography graduates from the Jaffna University and were shown in schools and tran-sit camps over the course of 2005 and 2006. With funding support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TEP was able to reach nearly 300,000 people in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Tsunami Education Project

Location : Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu

Duration : 2005-2006

Status : Completed

No of Beneficiaries : 100,000

Donor/s : Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Implementing Partner/s : Zonal Director of Education, British Geological Survey.

Tsunami Education Project

news. June 2009 19

The tsunami of December 2004 severely affected wells along the Southern coastline by dumping millions of gallons of salt water into the wells. Salinization of drinking water wells affected large areas of the Southern coastal belt and rendered more than 15,000 wells un-usable, greatly reducing water supplies (MENR-Brown report 2005). Infrastructure damage to pipe borne water by the wave magnified the need for a locally based water supply source. The main pipe line was affected and local supply disrupted from Kalutara to Hamban-tota districts affecting over 100 GN divisions.

The Solidar well cleaning project was implemented in three South-ern tsunami affected districts; Galle, Matara and Hambantota by Rainforest Rescue International (RRI) and Solidar. RRI/Solidar re-cruited and trained 30 people who were victims of the tsunami in well cleaning, data gathering and salinity monitoring and set up seven independently functioning well cleaning teams consisting of 4 laborers. These teams cleaned and pumped out a total of 8530 wells, assisting nearly 50,000 individuals who were dependent on well water. Some 105 Grama Sewaka (GS) divisions and their com-munities were provided with well cleaning support.

The nature of the project made it the geographically largest com-mon pool resource restoration project running on the tsunami af-fected Southern coast of Sri Lanka. The project was acclaimed at government, local government and community level as a success-ful and important project. The overall effectiveness of the project can be seen from the 73% success rate in reducing total salinity to levels below the sphere standard and the numbers of people using this restored natural resource base.

A letter sent by R.W. Bandara, Public Health Inspector, 28th March 2005Regional Training Center, Fort – Galle

Dear Mr. Mueen Idroos

This is in regard to your sponsorship for well cleaning, I hereby express my greatest appreciation for the great service being done by you and your group. I would like to say no one has put forward such a great service for Tsu-nami affected families, but you have understood the real situation and have taken action to help the people who were affected by tsunami by providing them with clean water. I really appreciate your honest effort. - Well done - Thank you.

R.W. Bandara – Public Health Inspector.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project: Well Cleaning

Location : Galle, Matara and Hambantota

Duration : 2005 – 2006

Status : Completed

Donor : Swiss Solidarity

No of Beneficiaries : 50,000

Implementing Partner : Rain Forest Rescue International: with the assistance of Grama Sevaka.

Well Cleaning in the South

20

NPA established its Mine Action (MA) Programme in Sri Lanka in 2002 following the Ceasefire Agreement. The objective of the MA Programme was to support the Government of Sri Lanka in reach-ing its target of a landmine risk-free country by the end of 2006. The NPA Mine Action Programme, operated and reported under the strict guidance of the National Steering Committee for Mine Action (NSCMA) under the Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development. NPA supported the removal and de-struction of more than 30,000 anti-personnel mines, 9500 unex-ploded ordnance and clearance of 18 million square meters of land. All clearance activities were conducted to International Mine Ac-tion Standards (IMAS).

Minefields along the coast in the Vanni had already been cleared by NPA/HDU prior to the tsunami. Following the tsunami NPA’s demin-ers initially removed and destroyed over 50 items of unexploded ordinance in 38 transit sites in the districts of Jaffna and Mullaitivu prior to the relocation of tsunami survivors.

Subsequently NPA/HDU Battle Action Clearnace (BAC) teams sup-ported by flail machines conducted a UXO clearance operation in permanent settlement construction areas. The first priority was the Solidar construction sites in the village clusters of Chempianpattu North, Vathirayan and Udathurai where a total of 1125 houses were to be constructed. Additionally, NPA supported BAC teams also conducted similar clearance operations throughout the coastal region of the Vanni facilitating construction activities for other or-ganizations including: Hudec/Caritas, UNICEF, Care, Save the Chil-dren, UNICEF, World Vision, Forut, Sri Lanka Red Cross, Tamil Reha-bilitation Organisation, Sewa Lanka , and Humedica.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Mine Action Programme

Location : Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Mannar

Duration : 2002 - 2007

Status : Closed

No of Beneficiaries : 100,000

Donor/s : Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Implementing Partner/s - National Steering Committee for Mine Action: Humanitarian Demining Unit, Milinda Mora-goda Institute for People’s Empowerment, Horizon, Sarvatra, Sri Lanka Army Humanitarian Demining Unit

Clearing Mines

news. June 2009 21

The year 2006 saw a profound change in the intervention environment for the Solidar Consortium in Sri Lanka as a result of the breakdown of the peace process, an escalation of violence and a return to an emergency situation in large parts of the North/East. Following interventions by individual Consortium members in 2006 the Consortium reshaped its programme in the North into an Integrated IDP programme (IIDP) in 2007 in order to maximize the impact of its humanitarian assistance. The IIDP consisted of 9 proj-ects; shelter construction, nutritional security and income support, Non-Food Relief Item (NFRI) distribu-tion, shelter coordination, latrine construction, the Hygiene Information Project, UNHCR partnered Quick Impact Projects (QIPs), the Solidar Technical Team, and logistical support to the WFP.

Provision of Shelter and Humanitarian Assistance Post 2006

22

In the aftermath of mass displacements that took place in August 2006 Solidar completed the construction of some 667 shelters in the Kilinochchi district and 250 shelters in the Mannar district. Throughout 2007 Solidar constructed more than 500 shelters through implementing partners Working Women’s Development Forum (WWDF) and Social Development Center (SDC) in the Mul-laitivu, Kilinochchi and Mannar districts. With an additional 200 ‘A ‘frame shelters being completed in the Mullaitivu district. In 2008 a further 350 shelters were completed in the Kilinochchi and Mul-laitvu districts; with 100 ‘A’ frame shelters completed in the Kilino-chchi district. Additionally, Solidar supported the construction of 10 hospital wards in the Kilinochchi district and its technical teams maintained generators and other equipment vital to medical and community services.

In addition, in order to identify need for other types of physical sup-port Solidar conducted IDP surveys in the Vanni and distributed such items on behalf of and in conjunction with other partners (in-cluding UNICEF, UNHCR, FORUT, DRC and Save the Children). NFRI packs include mosquito nets, tarpaulins, mugs, mats, bed sheets, towels, toothbrushes, soap, cooking pots, plates etc. So far Solidar has distributed nearly 2000 NFRI packs to IDPs in the districts of Mannar, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi.

Solidar also set up a nutritional security project of home gardens to support the nutritional requirements of both host families and IDPs. The project utilized existing plant stocks from a Solidar sup-ported nursery and targeted over 500 families. In addition cash grants were issued to 500 of the most vulnerable IDPs. Wherever

possible the modalities of construction of emergency shelters were designed to also bring income for beneficiaries who contributed to the erection of the shelters. In addition, operating on a cash for work basis Solidar supported 70 women from IDP families in the production of cadjan used for the roofing and wall enclosures of the shelter.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Integrated IDP Programme

Location : Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya

Duration : 2006-2009

Status : On going

No of beneficiaries : IDP population

Donors : UNHCR, USAID, UMCOR, ECHO, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH), Swiss Develop-ment Corporation (SDC), Progetto Sviluppo , Japan ODA, Nor-wegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Swiss Solidarity.

Implementing Partners : Working Women’s Development Forum (WWDF), Social Development Centre (SDC), The Eco-nomic Consultancy House (TECH), Rural Economic Education Research Development Organization (REERDO), Karachchi North Development Organization (KNDO)

Emergency Shelter Construction and Population Support

news. June 2009 23

In the aftermath of renewed conflict in 2006 and with increasing numbers of displaced civilians arriving in government controlled areas in Vavuniya and Jaffna districts, the need for a coordinated and effective response to their shelter needs became an over-whelming priority. This led to a plan of action to streamline the co-ordination process through setting up a Shelter Coordination Cell (SCC). The SCC would also identify needs and gaps in emergency shelter interventions as well as ensuring equity of assistance and the implementation of international and national norms and stan-dards. The Shelter Coordination Cell was created as an operational partnership between NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council), UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services) and Solidar with fund-ing support from UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) until December 2008.

Solidar’s SCC team consisted of a Northern Coordinator, a Field Co-ordinator for Kilinochchi/Mullaitivu and another Field Coordinator for Vavuniya/Mannar districts. Solidar Northern Shelter Coordina-tor also oversaw the Jaffna district where field level coordination was undertaken by UNHCR. Solidar SCC assisted shelter agencies in identifying needs / gaps and possible overlaps in the provision of emergency shelter and in building consensus among them by facilitating technical and policy level discussions through contin-gency plan for possible population displacements within or outside the districts, with the support of other agencies in the identification and assessment of emergency contingency sites.

Whilst the SCC work continues Solidar had to reluctantly leave the partnership when NPA which was leading all SCC activities decided to withdraw from Sri Lanka. In consultation with UNHCR Solidar’s role in this project came to an end in January 2009.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project: Shelter Coordination Cell

Location : Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Puttalam

Duration : 2006 – 2009

Status : Ongoing (Solidar Phased out its role in the project in Jan 09)

No of beneficiaries : IDP population in these districts

Donors : UNHCR

Implementing Partners : Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and UNOPS, International Organisation for Migration (IOM)

Shelter Coordination Cell (SCC)

24

Solidar with UNICEF funding has constructed more than 900 la-trines through implementing partners Centre for Health and Care (CHC), Karachchi North Development Organization (KNDO) and North East Development and Rehabilitation Organization (NEDRO) in order to reduce the health risks to IDPs, especially children in IDP concentrations in and around the Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Man-nar districts.

The Hygiene Information Project (HIP) in Vavuniya and Mannar districts aimed to improve hygiene among displaced populations and their host communities. Within the challenging and restrictive environment of IDP welfare centres common hygienic practices are often not observed. The HIP aimed to explain the link between spe-cific hygiene behaviours and associated illnesses. Four HIP cartoon characters were developed to share relevant hygiene messages such as the importance of using a latrine, washing hands after us-ing a latrine and before eating, collection of clean water and proper rubbish disposal.

A dedicated team of Solidar staff made HIP presentations in schools and welfare centres of Vavuniya and Mannar districts. The presenta-tions were backed up with a series of community mobilization activ-ities to reinforce and build upon the information sessions: these in-cluded drama programmes, art activities, and games. In addition in close coordination with district health staff who strongly supported the project, Solidar developed a Camp Hygiene Management Train-ing Workshop (CHMT) targeting the displaced population living in Mannar Welfare Centres. This workshop was specifically designed to develop a responsible group within the community to highlight

health and hygiene needs. Individuals were requested to volunteer to become camp leaders in maintaining a clean and healthy camp environment.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Hygiene Information Project

Location : Vavuniya and Mannar

Duration : 2008-2009

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : 19,869

Donor/s : UMCOR/USAID, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aktion Deutschland Hilft, UNICEF

Implementing Partner/s : Directly Implemented

Latrine Construction and Hygiene Information

news. June 2009 25

The types of QIPS

y Rehabilitation of livelihoods & income generation activities

y Strengthening community capacities and educational support

y Protection of beneficiary rights and physical security

y Construction or repair of general infrastructure

y Construction of water and sanitation facilities

y Other projects that contribute to CBSM and QIPs objectives

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Quick Impact Projects

Location : Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee,Puttalam and Anuradhapura

Duration : 2006 – 2009

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : 1,658,676

Donor/s : UNHCR, Solidarité Laïque, Swiss Agency for Develop-ment and Cooperation, War on Want, Progetto Sviluppo/Prosvil and Norwegian People’s Aid

Implementing Partner/s : Over 100

Quick Impact Projects - QIPS

Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) provide conflict-affected communities with immediate assistance while building confidence for return and relocation by implementing community driven, short-term and low-budget projects. QIPs are a part of UNHCR’s confidence-building and stabilization measures (CBSM), which aim to stabilize the IDP population and build trust between communities.

The maximum budget for a QIP is USD 30,000 and the project contributes should be implemented within 3 months. Approval of each project also is dependent upon its ability to provide opportunity for community contributions and participation. Additionally QIPs should contribute to strengthening of inter- communal harmony and reducing tension while giving special consideration to vulnerable groups.

Over the past 3 years or so, UNHCR and Solidar have facilitated 10 rounds of QIPs approvals for a total of 231 projects, worth over USD 2,290,000. In the process, QIPs have worked with over 100 local implementing partners. Several other SOLIDAR Network donors have contributed directly to the QIPs programme, including: Solidarité Laïque, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, War on Want, Progetto Sviluppo/Prosvil and Norwegian Peoples Aid.

26

Since October 2008 Solidar supported activities under the GA in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu include the construction of 420 shel-ters; 50 latrines; distribution of 105,000 litres of water; distribution of 1000 NFRI’s, provision of 5000 hygiene kits and provision of 463 tarpaulins. During the months of December 2008 and January 2009 Solidar trucks were utilized in the WFP convoy transporting food items such as rice, dhal, oil and sugar to IDP locations in Puthhukud-dirippu, Vavuniya and Mannar.

In Vavuniya, the Solidar Consortium’s team has been working round the clock to ensure that Solidar’s IDP support activities are imple-mented with minimal delay. So far, Solidar has constructed 1156 emergency shelters, 1000 tents, 276 emergency toilets. Addition-ally Solidar has distributed 1879 NFRI packs, 9372 hygiene kits, 5557 pairs of slippers, 367 toilet cleaning kits, 120 rubbish bins, 6911 hygiene posters, 12,580 litres of bottled water to the IDPs at the hospital and 10,440 litres to IDPs at zone 2. Operating two bows-ers with a combined capacity of approximately 30,000 litres Solidar has supplied 1,710,200 litres of drinking water to the IDPs. Solidar also provides logistical support to other agencies with a Backhoe-Loader for their operations at IDP sites and has assisted UNICEF with the installation of 24 water tanks in zone 2 and with the distri-bution of 1552 hygiene packs. As an active member of the hygiene promotion working group, Solidar implements a comprehensive hygiene promotion programme and facilitated the training of 24 volunteers to promote hygiene activities in the IDP sites. The Soli-dar Consortium’s QIPs programme, is currently running 3 construc-tion programmes for schools, providing pre-school furniture, play equipment to 10 schools in Vavuniya and conducting monitoring / follow up activities on another 12 projects, in Vavuniya and Mannar.

The livelihoods Solidar SAH led programme has also relocated from the North and has adapted its programmes to the new situation in Vavuniya and also Mannar. Small income generating projects have been developed for 120 mostly vulnerable women and their families. 350 vunerable families are also being given cash grants to start up or maintain activities that will bring them income. Organic home gardens are also being developed with the help of two lo-cal NGOs, Federation of Social Development Organisation (FOSDO) and Rural Development Foundation (RDF) to support the nutrition-al needs of 250 families.

Following Solidar’s relocation outside the Vanni at Government request in late 2008, 27 Solidar supported Humanitarian Aid Volunteers remained working under the GAs of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi in agreement with the GoSL.

Post September 2008

news. June 2009 27

HOUSING /RECONSTRUCTION

It is central to Solidar strategy that as soon as possible after a physical or human generated disaster, even when emergency relief measures are still in place reconstruction and a move back to normalcy should begin. So in the tsunami devastated North East of Sri Lanka, at the location of its first emergency relief in-tervention, within a year Solidar had begun a major reconstruction project.

28

Nageshwaran Jesima and Ramanadan Nageshwaran

Nageshwaran Jesima and Ramanadan Nageshwaran have had little to celebrate since the day tsunami snatched their four-year-old son away. They faced a double tragedy when the killer wave reduced their house to rubble as it had done to many other families in their village. Except a small kitchen and the lack of space in the front garden, the Nageshwaran family has no complaints about the new house they will own in the near future

“ House model is ok. Kitchen is a bit small. But I am happy that we were able to select one house of the choice of three. The house is beyond our expectations. The orientation of the house on the plot is decided by us. We have the opportunity to get the astrologer to guide us with that process”

says Nageshwaran Jesima

(Interview extracted from Solidar Magazine - April 2006)

Nikalaipillai Emanuel – Chempianpattu

“It was a long process. If it was a short process, people would have rushed to make decisions. Since there was a long se-lection process through VDF (Village Development Forum) meetings etc, people had ample time to decide for them-selves and reflect upon their decisions. We are not unhappy that it has been a year and we are still in transit shelters. We have seen the model houses. All construction materials are there. So we are confident that our houses will be built soon. We are going to help build our houses. We are prepared to chip in”

(Interview extracted from Solidar Magazine - April 2006)

Prior to the commencement of construction, Solidar Consortium member NPA cleared mines and other dangerous ordnances in and around the sites.

The project was designed to reconstruct and rehabilitate six tsunami affected villages in Vadamarachchi East in a way that was sustainable in physical, social and economic terms. It included the construction of 1125 permanent houses in the villages accompanied by pre-schools, community centres, children’s parks, health centres, individual and public wells, market places other common facilities and access roads. All through the design and planning stages community members’ were involved: special attention was paid to the participa-tion of women in the process through the creation of women’s groups.

Vadamarachchi East

news. June 2009 29

However in August 2006 conflict again broke out in the area and

when shells began to fall on the site all activities had to be sus-

pended. As the conflict continued and the population was forced

to migrate to new camps inland it became clear that the project

could not be restarted and would have to be abandoned. A large

reconstruction and development project of approximately USD 18

MN was closed prematurely. At the time of closure 632 houses were

at foundation /preparation level, 136 had walls, 75 were roofed and

39 were at the finishing stage, and 11 fully completed. In addition

35km of onsite and access roads were completed and community

building designs and layout plans approved. Solidar moved back to

providing emergency and humanitarian relief in the North.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Post Tsunami Reconstruction and Socio-Economic Development Programme

Location : Jaffna (Vadamarachchi East)

Duration : 2005-2007

Status : Closed (Force Majeure)

No of Beneficiaries : 5000

Donor/s : Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Solidarity, Progetto Sviluppo, Aktion Deutschland Hilft, ASB

Implementing Partner/s : UNOPS, Local Government

S2 S2

S1

S1

S3 S3

S4S4

7,80

06,80

0

10,100 5,000 1,600 5,000 1,600 6,800

1,80

09,20

0

13,300 4,200 4,300

Ramp

Children play area

EntryEntry

Store room6.4 m2

Kitchen5.5 m2

Stage

21.2 m221.2 m2

WC3.3 m2

Hall61.3 m2

Store room25.6 m2

Wash room14.3 m2

Activity hall/auditorium114.8 m2

Veranda21.4 m2

Entrance/ Portico51.4 m2

HC wc4.8 m2

HC wc4.7 m2

floor plan

30

Tsunami Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project: Ampara

Ampara Housing construction

DS division

Number of Houses constructed

Number of houses con-structed in partnership with UNHABITAT

Number of hous-es constructed directly by NPA/Solidar

Addalaichenai 40 40 0

Ninthavur 239 129 110

Pottuvil 245 215 30

Thirukkovil 116 91 25

Total Summary 640 475 165

PROJECT FACT FILE

Name of Project : NPA Tsunami Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project

Location : Ampara

Duration : 2007-2008

Status : Complete

No of Beneficiaries : 640

Donor/s : Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Implementing Partner/s : UNOPS: Direct

Whilst the programme of work at Vadamarachchi East was initially put on hold by the end of 2006 it was clear that it could not be continued in the foreseeable future. The population had dispersed and heavy building equipment and materials had to be removed. Solidar was reluctant however to leave funds allocated to Vadama-rachchi East unused so work began to transfer reconstruction funds to the East. By this time however there was already a large amount of reconstruction work underway: Solidar decided to compliment this, fill in gaps and help to complete unfinished projects with a particular focus on Ampara.

Following consultations with donors and partners and after inves-tigating and scrutinizing information and data collected on work

in progress and commitments by other INGOs and international organisations, it became apparent that there was a large unfulfilled housing and infrastructure development need in the district of Ampara. The core project set up by NPA/ Solidar focused on 640 families that were recipients of government base grants of LKR 250,000 (approx. USD 2500) but lacked further funds to complete their houses. NPA/Solidar initially constructed 475 houses at a cost of LKR 190 MN (approx. USD 1,900,000) through its implementing partner UNHABITAT. Following this, a further 165 houses were sup-ported directly by NPA/Solidar in the last quarter of 2008 at a cost of LKR 67,575,000 MN (approx. USD 675,750).

news. June 2009 31

Economic Development

Livelihood Activity DS Division

Animal Husbandry POTTUVIL

Farming of Red Onions POTTUVIL

Fruit Juice Production THIRUKKOVIL

Farming of Red Onions THIRUKKOVIL

Yogurt Production ADDALAICHENAI

Microcredit facility NINTHAVUR

In addition, NPA/Solidar set up a parallel infrastructure project to complement the housing reconstruction project. This project di-rectly and indirectly benefitted more than 3500 tsunami affected people and an equal number of conflict affected families. On pri-ority recommendations by the Community Development Council and with guidance from UNHABITAT infrastructure facilities valued at LKR 15,925,504.64 ( approx. USD 159,255) were constructed in four DS Divisions in the Ampara district. Housing construction in the Kakappukaddu village in the Pottuvil DS division was compli-mented by the provision of sanitary facilities for 392 beneficiaries who lacked adequate toilet facilities. In addition around 13 tube wells were constructed in partnership with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) for communities in Pottuvil and Thiruk-kovil DS divisions.

NPA/Solidar together with the Solidar QIPs team also provided 31

beneficiaries from Sangamam Girama, Pottuvil DS division with so-lar panels and complete electrical fittings and installations to cater for 5 lamps per household.

Linked to the reconstruction work a smaller programme of income generation activities was undertaken in Pottuvil, Addalachenai and Thirukkovil DS divisions complementing funding from ILO and UNICEF. Additional livelihood support was given through micro credit loans to 25 people in the Ninthavur division. Further eco-nomic support was also provided by SAH/Solidar with NPA/Solidar funds in the Pottuvil and Thirukkovil DS divisions. This included the augmentation of a government stud centre in Thirukkovil and the funding of 2 integrated farms in Pottuvil DS division. Livelihood support for 95 tsunami survivors, 36 in Thirukkovil DS division and 59 in Pottuvil DS division was also provided through a cash grant of LKR 35,000 (approx. USD 350) each.

32

As a consequence of the protracted conflict in Sri Lanka many peo-ple who had to flee their homes found that they were destroyed in their absence and had nothing to return to. Solidar member ASB initially implemented the Community Rehabilitation and Empow-erment Project (CREP) in Vavuniya and Mannar districts in Janu-ary 2006. The project in support of refugees returning from India, internally-displaced Muslims who were expelled from the Northern Province in 1990 and also persons who were relocating from other areas, completed 67 houses with toilets in Mannar and 11 in Vavu-nyia districts.

CREP followed an owner driven housing model supplying partici-pants with materials and making the relevant technical expertise available for them to build their own home. In the beginning, proj-ect participants were organized into a committee that solicited quotations from suppliers and managed construction finances. Following this, participants built their own homes through digging the foundation, casting bricks, assisting masons with cement pro-duction for brick laying, and lying of roof tiles. The project used one standard housing design; participants added their own personal touches in door and window selection as well as interior and ex-terior painting. Each home is 517 sq. ft and included one large liv-ing space, two smaller bedrooms, and a kitchen. In total the project provided returning IDPs and refugees with 114 permanent houses and some 169 latrines. An additional activity of the project was a food security component that provided participants with veg-etable seeds and fruit tree seedlings as well as training in seed col-lection, storage and organic composting for the establishment of home gardens.

Following the success of the CREP in Northern Sri Lanka ASB imple-mented another housing housing project in the Batticaloa district in 2008. The project supported 150 IDP families in the village of Pu-chchakerny, Vaharai DS and other former conflict affected areas to construct new homes. In Vaharai 90 families were provided with houses constructed with the help of UNOPS. The remaining houses were owner driven using the same model as used in the North. The projects in the East were undertaken with conflict affected but settled communities so that no additional livelihood or nutritional elements were added.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : ASB Community Rehabilitation and Empowerment Project (CREP)

Location : Vavuniya, Mannar and Batticaloa

Duration : 2006- 2009

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : 169 families in Vavuniya and Mannar and 150 families in Batticaloa

Donor/s : Hamburg Hilft/ Aktion Deutschland Hilft

Implementing Partner/s : UNOPS

“Throughout my lifetime I will be grateful to ASB for provid-ing me with a permanent dwelling. I used to live with my wife and out two year old baby at my mother in laws house. We had a temporary cadjan hut adjoining their house. My fam-ily and I suffered a lot without having a permanent house to live. Especially on rainy days it was very difficult in that hut.”

(Interview extracted from Solidar Magazine - May 2007)

ASB Community Rehabilitation and Empowerment Project (CREP)

news. June 2009 33

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Solidar tries to build social and economic development into all of its assistance programmes even those dealing with emergency and humani-tarian relief. So the programmes on hygiene and those on tsunami education could as well have been dealt within this article as in the earlier one on Humanitarian relief. The same would hold true for example of the gender dimension of involvement in decision making in the aborted project to reconstruct Vadamarachchi East. Likewise the projects on nutritional security, whilst starting in the aftermath of disaster, in the South at least have mutated into development programmes with an economic and environmental aim.

It is of course the case that social and economic development programmes largely take place after emergencies and when stability allows these programmes a reasonable chance of success. We have seen how the seed of such programmes in the North were destroyed in the resurgence of conflict in the North though we give a further example below. Conflict also delayed the start of such programmes in the East. The South and West where post tsunami there has been most stability, though it has not been untouched by the conflict, has seen the most progress. The programme on peace and justice, whilst it has been hampered by the onset of conflict, is in general an exception to this.

34

Solidar member ASB is committed to supporting programmes that offer trauma healing and reconciliation for conflict and tsunami-affected children as well as providing support for programmes that work with disabled people. Disabled people need skills and development programmes that are adapted to overcome the na-ture of their disabilities. The KAROD project in the North focused on both rehabilitation of the disabled through outreach services and awareness as well as inclusion programmes with families and communities that had members with disabilities. The Prithipura In-fants Home in Hendala provides care for children and young adults with severe mental and physical disabilities. This Home also repre-sents a refuge for those children whose level of disability is not so acute but who have been abandoned by their parents. The Butterfly Peace Garden (BPG) in Batticaloa and the Kalabala Bindu Garden in Hambantota offer a sanctuary for traumatized children to engage in play, cultivation of the arts and exploring their own creativity. In addition to these projects ASB also supports counseling services at the National Cancer Hospital, Maharagama, with equipment and training.

kArod (kilinochchi Association for rehabilitation of the disabled) The ‘KAROD Project’, named after its principle local partner and benefactor, the Kilinochchi Association for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, aimed to provide better services to physically disabled people in conflict and tsunami-affected areas. The project which was located in Kilinochchi district, focused on strengthening and providing institutional support for KAROD in order to improve its ability to provide effective services provision in the area of psycho-social assistance, and medical and orthopaedic assistance; it also aimed to provide livelihood and economic recovery and support activities to their clients including the provision of technical assis-tance activities – such as training and technology transfer.

The project was also providing a Trauma Counselling and Phys-iotherapy Rehabilitation Centre in Kilinochchi. The centre was to serve the needs of differently-abled and disadvantaged people including those physically or psychologically disabled at birth, through sickness or accident, by the war or the tsunami as well as

providing support to their families and the communities they lived in. Had it been completed, the centre would have allowed KAROD to more effectively respond to the localized needs of the disabled and handicapped and their families.

Unfortunately the project, including work on the centre had to be suspended in August 2006 after the escalation of conflict in the Vanni and was subsequently closed.

the prithipura infants home in hendala

The Prithipura Communities is a Sri Lankan charity with four cen-tres in various districts of Sri Lanka that cater to a range of people of different levels of disability and provide a challenging and stimu-lating environment to those in care where they can contribute to society. The organization is solely reliant on donors and on farming activities, expecting no payment from those who use its services or their families. ASB/Solidar supports the Prithipura Infant Home in Hendala, the first of the four centres and home to young children and adults with severe mental and physical, disabilities, usually caused by Ce-rebral Palsy. The home also represents a refuge for those children whose level of disability is not so acute but who have been aban-doned by their parents.When the home opened in 1963 there were only three huts with cemented floors, wooden walls and cadjan roofs. Today Prithipura Infants Home at its Hendala complex houses around 85 residents in five main buildings or “Homes”. The children and young adults are roughly grouped according to their ages, skills and levels of inter-action. Basic care, therapy and rehabilitation are provided to these children by care assistants and volunteers. The home also provides physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Geethani, a resident of the Prithipura Home in Hendala, comes from a family which is genetically disposed to brittle bone syndrome. Her family had already lost both her broth-ers as a result of this and her family realised that they would not be able to give her the care that she required.

ASB Health and Disabilities Programme

news. June 2009 35

She arrived at the Prithipura Infants Home when she was only two years old. She is now one of the brightest lights there. Although her mobility is heavily restricted as a result of her disabilities she exudes personality and love. She has learnt English from the many volunteers and visitors that have passed through Prithipura and when there is someone new steals the show.

(Interview extracted from Prithipura website www.prithipura.org)

the Butterfly peace garden The Butterfly Garden is located in the Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. It is a support service of the Batticaloa Professional Psychological Counseling Centre and is located at The Garden Path Centre, Pilliyaradi, which also houses an education and training centre, a youth micro-enterprise centre and a retreat centre.

The garden provides a setting in which play, the practice of garden-ing, the care of animals and the cultivation of the arts are combined to help heal the traumas of the tsunami and conflict. It helps both the children and adults mend and re-connect their inner and outer world and provides both an opportunity and a sanctuary for the practice of peace and reconciliation.

Children from the various ethnic and religious groups are repre-sented proportionally with equal numbers of boys and girls, be-tween the ages of 6 to 16. 150 Children are chosen form through-out the Batticaloa area to attend the garden one day per week for a period of 9 months. A satellite programme is also operating in one of the refugee camps. Animators are chosen for their ability to work harmoniously with people, for the commitment to peace and for their gifts with the arts. They are encouraged to enter fully the creative process of the garden and trained to follow rather then lead the child’s imagination, creating space for them to experience freedom and healing.

kalabala Bindu peace garden

This is a Children’s psychosocial initiative based on the highly suc-cessful Butterfly Peace Garden. It was developed, following a sug-gestion from ASB Hambantota staff, by Paul Hogan the originator of the Batticaloa garden.

The Kalabala Bindu Garden opened its gates in August 2006 and now provides help to 500 Sinhalese, Muslim and a few Tamil chil-dren. The children, who are divided into four groups, visit the gar-den alternatively four times a week. Each group goes through a nine month healing programme which has been designed to over-come the horrors they experienced and witnessed the day the tsu-nami struck.

“One of the boys who came here saw his mother and sister going in the wave. He survived the wave after getting stuck in a tree. He has a cut that reminds him of this scene. Then his father remarried. Ever since, he is living with his grand-mother. In the beginning he would sit on our lap and showed reluctance to be on his own. With time he has gained confi-dence to do things on his own.”

Irosha, Youth Animator, KBG Hambantota

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter Dec 2007)

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Health and Disabilities Project

Locations : Kilinochchi, Batticaloa, Hambantota, Hendala and Maharagama

Duration : 2006 – 2009

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : 900 beneficiaries at the Prithipura Com-munities, 500 children at the Kalabala Bindu Garden, children in the district of Batticaloa at the Butterfly Peace Garden and patients at the National Cancer Hospital Maharagama

Donor/s : ASB Germany, Aktion Deutschland Hilft, City of Koln FOS

Implementing Partners : National Cancer Hospital Maha-ragama, The Prithipura Communities, Batticaloa Professional Psychological Counseling Centre

36

The Peace & Justice Programme (PJP), started in Batticaloa district in late 2005, opening its first office in the district in early 2006. In January 2009 PJP started working in Ampara district and by July 2009 the programme will be operating in the Galle, Hambantota, Matara and Trincomalee districts as well. This ASB programme is largely funded through the European Commission. It has three main elements: Applied peace Building course. The Applied Peace Building Course (APBC), a joint peace-building programme between ASB and a local NGO, Peace and Community Action (PCA), is for com-munity workers and examines issues of violence and non-violence, conflict, peace and peace work, at personal and community levels. The course provides a set of techniques or methodologies, or a standard approach, seeking to deconstruct the very way issues are considered, transforming conceptual boundaries and allowing for a whole new way of ‘doing peace’. The aim is that on leaving the workshop community workers are able to immediately start work-ing for peaceful change in the community.

community peace work. This project works to help communities where there has been violence, or there could be violence, to pro-duce their own solutions for stopping violence and contributing to peace. Community Peace Plans encourage people to develop a vi-sion of what peace would look like in their area, develop a strategy to reach that vision and then implement that strategy. ASB’s role is to facilitate the development of such plans and then provide the encouragement and expertise in bringing these plans to fruition.

This work, currently based in Batticaloa, will be extended to all six coastal districts from Trincomalee to Galle from July this year.

golden Bee Advice Service. This is a community advice service that enables individuals to deal with a whole range of problems that trouble them in daily life by enabling them to have better ac-cess to Government and Non-Government services. The service, while pursuing solutions through advocacy and mediation, will also aim to build the confidence of those seeking support to effec-tively access such services themselves. The project will also seek to

prompt reform of administrative practices based on case histories of the project. This work is now taking place in Batticaloa and is expanding to Am-para district in 2009.

“Always we think “I know best” and don’t think about why others do things I have learnt that when we start by judging ourselves as correct it means all others are wrong. If we can change this way of thinking we can change violence. When I see something not favourable to me, I will get angry, then I will get violent. I think that other person does not have a heart. We should analyse our own things. So I am happy I have discovered this. I am going to take this to the place I am going to work. ”

Participant of the APBC

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter September 2006)

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Peace and Social Justice

Location : Batticaloa and Ampara

Duration : 2006- 2011

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : the Community at large

Donor/s : Aktion Deutschland Hilft and EC

Implementing Partner : Peace and Community Action

Peace and Justice Programme

news. June 2009 37

Local Initiatives for Development are small village development projects, proposed by village CBOs that focus on the key issues faced by villagers such as education, livelihoods, water, health and social welfare.

The project began in in the district of Trincomalee in 2008 and is planned to run for two years in a number of villages in the Goma-rankadawela and Kuchchavelli DS divisions. Local initiatives for de-velopment aim to help village based organizations to get involved, take responsibility for and contribute towards the sustainable de-velopment of their village.

The programme uses a two pillar approach. The first pillar supports CBOs through the provision of cash grants to implement small project activities, with a mid term perspective of improving living standards of the village. The second provides capacity building for active community/CBO members in project management and de-velopment planning, enhancing their ability to engage in the de-velopment of their village.

There are several selection rounds for Local Initiatives. The first round held in March 2008 and funded by Solidarite Laique focused on education and benefitted a total of 687 children from three schools in the Gomarankadawela DS division. The second round of Local Initiatives selected in May 2008 focused on livelihoods and was financed by Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH) with a budget of circa LKR 47,000 (approx. USD 470) per participant. Currently ASB/Solidar is in working partnership with 15 CBOs and SDSs, imple-menting 15 local initiatives with 225 direct participants and 924 beneficiaries.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Local Initiatives for Development

Location : Trincomalee

Duration : 2008-2009

Status : Under Implementation

No of Beneficiaries : 924 beneficiaries

Donor/s : Solidarite Laique, Aktion Deutschland Hilft

Implementing Partner/s : School Development Societies (SDS) & Community Based Organizations (CBOs)

“We really got involved in the project, voiced our opinions and played an important role. We identified activities, planned the implementation process, formulated budgets and had to think about ways to ensure sustainability of the project. Usually organizations only come and ask us what our problems are and then do everything themselves or they don’t ever come back. So ASB/Solidar is very different and we are extremely happy that they are helping us to develop our village and improve our living standards”

Ms. Somawathi, Samurdhi Society “MINIMUTHU”, Adampe

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter September 2008)

ASB Local Initiatives Trincomalee

3868091.89, 40%

1927741, 20%682210, 7%

738036.5, 8%

1563840, 16%

870660, 9%

Project Expenditure ( According to sector ) Total Expenditure LKR 9,650,579.39 approx. USD 96,505.80

School Kitchen

Cow Rearing

Goat Rearing

Onion Cultivation

Market garden

Multifarms

38

Families that moved into resettlement villages face additional chal-lenges to their income-earning capacity because the new location makes it harder or impossible for them to work in their usual pro-fession or sector. This project assisted individuals and families who needed special attention, support and help to restructure their income generat-ing activities in the new location, develop new business ideas and acquire new skills to embark on alternative income generating ac-tivities. It focused on unskilled casual labourers, who form a sub-stantial part of the population but are at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and who were least assisted by aid efforts. This included a large proportion of the female-headed households and households heavily dependent on income from female-income earners, which are among the poorest in such communities. The project first assessed the income situation of potential benefi-ciaries and developed strategies to improve this. A cash grant of LKR 35,000 (approx. USD 350) on average per family was provided for restarting or expanding livelihood activities in the tsunami vil-lages of Mandanai in the Thirukkovil DS, Sengamam in the Pottuvil DS and later expanded to include Ashraff Nagar in the Addalaiche-nai DS. This was supplemented with business development advice and capacity building workshops. Access to financial institutions and loan and leasing facilities were facilitated for individuals who did not qualify for a cash grant or had bigger capital requirements than the cash grant. Since it’s implementation in 2007 the project has benefitted 42 in-dividuals in the resettlement villages of Mandanai and another 116 in the village of Sengamam. The beneficiaries of the project include those affected by both the tsunami and the long drawn out conflict in Sri Lanka.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : SAH/Solidar Livelihood and Income Generation Programme

Location : Ampara

Duration : 2008 –2009

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : 676 families

Donor/s : Swiss Solidarity

Implementing Partner/s : Arugam Bay Lanscape Organisaton, Department of Agriculture, Director of Education, Local vets, Business Creatons, CEFE Net, Techlang

“After losing everything to the tsunami, collecting LKR 35,000 in one go is a lot of money for us. It’s almost impos-sible. So the cash grant from Solidar is like a new lease of life for us. I intend to raise goats and sell them for flesh when the time is right.”

SuganaMandanai, Pottuvil DS

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter April 2008)

SAH Income Generation Project: Ampara

Cash Grant Usage

Goat 24%

Cattle 50%

Chicken 8%

Trade / Service 10%

4%

Agriculture 2%

Fishing 2%

Goat Cattle Chicken Trade / Service Home -based production Agriculture Fishing

Homebased

production

news. June 2009 39

In 2007 Solidar established its school gardens project to ensure nu-tritional security in school feeding programs conducted by World Food Programme (WFP) in the Ampara district. The selection of 6 schools for gardens took place in consultation with the Zonal Di-rector of Education in Akkaraipattu and the WFP in Ampara district with each ethnic community represented by 2 schools.

The gardens were designed to produce sufficient vegetables to complement the WFP midday meal on two days per week; the veg-etables delivered protein, vitamins, iron and other micro nutrients providing a more balanced diet for the students. The gardens also provided a model which was used to promote knowledge and the practical skills of organic farming, agricultural technologies and natural resource management within both the school and the com-munity.

Approximately, 3,088 students from Grade 1-9 benefit through the WFP school-feeding program. In addition, agricultural students in Grades 9-11/12 learnt about the establishment and management of vegetable production and organic farming technologies. The agricultural teachers and members of the School Development Society (SDS) also benefitted from this project, receiving capacity building training in balanced nutrition, practical teaching method-ologies, organic farming technologies and natural resource man-agement. This included the economic and ecological aspects of the use of water and organic wastes.

Training was provided through Rainforest Rescue International and The Gami Seva Sevana Ltd., a rural service centre specialized in or-ganic farming technologies with working experience in district. The day-to-day liaison, monitoring and hands on practical training was undertaken by project staff.

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : SAH/Solidar School Gardens Project

Location : Ampara

Duration : 2007 – 2009

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : approximately 3088 students

Donor/s : Swiss Solidarity

Implementing Partner/s : School Development Society’s (SDS)

“Solidar’s Project will help us to provide answers to malnutri-tion. This will be a good thing for most students in the school because they come to school without their breakfast ”

A.Judedarshan, 16 yearsKomari Tamil Maha Vidyala

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter December 2007)

SAH School Grdens Project: Ampara

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Brinjal Okra Chilli Tomato Amaranths Mae Rabu

NU

MBE

R O

F PL

ANTS

HAR

VEST

ED

TOTA

L KG

HAR

VEST

ED

POPULAR VEGETABLE SPECIES

HARVEST DATA

MARCH (KG) APRIL (KG) NUMBER HARVESTED MAY (KG) JUNE (KG) JULY (KG) AUGUST (KG) SEPTEMBER (KG)

40

Whilst the tsunami left thousands homeless, far higher numbers were left bereft of the in kind income and nutritional support pro-vided by their home gardens (FAO report over 28,000). In Galle, over 2500 families were made homeless but over double that number of home gardens were destroyed. In the North a similar picture pre-vailed. As part of the transitional programme in the North a Nu-tritional Security Project was implemented in several tsunami and conflict affected areas in Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts of North-ern Sri Lanka with TECH (The Economic Consultancy House) as implementing partner. A Southern based NGO, Rainforest Rescue International (RRI), which was carrying out similar work for Solidar in Galle and Matara districts provided technical support and guid-ance. Whilst conflict in the North meant a curtailment of this work it grew and developed in the South.

The initial project in the South first built up the capacity of local ex-tension officers who in turn provided community education on the propagation, care and cultivation of home garden stocks. A starter plant kit, consisting of greens, vegetables and herbs was also dis-tributed among farming communities who had returned to their own homes and those living in transit camps in Galle and Matara districts to initiate home garden restoration.

To ensure sustainability of the project RRI/Solidar facilitated the setting up of seven community based nurseries enabling the lo-cal communities to cover the varying demand for plants. Between 2005 and 2006, RRI/Solidar distributed more than 200,000 plants and seedlings to tsunami affected families. This programme made it possible for about 20,000 families to increase domestic food production, improve their livelihoods and restore the local eco-systems by developing biodiversity and vegetation cover in their home gardens.

“Not many damages were done to our house from the Tsuna-mi disaster but our home garden was destroyed. Before the tsunami, we grew vegetables, fruits, and ornamental plants in our home gardens.

RRI field officers gave us a lot of confidence. As a result, we have gained a sound knowledge about home gardening. All the villagers are happy about it. In the beginning we re-

ceived a basic knowledge about nursery management such as preparation of compost mixture, selection of plant mate-rial, seed treatment, pest management, etc from RRI field officers. They supervised us periodically. Training has come very handy in the day-to-day running of our home garden. Earlier we did not have this kind of knowledge.

We want to produce a lot of plants. After that we hope to distribute those among villagers free of charge. This project has helped increase our links with the rest of farming com-munity. We hope to provide better service in the future, for that we need the help of RRI.”

G.G Kamani Champika De Silva.

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter April 2006)

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : SAH/ Solidar Nutritional Security Project

Location : Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Galle and Matara

Duration : 2005 – 2006

Status : Completed

No of Beneficiaries : 1,125 families (Jaffna and Kilinochchi) 20,000 families (Galle and Matara)

Donor/s : Swiss Solidarity

Implementing Partner/s : Rain Forest Rescue International (RRI) and The Economic Consultancy House (TECH)

Nutritional Security Projects

news. June 2009 41

As a follow up to the Nutritional Security Program, Solidar/SAH in partnership with Rainforest Rescue International launched the Coastal Community Rehabilitation Project (CCRP) in August 2006. Three years on, the project has achieved its overall goal of improv-ing coastal livelihoods through small enterprise development, home garden rehabilitation and ecosystem restoration.

Home garden development was carried out in a manner similar to that of the Nutritional Security Program – plants were propagated and distributed by 7 community based organisations (CBO) to a to-tal of 700 smallholders. Each CBO manages a nursery that produces edible, ornamental and utility plants for home garden development and coastal ecosystem restoration activities. Selected farmers and CBO members were trained in mushroom cultivation, floriculture, organic farming techniques, and small business management to encourage crop and income diversification. Among the 700 house-holds, 385 families turned to floriculture production while 59 opted to hone their skills in mushroom cultivation.

The ecological restoration component addressed the need to re-store vital ecological services in coastal areas. The mangroves, wet-lands and coral reefs provide protection from coastal storms, miti-gate flooding, represent vital fish breeding grounds, and produce edible plants, firewood, building materials, and ornamental fish. RRI identified 180 acres of priority coastal ecosystems to restore in col-laboration with local community members

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Coastal Community Rehabilitation Project (CCRP)

Location : Galle and Matara

Duration : 2006- 2009

Status : Completed

No of Beneficiaries : 700 households

Donor/s : Swiss Solidarity

Implementing Partner/s : Rainforest Rescue International, Community Based Organizations (CBOs)

Coastal Community Rehabilitation Project

42

ASB Micro Projects : Matara

the micro projects

Project area Micro Project Beneficiaries

DS Division GN Direct Indirect

Dikwella Dikwella North Production of coir related products 30 120

Bambarenda Central Production of food products and supply services 10 33

Hakmana Gangodagama Production of coir related products 33 103

Hakmana Badabadda Production of white coconut oil and food products 10 41

Akuressa Ihala Maliduwa Tea nursery 10 36

Thihagoda Batuwita Pepper and short term vegetable cultivation 10 35

Kithalagama West Cultivation of long term agricultural crops (Pineapple and Banana)

10 34

Kirinda Puhul-wella

Wawulanbokka Production of clay related products 10 24

ASB’s Micro Projects have helped village based organizations get involved, take responsibility for and contribute towards the sus-tainable development of their village. Micro Projects are small vil-lage development projects, proposed by village Community Based Organizations (CBOs) focused on the key issues faced by villagers such as lack of livelihood and income generating opportunities and social welfare.

The project was implemented in 10 villages in Akuressa, Hakmana, Thihagoda and Dickwella DS Divisions in Matara. It uses a two pil-lar approach. The first pillar supports CBO’s through the provision of cash grants to implement small project activities, with a midterm perspective of improving the living standards of the village. Firstly workshops are conducted at village level where Micro Projects are developed by the people and local authorities accompany this

process. Following this, CBOs together with the villagers develop proposals assisted by the ASB project team. A selection process fol-lows where successful proposals are identified and rewarded with a cash grant. The maximum funding for each project is LKR 200,000 (USD 1830).

The second provides capacity building for active community/CBO members in project management and development planning en-hancing their ability to engage in the development of their village.

Through Capacity building and supporting civil society organisa-tions in self designed and implemented activities Micro Projects have successfully reduced poverty in their area, whilst also having a positive impact on the community’s preparedness to challenge poverty.

news. June 2009 43

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : Empowering Local Initiatives for Uplifting Poverty

Location : Matara

Duration : 2006-2011

Status : Ongoing

No of Beneficiaries : 123 direct beneficiaries and 426 indirect beneficiaries

Donor/s : Aktion Deutschland Hilft (2006-2009) and EC (2009-2011)

Implementing Partner/s : Community Based Organizations (CBOs)

“Now we don’t even have to ask our husbands for money. Af-ter 6 months of work , this time I bought all school books and other schooling material for my children.”

U. H. KamalaBeneficiary of the Micro Project Matara

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter February 2008)

In January 2006 ASB introduced the ‘ACCESS ’ Youth Project, a socio-economic recovery and development initiative in the Hambantota district. One of the most disadvantaged districts in the Southern region, Hambantota had endured immense destruction and damage during the tsunami in 2004. The Access Project has provided youth in the district with access to a range of multidisciplinary skills and the knowl-edge aimed at increasing their employability. Through the facilitation of an array of projects, and by providing skills, expertise, appropriate technology, and informed research to partners and individuals, the project has succeeded in accelerating the district’s immediate post tsunami recovery process as well as sustainable development drives.

‘ACCESS’Youth Project : Hambantota

30

33

10 10 10 10 10 10

120

103

41

36 36 34

24

33

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Coir relatedproducts

Coir relatedproducts

White coconut oil& Food products

Tea nursery Pepper cultivation& Short term

vegetablecultivation

Long termagricultural crops

(pineapple &banana)

Industry of clayrelated Products

Food products &Supply services

MICRO PROJECTS

NU

MBE

R O

F BE

NEF

ICIA

RIES

Direct IndirectBene�ciaries

44

The project consists of four integrated components: BECS, COM-PUTE, CODE and CONNECT.

BECS stands for Business Education and Communication Skills and trains young men and women, in learning and using the English Language as a ‘linking’ language between entrepreneurs, their cli-ents/customers, suppliers and markets.

COMPUTE is the Computer Training and Education Component of the project which undertakes the training of young men and women, in Windows XP and Microsoft Office Professional including Word, Excel, Access and Power Point and educates them in access-ing the Internet and using email as a means of communication.

CODE is a community development initiative focused on assisting the poorest farming families in the district through the provision of hard and software inputs, guidance and mentoring to break the extreme poverty cycle.

CONNECT is a capacity-building initiative focused on improv-ing district-wide project planning and management through the establishment of an information systems network, a Village Point Level Database, and information technology and research skills..

Over the past three years of its implementation, ACCESS, has evi-dently increased the employment and self employment opportuni-ties, through increased vocational skills, of some 7000 young men and women, the quality of life through improved incomes of nearly 1800 of the poorest farming population and indirectly improved the positive impact of development projects and programmes and the services of local governance to all the population of the district some 526,000 people through the introduction of a GIS based ‘real time’ district planning system.

“This is a very good course given free of charge. Prior to this we had no opportunity in Hambantota District to improve our computer knowledge. Training given here is systematic. We have unrestricted access to computers. Other students also appreciate it”

Dilrukshi Mohotti- WalasmullaCOMPUTE Student

(Interview extracted from Solidar Newsletter December 2007)

Project Direct Beneficiaries

BECS 2347

COMPUTE 2898

CODE 1740

Total 6985

proJect fAct fiLe

Name of Project : ‘ACCESS’ Youth Project

Location : Hambantota

Duration : 2006-2009

Status : On going

No of Beneficiaries : 8,800

Donor/s : Aktion Deutschland Hilft

Implementing Partner/s : Implemented directly by ASB

2898, 41%

2347, 34%

1740, 25%

CODE

BECS

COMPUTE

Access Project Overview at a Glance

news. June 2009 45

In early April 2009 I completed the last leg of a bicycle ride from the Northern most point of Sri Lanka (Point Pedro on the Jaffna Pennin-sula) to the Southern most tip of the country (Dondra Head, Matara District). With a young family in Colombo and a heavy workload I rarely had time to fully dedicate myself to the ride but rather rode sections of the route when convenient during my time in Sri Lanka – usually tagged on to other planned field visits. This was not a par-ticularly impresssive performanace if you consider that it took me almost 4 years to complete and I avoided the Hill Country following the easiest route along the coast!

From Jaffna, I crossed Elephant Pass to Kilinochchi then through the Omanthai check point and on to Vavuniya. I then followed the road South to Anuradahpura, westwards to Puttalam, and before following the Western coast of Sri Lanka down to Colombo, Galle and Matara. The final leg from Hikkaduwa to Dondra light house was the most challenging as I was still recovering from a bout of Dengue Fever that had hospitalised me 3 weeks earlier – and I could not delay as I was leaving the country to start my new ap-pointment in Geneva!

y Ponit Pedro to Kilinochchi

y Kilinochchi to Vavuniya (I did this section 3 times)

y Vavuniya to Anuradhapura

y Anuradhapura to Negombo

y Negombo to Colombo

y Colombo to Bentota

y Bentota to Hikkaduwa

y Hikkaduwa to Dondra Head

The time spent on my bike allowed me to unwind from professional life. I could reflect on the challenges of the day while getting a bit of exercise and using up a few calories. It also gave me ample oppor-tunity to meet ordinary people across the country … people who fed and watered me and helped fix my bicycle on the occasions it failed.

Some Reflections from the Outgoing Solidar Representative – Guy Rhodes

46

Started Point Pedro (March 05)

the end

Cycle ride from Point Pedro (Jaffna) to DondraHead (Matara) –completed over 4 years!

Dondra Head Light House, Most southern point of Sri Lanka (April 09)

One reoccurring theme that always bothered me during my reflec-tions on these rides has been the deterioration of the image of the Humanitarian Sector and Aid Community in the country - fuelled in the main by many baseless or unbalanced media reports and irre-sponsible journalism. The notion for instance that NGOs and the UN have had a deliberate agenda of support for the LTTE in the North is simply absurd and it is in my view an injustice to the civilians that benefit from the activities of these organisations providing coun-trywide assistance. Indeed a review of all INGO supported activities in 2008 revealed that over 75% of supported projects occurred in the South and East of the country. The Solidar Consortium, for its part, has a very clear ‘one country approach’ to its programming and in 2008, over 80% of our projects budget was targeted at areas outside the Northern Province. Those activities that took place in areas of LTTE control were attempting to address the humanitar-ian needs of civilians in those areas and such activities were not ‘anti-government’ as alleged by some media reports. It is a shame that other agendas have sometimes attempted to blur this simple truth. There is much work to be done in order to repair some of the misperceptions that exist.

The military success of the GoSL forces against the LTTE promises to open a new era of development opportunities in the Vanni - and indeed for the country as a whole. The management of the return of IDPs and their resettlement back in their places of origin in the

North will –for a start - pose a formidable challenge for the security forces, GoSL, UN , INGO’s and the IDPs themselves. An improved understanding and trust between these parties is critical in or-der to optimise assistance to the North of the country and realise appropriate development plans. We must seize this moment to strengthen collaboration and partnership arrangements with com-mon goals.

I leave Sri Lanka to take up a post in Geneva but my family and I have a great attachment to the country and it will be very sad to leave as it has been our home for several years. We have also been blessed with a fourth child while in Sri Lanka and she will carry around a birth certificate in Sinhalese for the rest of her life as a reminder of her time in Sri Lanka.

I have travelled the length and breadth of Sri Lanka coordinating the work of Solidar in 17 districts and through holiday’s with my wife, Meriel, and our four children. We have been fortunate enough to have witnessed the incredible diversity and beauty that Sri Lan-ka has to offer and will miss the hospitality of the people and the friendships we have established.

I thank the government and our partners for all their support through some fairly challenging times and I wish the very best for all staff at Solidar, other colleagues and friends for the future.

news. June 2009 47

In August 2008, 255 families who had been displaced for over two years were resettled in Muruththanai, an area located in Batticaloa’s Ki-ran division. Like most IDP communities who returned to their homes in the country’s Eastern province, the people faced harsh conditions upon their arrival. In addition to having no permanent housing and limited access to basic services, people living in these areas have few livelihood opportunities. Prior to displacement, most families earned income through paddy farming or vegetable cultivation; nevertheless, with little capital and no equipment, it was difficult to restart this agri-cultural work.

With little time before the fall harvest season, Solidar QIPs and its local implementing partner, Sewalanka, worked together to design a liveli-hood project that would help kick-start agricultural activity in these returned communities. ICRC offered assistance to seed paddy farmers in the area, however, several families either did not own land or did not have the proper documentation to receive the assistance. Solidar QIPs focused on the remaining 198 families who did not qualify for ICRC as-sistance and supplied them with the seeds and equipment necessary to cultivate other cash crops.

Sixteen small groups, consisting of 12 members each, were formed in five villages in Muruththanai. In addition to supplying these groups with inputs, the beneficiaries were trained by Sewalanka in organic farming techniques, book keeping and marketing. Lessons in maxi-mizing revenue were quickly put into practice by three groups located in Minuminuthaveli who collectively decided to store their ground nut harvest and sell it as seeds for next season, effectively doubling their profits.

Groups in the village Akurana also enjoyed a profitable yield, each farmer earning around LKR 5000 (approx. USD 50) for maize and LKR 4000 (approx. USD 40) for vegetables. As in Minuminuthaveli, their re-warding harvest was not only due to hard work, but was also a product of coming together as a community. Group members worked together to prepare organic fertiliser to use during cultivation. Moreover, as a group the farmers decided to take the product directly to the Market in Oddamavadi instead of relying on middlemen. The result was a sub-stantial increase in income for all group members. For next harvest sea-son, Akurana farmers have already collected all varieties of seeds with plans to sell these seeds as well as use them for their own purposes.

QIPS News

new Beginnings in Batticaloa

48

War on Want has been supporting social movements and civil so-ciety organisations in Sri Lanka for several years, building their ca-pacity to challenge the structures that keep people poor and mar-ginalised. In the wake of the tsunami, as a member of Solidar War on Want also supported two Quick Impact Projects implemented by Norwegian People’s Aid to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable host and displaced communities in the Eastern Province.

With funding from the British Department for International Devel-opment, War on Want has been supporting the work of the Move-ment for National Land and Agrarian Reform – Monlar – a Sri Lank-an organisation dedicated to improving sustainable agricultural practices amongst small scale farmers and campaigning for land and agricultural policies which are less export oriented and more beneficial to rural farmers. MONLAR encourages farmers to return to organic farming methods. The projects they support promote new forms of mixed-cropping, composting, seed cultivation and other farming practices which are sustainable and inexpensive. This enables families to meet the majority of their food needs, and all surplus produce is sold at local markets, providing them with much needed money for education and health care.

War on Want also supports the Free Trade Zones and General Services Union (FTZGSU), which has been campaigning tirelessly against the appalling conditions faced by factory workers in the export processing zones (EPZs) which produce garments and other items for overseas consumers. The current financial crisis has meant that thousands of workers in EPZs are now being forced into even more dire working conditions – or even losing their jobs, and sole source of income, altogether. In recent months some of the biggest factories have closed down, leaving tens of thousands of workers unemployed. Those that remain in the factories are mainly tempo-

rary workers who are paid at a daily rate and do not receive over-time pay. In spite of such major obstacles, FTZGSU continues to fight for improved conditions in Sri Lanka’s factories. War on Want is proud to support the efforts of trade unions like FTZGSU which help workers stand up for their rights.

Following the devastating consequences of the tsunami, War on Want launched an appeal to support victims in the war ravaged Eastern Province. The money raised went towards Quick Impact Projects implemented by Norwegian People’s Aid and its partners to restore and improve the livelihoods of host and displaced fami-lies affected by both the tsunami and the ongoing conflict. The proj-ects were implemented in Batticaloa and Trincomalee and involved business trainings and the provision of inputs to help beneficiaries launch their activities. These included goat rearing, perennial crop cultivation and the establishment of small businesses such as gro-cery shops and textiles.

In February 2009 War on Want visited Sri Lanka to witness the signif-icant achievements of all its partners. Staff met with beneficiaries of War on Want supported projects, including the Quick Impact Proj-ects in Batticaloa, whose incomes had increased, enabling them to make significant savings from their new businesses to support their families. Such support has been vital to ensure vulnerable commu-nities are able to survive and continue their livelihoods despite the ongoing insecurity in the area.

War on Want remains committed to working with civil society groups in Sri Lanka, particularly those trying to combat poverty, exploitation, and human rights violations. It also supports organi-zations in other parts of Asia and the Middle East, in Africa and in Latin America.

War on Want in Sri Lanka: working through partnership to fight poverty

news. June 2009 49

Solidarité Laïque is a French network of NGOs focussing on chil-dren and education development. It is a member of the SOLIDAR Network in Europe, and has been supporting Solidar Sri Lanka Consortium activities for the last 3 years.

Solidarité Laïque has been especially involved in 2 projects in the Trincomalee district : Local Initiatives and Quick Impact Projects.

This time of changing is a new opportunity for Solidarité Laïque to reinforce the cooperation with the Consortium. Solidarité Laïque is looking for new possibilities to develop further projects with the Solidar Consortium mostly in the East and / or in the Vanni if is rel-evant. Solidarité Laique is looking to developing more integrated

education activities within the Consortium, and creating links be-tween the Consortium’s programs and its network of local partners in Sri Lanka.

This strengthening of the links with the Consortium could be a good opportunity for Solidarité Laïque members, especially La Ligue de l’Enseignement (also a member of SOLIDAR Europe), to be more involved in the different programs implemented in Sri Lanka.

Today, Solidarité Laïque wishes to encourage new dynamics in Sri Lanka, and to extend its activities in the Island, alongside Solidar, and is actively looking for fundings to do so.

Solidarité Laïque, a longstanding partner of Solidar

50

On 25th March 2009, ASB organised a ceremony to mark the hand-ing over of 90 houses to their new owners in Puchchakerny village, in Vaharai DS Division, Batticaloa district. These 90 families were amongst 70,000 persons who had been displaced as a result of the intensified conflict in 2006 between government Security Forces and the LTTE. In January 2008, almost a year after the area came un-der government control, ASB initiated the Vaharai housing project together with UNOPS as implementing partner to provide perma-nent homes to 90 families that were living in transit shelters.

K. Ganesan, Chairman Pradeshiya Sabha, Giritharan, Divisional Sec-retary- Vaharai, Matthew Todd, ASB Country Director, Dr. Cynthia Caron, Project Manager and Senior Technical Advisor ASB, Sris-kantharajah, Regional Coordinator UNOPS, a representative of the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA), ASB and UNOPS project staff and last but not least representatives from the benefi-ciary families were amongst those gathered for the event.

Proceedings of the opening ceremony began with welcoming of the chief guests followed by the hoisting of the national flag, ASB and UNOPs flags. Thereafter, all invited guests took part in lighting of the oil lamp in the nearby community centre where the rest of the proceedings took place. Addressing the gathering, Matthew Todd, ASB Country Director stated he was very happy to see the completion of the work on time given some of the initial constraints that the project team had faced. He also thanked implementing partners UNOPS and NHDA for their roles in the project. The NHDA provided technical support to the project.

In his address to the gathering, Vaharai Divisional Secretary Giritharan said

“The need of the tsunami affected people in the village to have a decent house is satisfied today. I would like to thank ASB and UNOPS for working hard to complete the work within one year. This project is unique in terms of its imple-mentation strategy. It made sure that beneficiaries too had a part to play throughout implementation period. I urge all the beneficiaries to maintain their houses in original stan-dard”

Based on successful previous partnerships between UNOPS and Solidar Consortium, ASB chose UNOPS as its implementation part-ner for this project too. Expressing his views, S.Raventhirathas, UN-OPS Area Manager said,

“We are very pleased and happy to work in partnership with ASB/Solidar. In fact we started our partnership in 2006 for the implementation of 400 houses in Uduthurai in Jaffna district. Unfortunately this project had to be abandoned due the war in Vanni. However we were able to use the leftover resources and complete the 90 houses at Vaharai on time and within budget. We were able to achieve this due the ex-cellent cooperation and support we received from ASB/ Soli-dar”

The ceremony ended as guests made their way to inspect a few houses and meet the occupants who generously entertained the main guests with a wide variety of home produced food.

In addition to these houses, work has already begun to construct 30 houses each in Oddamavadi and Kiran DS Divisions in the Bat-ticaloa district.

Opening of the Housing Project in Vaharai

news. June 2009 51

At its General Assembly in Brussels on May 26th 2009 representa-tives of SOLIDAR’s fifty member organisations paid tribute in a for-mal Statement to the bravery and commitment of the 29 Solidar volunteers who remained working in the Vanni following the with-drawal of the UN, Solidar and other humanitarian agencies.

In September 2008 Solidar Sri Lanka along with UN agencies and nine other NGOs still working in the LTTE controlled Vanni area were ordered by the Sri Lankan Government to cease operations and withdraw their staff South into government controlled areas. At that time an estimated 200,000 people had been displaced from their villages and land by civil conflict and were urgently in need of basic humanitarian support.

Following Solidar’s relocation outside the Vanni 29 Solidar local staff, as well as local staff from other agencies, remained in the Van-ni as Humanitarian Aid Volunteers working under the Government Agents (GA) of the districts of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi until April 2009. Prior to their withdrawal the NGOs had agreed with the Sri Lankan Government that they would leave emergency relief stock, stores and some fixed assets such as water bowsers to be used by the Government Agents to provide emergency relief. Using these materials, the volunteers supported the construction of hundreds

of emergency shelters, the distribution of tarpaulins, the build-ing of latrines, the distribution of water, and other essential items such as mosquito nets and cooking pots to the internally displaced refugees and helped to maintain hospital generators and essential electrical equipment.

As the conflict intensified the humanitarian volunteers were pushed along with the displaced population east and finally into the narrow coastal strip where the final battles were fought. They endured life under constant shelling - where thousands of civilians perished around them – in conditions of acute shortages of water, food and medicines as well as being exposed to monsoon rains and tropical heat with limited shelter. During this time they continued whenever possible to distribute what supplies of water and other essentials they could and to support their fellow Sri Lankans.

In its statement the Solidar General Assembly expressed its grati-tude to them for their contribution to saving lives and alleviating suffering. The General Assembly also recognised the courageous contribution of volunteers from other NGOs, the UN, ICRC, and dis-trict medical and other staff working with the Government Agents in the conflict zone.

SOLIDAR General Assembly Pays Tribute to the Humanitarian Commmitment and Courage of

Solidar Volunteer Staff in North Sri Lanka.