On the anniversary of the Tsunami, I was back in Arugam Bay. I went down Christmas Eve and returned on the evening of the 27th. I stayed at the same hotel as last year which is not functioning 100% but it’s nearly there. There were very few tourists, maybe 6, and the other westerners were all working with various relief agencies and like me, having a couple of days break. But I guess there were only about 25 non locals there all together so it was fairly quiet. However I did meet up with a guy called Simon who was there last Christmas and came back for the anniversary so we had a good chat. On the anniversary itself a simple commemoration was held with a few prayers from the imam followed by a 2 minute silence after which we all dispersed for some private reflection which for me I did sitting alone on the beach. Nothing morbid, but I felt I wanted to be on my own for a while. In the evening the Siam View Hotel held a party where Fred and his partner provided food out in the garden bar.
Again we had a small commemoration lighting candles down by the beach (which was done right around the coast of Sri Lanka) and then a few beers. We were all there westerners and locals alike and although it wasn’t a riotous evening (which on reflection I didn’t feel would have been right anyway) it was pleasant enough sitting around chatting and I didn’t get to bed until about 3.30 in the morning. I guess it was an affirmation that despite the tragedy, life must and does go on.
The tsunami update follows.
Regards, John.
TSUNAMI UPDATE No. 5
The majority of people made homeless by the tsunami are now out of tents and other such emergency accommodation and are living in temporary or transitional shelters whilst waiting for permanent housing. Of course there are always a few people who slip through the net and there still remain some families in tents but these get fewer every day. Transitional shelters are not that grand though. They consist of 2 rooms made out of wood or tin on a concrete base with a tin or palm thatch roof. There are communal wells or water tanks which are filled by a tanker which will call most days. One toilet is provided per 6 families. Most are connected to an electricity supply. Hardly luxurious particularly if there are children in the family and the places afford no privacy, are hot when the sun is out and they leak when it rains.
With no social security system in operation it has been essential to put in place income regeneration schemes. Many livelihood programmes are under way with for example widows being provided with equipment such as sewing machines to help them generate an income. The majority of fishermen who want to go back to sea have been provided with boats and nets and are back working again. Many training programmes are under way for the affected people, particularly youths, such as carpentry, bricklaying, motorbike mechanics etc. There are also grant and/or loan schemes whereby people can rebuild or set themselves up in small businesses such as poultry farming, garden smallholdings, small shops and the like.
The majority of these programmes i.e. transitional shelters and livelihood regeneration are funded by the major international relief agencies working through local Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) partners. I work with 3 such local NGOs all of which are involved in these programmes and are being funded by Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid and UNICEF. Many other agencies are active all over Sri Lanka.
It’s with replacement permanent housing where progress is painfully slow. All the international agencies are engaged in this as well but with permanent housing the government needs to be involved for land allocation and building approval. Then one comes up against bureaucracy and inefficiency when even what seems a simple decision takes weeks to resolve; unhelpful and seemingly uncaring officials and of course corruption.
In Akkaraipattu on the east coast where I live and work, no new replacement houses have yet been provided. In the whole of Ampara District of which Akkaraipattu is part, and the worst affected area of Sri Lanka, the total built so far is less than 500. This is not due to a lack of funds. Apart from Government inefficiency, other reasons for this slow progress include the confusion over the Buffer Zone which initially decreed that no houses could be rebuilt within 200 metres of the sea; a lack of suitable and available land; a shortage of skilled labour; the reluctance of families to be resettled miles away; the requirement to respect ethnicity e.g. Muslims would not want to be resettled in a Hindu or Buddhist community; the poor infrastructure and since November the monsoon season has slowed things but this will ease in January. A major problem faced by many families however is their inability to provide any documentation to show entitlement to re-housing with for example Land Title Deeds lost in the tsunami. But we also have to remember that replacing 80000 houses in a country where the national annual new house build is around 4500 units is a massive task.
All this has to be viewed in the context of continuing violent incidents in the east and north. Not a week goes by in the area without at least one killing and a grenade or two being thrown. November 18th was a particularly bad day for Akkaraipattu. At 1st prayers that morning – around 5.30am – 2 grenades were thrown into the main town mosque instantly killing 6 people and injuring many more some of whom died in hospital. Following the incident we had a protest hartal for 5 days (a sort of general strike) so all shops, businesses, schools etc were closed and no busses or trishaws were running. So things were a bit difficult for many people. There remains a heavy security presence with the army and Special Task Force (a Sri Lankan elite unit) very visible along the road which separates the Muslim area from the Tamil. On the surface things appear to be getting back to normal but you can sense an underlying tension and any small incident could spark violence. As for the mosque attack it is said to be a revenge attack for the killing of two members of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – terrorists or freedom fighters depending which side you are on) earlier in the week.
As I write this there is a hartal in operation in the Tamil side of town. This is in protest over the killing of 5 students earlier this week. The Tamil Tigers say they were innocent demonstrators shot by the security forces; the army says they were Tiger sympathisers blown up by their own bombs.
Turning now to the John & Nazza Fund, this received a tremendous response and although VSO London was not able to give the exact final figure of the fund we calculate this to be around £35/40000. This was a fantastic achievement and heartfelt thanks go out to all in the UK, Italy and the USA who contributed and special thanks to those who worked hard to make it a success.
The first project undertaken was to provide school uniforms to children in Kannaki Puram temporary camp for the tsunami displaced. UNICEF had supplied enough material to outfit the 65 children of school age living there. But the parents didn’t have the facilities or money to have the material made up into clothes so we arranged to have this done by local tailors/dressmakers. The kids were then able to go to school in uniform rather than in whatever clothes had been donated; a small step in helping to restore normality.
The second project was to assist with the supply of textbooks to Jaffna University. Whilst not directly affected by the tsunami, the university does have tsunami-affected students who needed to replace their textbooks as well as a general shortage of suitable books.
Dr. David Schley, partner of VSO volunteer Kate Danvers and working at the University, coordinated donors from various academic institutions across the UK, who sent books to Southampton University. There, all donated textbooks were sorted to ensure that only those relevant to the project (i.e. of reasonable quality and applicable to the Department’s teaching syllabus or research interests) were included in the shipment. The books were transported as a single shipment from Southampton to Colombo, from where David organized transport to Jaffna. The books all arrived safely, but this being Sri Lanka, it took longer to organise new display cupboards from across town than to transport the books half way round the globe! Anyway all is in place now with the 150+ books sorted and shelved and a lending system organised. David reports that plenty are being used already. This project encouraged other visiting lecturers to organise similar appeals and David tells me that another consignment of text books has arrived from New Zealand.
Soon after, Nazza was to leave Sri Lanka to return to the UK which would have left me in sole charge of the fund which I was not too comfortable about from a transparency and accountability aspect. This was discussed with the VSO office in Colombo and it was agreed to form a small committee consisting of me, the VSO Country Director and the manager of the Strengths Project on which I work, to select and monitor the projects to fund. VSO had some of its own tsunami relief funds remaining and the two funds were combined.
From this point we looked at more major projects and the first of these concerned a tree-replanting scheme. Many of the coastal trees and plants were uprooted and destroyed through the impact of the Tsunami in Ampara district, and the area is now barren in many places. An NGO working in the locality – Rural Development Foundation – with the assistance of the people living in the area wanted to replant a 75 m by 2 km strip in Sainthamaruthu village with coconut and cashew nut trees. The people would be paid to plant and given small funds to look after and maintain the trees for several months, thus also assisting them in re-establishing themselves. Due to loss of vegetation the climate in the north and east has changed and is now much hotter. Replanting will greatly assist in reducing the temperature by providing shade. The land is now barren. Planting trees will make the area look attractive again and is recognised as a therapeutic activity. Wages and funds would assist the community in re-establishing themselves and the harvest will provide food and/or income. Water was to be provided as it was intended to clean existing wells, and construct tube wells. Time had to be allowed to allow salt to leach from the soil and September was agreed as a good month to start. It was estimated that some 7000 trees will be planted at a total cost to the project of some £15000. We liked this project as it came from the affected people themselves, it had environmental and income generation elements and would enable the local people to be less dependent on Government handouts. The Government is supportive of the project through the Agricultural Department who are providing assistance and advice.
Progress to date is that Authority to Replant Letters have been obtained from 100+ land owners and Debris Clearing is well under way. Orders were placed for an initial 3300 coconut and cashew nut seedlings and 2150 seedlings have been delivered and planted. In the meantime, 10 wells have been have been cleaned and are back in use supplying water for the community and for the seedlings using the 3 water pumps purchased. Fencing materials for the protection of the new planting were bought and planting and fencing continues. Goal, an Irish NGO, liked the project and are themselves extending the concept into other areas. The project will restart at the end of the monsoon season towards the end of this month.
In my town of Akkaraipattu, many of the poorer families engage in small scale back yard poultry farming supplying the local market with eggs and chickens. The tsunami destroyed this for 136 families and Mercy Corps of Malaysia initiated a project to regenerate the activity for these families working through a local NGO (United Foundation). Due to budget restrictions and pressures of what they saw as more demanding projects, Mercy Corps abandoned the project leaving 68 families (312 beneficiaries) unassisted. We were asked if we could help so stepped in to complete the project. For these people, the poultry shed would be replaced or repaired; each family would receive 50 chicks together with sufficient feed and veterinary supplies to last for 4 months by which time egg laying would start and the scheme begin to become self sufficient. The families will not get rich from this but will earn between 6000/8000 rupees per month (£30/40) – to put this in perspective, a VSO volunteers monthly allowance is Rs 20000 . This income will be better than government handouts to tsunami families of £9 per month and just as importantly, help restore some dignity. This project too receives official support from the local Government appointed Veterinary Officer who provides advice on bird welfare. Progress to date is that all the sheds have been rebuilt or repaired and the chicks supplied to the 68 families. We continue to supply feed and medicines and the Vet Officer is visiting the families to administer the bird vaccination programme.
The Akkaraipattu local NGO SPACE was formed in October 1994 and currently has 3200 beneficiaries through 455 family members. The members are mainly from poorer Muslim families living in Akkaraipattu Division 1 which was affected by the tsunami. Traditionally it has run the normal type of programmes e.g. promoting awareness on educational issues; self employment strategies; ethnic harmony and co-operation etc. Later it started a pre-school, staffed with 2 teachers, for member’s children that is run from temporary accommodation (basically a shed) situated on land belonging to a local business man. After the tsunami it extended the pre-school service to 98 tsunami children who had lost one or both parents and currently living with grandparents, other relatives or guardians by first giving psychosocial support to the guardians of the affected children then to the children themselves by providing a facility where they could play, learn and generally socialise together. The children’s new guardians are mostly poor themselves and can ill afford another child to feed and support. Consequently, many of the children have to work to provide additional income so becoming school dropouts. SPACE intends to extend the service provided by giving such children catch up lessons in the evenings and at weekends. Volunteer teachers have been identified to assist with this. Additionally religious, cultural and sports programmes will be offered.
All of this was putting a strain on what were anyway inadequate premises. The idea therefore was to build a permanent structure to house the pre-school with space to provide the other programmes for the tsunami affected children mentioned above. The beneficiaries have been consulted as to the activities to be offered and many of them will be freely giving their labour in the construction of the building.
I first became aware of this organisation as the president is a relative of my immediate next door neighbour. I visited the organisation on several occasions and attended some of their cultural events such as a programme of song and dance performed by the pre-school children. At the moment they have no association with any INGO the organisation being funded by regular monthly donations from local businessmen. However, both UNICEF and the Education Department have offered to supply equipment such as tables, chairs, whiteboard etc. once the new building is available. We approved a sum of Rs 2235000 for the building upon which work has commenced on land donated by a local business man. Work has been slow in December being the wettest month of the monsoon season but things will pick up again in January when the worst of the rains will be over.
I’m sorry if this report seems rather long but I wanted to give a full picture of what has happened in the year following the Tsunami. On the personal front, I’m eagerly looking forward to the visit to Sri Lanka of Sue and Anna (wife and daughter for those who don’t know them) later this month when I too can take a 2 week break. After that it will be 2 months hard work trying to finish off everything I’m doing before my 2 years are up at the end of March.