Agony and hope - Sri Lanka

We arrived in Vavuniya this afternoon, Zafran and I,  where we have established headquarters for Red Cross Post Conflict Recovery Programme which comprises the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society implementing, supported by the IFRC, German, Canadian, Norwegian, Australian and Japanese Red Cross, plus a number of multi-lateral donors.

On arrival I met Dr. Mahesh Gunersekera who heads our programme. A veteran of missions in Pakistan, Sudan, regional health coordinator for South Asia, he joined Red Cross when the Tsunami hit his homeland, Sr Lanka.

He told me how he met our good friend in Vivekanandanagar, Arunachalam. yesterday. He is  51 years old and the village potter. I first visited Arunachalam in June last year when he and fellow villavgers had nothing but tarpaulins and a few sheets of iron they called home. They had just returned after many years of bloody conflict to their ancestral village and were determined to build a new village on their land. Tissa Abeywickrama the DG of SLRCS and I presneted them certificates telling them they would receive the first funds for their owner driven housing programmethe next day, and\\\but they were somewhat sceptical, having been the recepients of so many broken promises.

Yesterday Mahesh visited Vivekanandanagar and nearly all the 300 houses are completed, all funded by Red Cross. Arunachalam proudly showed Dr. Mahesh his house. As they sat down to have a chat about the future, Mahesh took out his computer and showed him photos of his old make-shift shelter and the various stages of comstruction that is recored on our data base. Arunachalam, looked at them, then wept. It brought back memories of his son killed in the war, his struggle to set up a temporary shelter, and to make  a potter's wheel to eke out a living. To see Arunachalam's story, watch this video about his last few years of agony and hope,
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6jvnIwqPIc&feature=player_embedded

(Left) Dr. Mahesh (r) and I having a talk about the IDP recovery

In October last year you could see the old bamboo framework in the foreground which was the rough temporary shelter, and behind the permanent Red Cross house coming up. Photo: Bob McKerrow

VOLUNTEERS IN ACTION PROGRAMME.
One of the aims of my visit was to see the volunteer programme which is building up Red Cross branches in areas devastated by 30 years of conflict. The programmes also involves the communities we are working with in building houses, water and sanitation, livelihoods, DP and health.The courses started on Monday in Kilinochchi and will finish over the weekend..

We at the Red Cross have had an opportunity and a mandate to assist this nation in achieving this goal. Governed by our fundamental principles, Strategy 2020 and the SLRCS’ Strategic Plan, we can assist communities to strengthen themselves by providing them with the tools necessary for the development that is so desperately needed.

This is what the Volunteers in Action (VIA) programme is designed to achieve. Taking a holistic view of the community and recognising the complexity of the needs of the people within it, the initiative seeks to build a group of multi-skilled volunteers who will be capable of meeting the physical and emotional needs of the beneficiaries they serve. The driving force of the programme is the fundamental belief that that a community is the fabric of a nation and that the resilience and success of either is both mutually beneficial and inter-dependent.

The Post Conflict Recovery Programme (PCRP) aims to facilitate a return to normality for the returning IDP families and set up more resilient communities within their original areas of residence. This owner driven and integrated programme seeks to achieve its goal through the repair and construction of permanent housing and by delivering software activities to this area of the country which remains in great need of development. The establishment of the branch interim committees in Kilinochchi and Mulaittivu districts and the focus on re-establishing the volunteer networks in these areas means that it is now possible to begin the software components of the programme – making PCRP the perfect vehicle for the VIA programme.

Photographs below are of the progrsammes we are conducting this week in Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka.

Kilinochchi. Villagers from Krishnapuram developing a Community Action Plan

A professional facilitator supporting Kilinochchi. Villagers from Krishnapuram developing a Community Action Plan

While parents are developing plans children are playing

Livelihood workshop for the villagers from Vivekanandanagar

People who participated in Red Cross assisstance programmes discussing in groups about their livelihoods

Villagers from Krisnapuram debating on common needs of their village.

Off early tomorrow morning to Kilinochchi. I love this programme as it is almost perfect and we have been able to put into practice, lessons learned from tsunami, especially owner driven housing and integrated programming.

All in a week's work for Red Cross in Sri Lanka

I am frequently asked by family and friends, "what do you do in a typical week." First thing iI dispel,  is there is no such thing as a typical week as every hour, every day is different to the day before.

                                  Psychosocial Support Services Red Cross Master Trainers Workshop

On Monday I was the guest speaker at the closing ceremony of first Red Cross regional master facilitators workshop on Psychosocial Support Services which was held at Wattala, 20 km north of Colombo. The nine-day workshop had participants from Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea. A team of four facilitators from the IFRC PSP Reference Centre in Copenhagen provided training to the participants. Overall the workshop was well received by everyone, and it is hoped that the participating NSs will soon start working on PSP as an integrated component of their respective core programs. It wsa a real joy to see Dr. Toshi from the Japanese RC who I worked with after 9/11 in Pakistan when Afghan refugees fled across the border to Pakistan and we worked together supporting these refugees. And my olf friend Dr Sultan who I worked with in Afghanistan during those bloody and bleak days from 1993 to 96 wehen he was a doctor running one of the 15 Red Cross clinics in Kabul.

On Monday our risk management and audit team comprising members from Geneva and KL arrived to commence an internal audit. This is a time consuming process that takes my team weeks to prepare for. In addition,  I have Sushila, a consultant who has worked for me before, in Sri Lanka documenting the Re-Engineering process which I will elaborate on later.

On Tuesday I spent a lot of time meeting with members of the Sri Lanka Red Cross construction unit discussing various outstanding construction projects.

In the evening I attended the celebrations of the birthday of the Emporer of Japan at the residence of Ambassador and Mrs. Takahashi. The Ambassador is and outstanding diplomat, who speaks many languages including Mandirin, and is a very close friend of President Konoe, the President of the IFRC.
It was a most enjoyable evening where I met many diplomats and members of the Japanese community, and because Naila is Russian speaking, she introduced my to a number of Russian diplomats which gave me a chance to speak my poor Russian..

On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday I was involved in a planning meeting with the Mulaitevu and Kilinochchi Sri Lanka Red Cross branches who came to Colombo to discuss how to increase programming to the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, badly scarred during the war. Mulaitevu and Killinochichi were the two worst affected districts in northern Sri Lanka during the 25 years plus of conflict and he devastation caused has to be seen to be believed. In many areas not a is building standing, tree truncks rotting as the tops having been blown off by years of every form of shelling, bombing mnortaring and explosion imaginable. Tragically thousads of people were killed and nearly every family lost at least one member. Ouir work for the IDPs in the north is of high importance.

One of the thousands of houses built by the Sri Lanka Red Cross in the north after the conflict ended. Thousands of other houses were built in the north in tsunami affected areas as well for conflict victims.

Our housing programme for IDPs up north is going ahead with over 800 of the initial 2000 well underway and repairs to another 1000 more completed. We are also starting water and sanitation, livelihood and volunteer recruitment programmes.

The work the Red Cross is doing in Sri Lanka is for hundreds of thousands of people like Vimala Rama, a war widow with five children who struggles to keep her family together. The Red Cross has provided her a house, a clean water supply, access to a livelihood/occupational skills training, clothes and school equipment for her children.

I keep photos of people like Vimala and her children in my diary to motivate me in my work and to remind me that every delay, causes people like her to suffer unnecessarily. Photo: Bob McKerrow






Providing livelihoods to the war-affected opeople is crucial so I read with great interest a report on a field day on Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems held in the north organized by the Ministry of Agriculture which my staff attended and visited the locations in Vavuniya North and Oddusuddan DS divisions. We are exploring the possibilities to support the conflict victims in installing these Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems under our livelihood component.


On Thusday I spent 11 hours in the car with Stanley driving to Polonnarwura  to participate in the opening of the new Red Cross bnranch headquarters

To reach Polonnarwura you turn off the A6 highway at Habarana and drive through the 8890 hectares of MINNERIYA NATIONAL PARK which consists of mixed evergreen forest and scrub areas and is home to sambar deer, leopards and elephants.

The central feature of the park is the ancient Minneriya Tank (built in 3rd century AD by King Mahasena). During the dry season (June to September), this tank is an incredible place to observe the elephants who come to bathe and graze on the grasses as well as the huge flocks of birds (cormorants and painted storks to name but a few) that come to fish in the shallow waters.

The opening ceremony of this large Red Cross building was attended by hundreds of young volunteers, and at the building blessing ceremony prayers were said by a Buddhist monk, a Hindu priest, a Muslim mullah and a Catholic priest. Photo: Bob McKerrow

President of SLRCS Jagath Abeysinghe and his Vice President  Bharatha Jonikkuhewa, opened the new building which was funded by the Canadian Red Cross. Robert Vandenberg and his son Isaac represented the Canadian Red Cross. Here we all are at the foundation stone below, from r to l, yours truly, Robert and Issac kneeling, Jagath Abeysinghe, Bharatha Jonikkuhewa, and  Gamini Nandakumara. .

On the way back to Colombo, a seven hour trip, we experienced torrential rain and road conditions were treachorous. Due to heavy rains Puttalam, Moneragala and Kurunagala Mannar districts were flooded and landslides were experienced in Nuwara Eliya. Also reports are coming in of wide spread flooding in the east. Thousands of families are affected and the respective SLRCS branches deployed their rescure teams and conducted assessment and distributed food and non food items.

On Friday I finished my Bi Weekly report which I sent off to my line managers in KL and New Delhi.

Then I had meeings with the President and Director General of Sri Lanka Red Cross on the current re enineering process which is designed to build a stronger Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) and we  discussed the facilitation of the ongoing change management, together with the required capacity building, counseling, mentoring and coaching services and through the setting up of required Independent Committees to achieve governance and management excellence of SLRCS to, ensure sustainable Humanitarian Service Provision. An importasnt process.

Expected Overall Impacts are :
Enhanced efficiency
Improved Effectiveness
Integrate innovations
Enhance responsiveness
Enhanced quality focus
Enhanced vertical and horizontal communications (both internal & external)
Improved programme impact
Improved programme integration
Enhanced international participation and coordination

Achievement of desired results as per goals and targets
Partner and target community / beneficiary satisfaction increased
Reduced confusion, tension, overwork, etc.
Enhanced care on human resources and physical resources
Enhanced relationship with IFRC, ICRC, PNSS and other donors
I am enjoying being part of this change management process and it takes a lot of my time and energy.

A group of Red Cross partners to the Sri Lanka Red Cross listening to a presentation on the Re Engineering process. Photo: Bob McKerrow

I also spent time yesterday studying our massive water and sanitation projects in and around Ampara which will bring clean water to hundreds of thousands of families in the Ampara district. nThis is a complex with over 15 seperate water systems and one by one they are being finished,

In between the events listed above are the 70 plus emails I get a day requiring an answer, the phone call, the visitors all take up lots of time.

As I write this, it is Saturday morning and I have just put up the Christmas tree with my son, Mahdi. The joy in his eyes as he unpacks the lights, the decorations and puts them on the tree, was such an emotional feeling that took me back to my childhood.

An early Merry Christmas to you all.