Where do the children play ?

Today was a day for children as we opened the playground at the Red Cross funded Udappuwatta Community housing project at Gampaha in Sri Lanka. Photo: Bob McKerrow

After opening the playground a meal was shared with the 64 families who live in the housing area. Here two boys enjoy their meal. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Today 23 November 2011, as I write this,  all 187 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide have gathered at the General Assembly in Geneva to discuss major humanitarian challenges and agree on the way forward in serving vulnerable communities.

The General Assembly is the supreme body of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and opened today and will conclude place on 25 November . Major discussion themes among participants will include community resilience, lessons learned from major disaster responses, promoting a culture of non violence and peace and more.

Right  Mohammed Ismail and his two children joined in the fun today. Before the opening, he invited me to see his ground floor appartment. With two spacious bedrooms, a living room and kitchen and bathroom,  he said how the quality of life has improved for his family. What he really liked was the back door which opened onto a safe grassy area where his children can play.

Mohammed and his family were from one of four communities on the nearby coastline that were destroyed by the 2004 Tsunami. Most of them were fishermen who struggled to make a decent living. Today with seven tourist hotels within walking distance, many of the resettled community are now employed in the rapidly expanding tourist trade.

The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society supported by IFRC and member national societies, has built over 31,000 houses for tsunami affected people in Sri Lanka. This housing project was funded by the Hong Kong branch of the Red Cross Society of China.

 This Udappuwatta Community housing project has a high quality water supply, reliable electricity and lots of room for children to play, and of course, the new playground we opened today.

What defines successful, resilient communities is the way they are empowered and involved before and throughout the construction and community development process. Today, Udappuwatta is thriving through a robust process of community consultation throughout the development and now a strong community committee ensures that maintenance is carried out, improvements are made, law and order is kept, and regular liaison with local Government.

A typical appartment on the ground floor and it is easy to see individual and community pride in the way they plant flowers, retouch paintwork and grow vegetables. The Red Cross can be proud it built back better and trained and empowered communities to lead a sustainable life. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The Gampaha Branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross is also a continuing partner and in the words of the branch chairman Anton Victoria, " we now conduct a risk reduction programme and are about to train the people in water safety which is so important for people who live close to the sea, and many still fish."

So while the Red Cross Red Crescent General Assembly deals with major humanitarian challenges and agrees on the way forward, including policies, in serving vulnerable communities, more reslient communities are arising every day.

Left: Alice (Szeman) Lai represented the Hong Kong Branch of the Red Cross Society of China today at the opening and was honoured with flowers and acolades. She has done a marvellous job since the early days of the tsunami working in Aceh Indonesia at community level and now covering the tsunami programme management Sri Lanka.

 Where do the children play?

Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
``Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
so tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
so tell me, where do the children play?

Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

From flood recovery to clean water in schools - Sri Lanka

This morning we are in Pottuvil, eastern Ampara district. Stopped at 3 villages yesterday afternoon in Wellawaya, Monaragala district to see progress of houses we are funding under flood recovery programme. Here Keti, IFRC programme coordinator, talks to a family who are benefitting from Sri Lanka Red Cross housing programme.

It was a nine hour trip from Colombo to Pottuvil yesterday. We stopped at Wellawaya for a few hours where we met Sri Lanka Red Cross field staff who are supervising the flood recovery programme where we are supporting SLRCS building hoiuses, latrines and livelihoods for thousands of people affected by floods in January this year.

Keti Khurtsia, our new programme coordinator accompanied me anfd it was good to introduce her to another programme she will be supervising.

It is an owner driven housing programme where the SLRCS give cash grants in tranches. The villagers fire their own bricks from quality clay in the villages and are totally in control of building their houses. Most of the recepients are poor day labourers, who have a small plot of land to grow some crops.

Villagers fire their own bricks for these Red Cross funded owner-driven houses.

Today, we drive north to Olluvil and Nindavur where we will be opening water supply and latrine programmes to many schools. SLRCS/IFRC have a very large hygiene promotion programme in this area which support a 252 km water supply project which provides water to over 75,000 people at a cost of US$ ten million. Funding came through the tsunami operation.

What impresses me about the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) is how they are really working at ‘grass roots’ on key risk reduction programmes. In Pottuvil with a population of over 20,000 people, the large town water supply was built and funded by SLRCS/IFRC. The Finnish Red Cross have built an excellent base hospital for the district and yesterday we see a well planned flood recovery programme bringing houses, latrines and livelihood programmes to many thousands of flood affected people. This local picture is repeated all over the country where Red Cross is changing the lives of people through clean water, hygiene promotion, latrines, improved medical facilities, dengue fever and malaria eradication programmes. Our programme in the north for internally displaced people who suffered under 25 years of conflict is such a joy to see, as people’s lives return to normal. Where once only gunfire was heard, the laughter of children drowns out all other soiunds in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

It is wonderful to be part of this.

I met an elephant on the way to the super market!

I have lived over 30 years in Asia, and almost immune to the unexpected. But yesterday morning I got a delightful surprise.

After two weeks in a hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, we moved into a new appartment building on Friday. Ablai and I woke up yesterday morning, and we headed off to a supermarket just round the cormer. Somehow we turned right instead of the needed left turn, and the next minute we see a baby elephant grazing in the grounds of the Buddhist temple.

We spent the day unpacking boxes that had just arrived from Jakarta, and in the evening we walked down the road to have dinner with Manish and Monica Pant, friends from India. Manish and Monica are Indian doctors, and Manish  first starting working for me in New Delhi. He  moved to Suva about the time I left Delhi in 2006 where he became the regional health delegate for all the South Pacific Red Cross Societies. He is now working with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS). So it was a relaxing evening talking cricket and family.

On Wednesday last week Tissa Abeywickrama ( 2nd from right) was appointed to the position of Acting Director General of the SLRCS. Tissa had steered the SLRCS through a massive tsunami operation during the past five years. So I am looking forward to working with Tissa.

Al Panico right, with Naila. Al is my line manager. Al came over to join us for four days to deal with a number of high level issues pertaining to the tsunami transition process and the IDP programme for displaced people in the north of the country.

It's Sunday evening and I am compiling my Bi Weekly Management report and I am reading all the individual departmental reports. The enormity of the work we have supported the SLRCS on during the past five years is impresive, as is the work we are doing now.

The enormous scale and scope of the operation has meant that thousands of people are now living in stronger homes supported by a more sustainable economic and social foundation. More than 57,000 houses have been built or are being completed. Over 650,000 people now have clean water to drink. More than 94,000 households have boats, fishing nets, agricultural tools or have used cash grants to help them recover their livelihoods. The finishing touches are being put on 363 hospitals and clinics that are being built or rehabilitated. 161 schools have been constructed with a further 11 under way. In Sri Lanka alone, the Red Cross has built 94 hospitals and clinics. When I was in northern Jaffna in June I visited a 300 bed hospital we built there which was providing outstanding medical services. many of the patients displaced by the war in the north.

What is taking up a considerable ammount of time at the moment is raising funds for an emergency appeal  seeking USD 3.4 million or EUR 2,5 million) in cash, kind, or services to support the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) as it assists approximately 5,000 families (25,000 people) for 24 months;

So after two and a half weeks I am settling in and I hope I get more surprises on my morning walks.