Livelihoods absolutely vital in northern Sri Lanka

It is always a wonderful learning opportunity when I travel to the field to discuss with experts like Nimal Silva from the Sri Lanka Red Cross about their work. The Sri Lanka Red Cross is well on the way to completing 3000 owner-driven houses completed with latrines, a water supply and livelihoods. Everything is crucial when working with communities that have been devastated by 25 years of conflict, but the one that comes through as absolutely vital, is livelihoods.

Villagers from Krishnapuran and Vivekanandanagar in Kilinochci northern Sri Lanka, attend a 2 day livelihood training conducted by the Sri Lanka Red Cross. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Nimal expalined how after the conflict finished in May 2009, people required relief support for up to two years, some longer. After conflict many people were traumatised, confused, disoriented and had a subsistent mentality. The key role Red Cross has played is bringing normalcy back into their lives was by regular visits during the early relief, discussing the owner driven housing approach and setting up true benficiary communication where the ideas of the affected population is coveted, listened too, included in planning, and acted upon.

Nimal (left) explained how apart from housing and water and sanitation, he and his team worked on the livelihood component.

1. Assess skills and knowledge

2. Input and support. Advising people of new seed varities, latest technical advances in solar pumps etc

3. Link to government services providers such as ventinary, agriculture extension services etc.

4. Marketing

“As people’s lives get back to normal, they want to be self sufficient and usually have the vision of where they would like to be in a few years. Our role is to guide them,” he said.

“We run courses for them explaining the types of livelihoods available and give them a week to decide. They get a first grant of Sri Lankan Rupees 20,000, the a final one of 15,000.”

Nimal explains how many of the benficiaries use their livelihood money for water pumps which increases their productivity hugely.

“ I want to run course now to help people to learn entreprenurial skills so they can market their goods more profitably and to set up small enterprises.

Some months ago Nimal and I visited Krishnapuram with Michael Annear the head of our disaster management unit for Asia and Pacific and he had the chance to see the programme for the first time. He was impressed with our integrated or holistic approach and spent much time examining the owner-driven houses, the latrines and water supplies, but the thing that grabbed his attention, was the varied livelihoods programme. He spoke to a number of villagers and went to see their fields and saw how their lives have dramatically improved since receiving livelihood grants and training.

Michael Annear talking to Sinathamby Vellachame who has a Red Cross funded house with water and toilet, standing in front of his chilli field which he irrigates with a solar pump provided by the Red Cross livelihood programme.

So here we are. The Indian government is generously funding recently to the Red Cross to build 16,800 owner driven houses and we are looking for approximately US$5 million for livelihoods for each of these 16,800 families which will put them well on the path to self sufficiency and produce a host of resilient communities.

We will be extremely grateful for any support you can give. http://redcross.lk/

Red Cross work in northern Sri Lanka

Returning to Colombo after a week-long field trip, is a time a reflect, write and sort photos taken on the trip.

While returning to Colombo last Friday, I wrote this in my diary"

Each day I learn a little more on how to map the human heart. This week I have visited over 20 villages in Anaradhapura, Kilinochchi and Jaffna districts. I see joy and suffering, hardship and kindness. Our Red Cross work restores life and livelihoods after conflict and floods. The map charts the extremes of human deeds, emotions and actions. A life saved, a life taken, it is all mapped.


I travelled with Michael Annear, Head of the Disaster Management Unit for IFRC Asia and Pacific Zone. Michael is an engineer and an expert on risk reduction so Nimal Silva, Dr. Mahesh and I appreciated his expertise as an Engineer, and someone who understands 'surge capacity' and 'scaling up.'  With 3000 houses almost completed, we are trying to secure more funding to scale up and reach more of those 100,000 families without permanent houses.

On Tuesday I visited the village Kakula in northern Anuradhapura which was totally inundated by flood waters in January and February 2011 and where the Red Cross has built 34 houses under the flood recovery programme. ( During the flood recovery programme we built 1400 houses in 8 districts.)

We met an inspiring  lady who led this house-building programme and she told us how she moblised voluntary labour from the communities, particularly to construct houses allocated to widows. A group of smiling women and children flocked around us and thanked us for the support to their community.

The worst affected people now have a house, water and sanitation and improved livelihoods. Strengthening community resilience has been the focus of this programme and I was particularly impressed with livelihood programmes where people elected to breed goats and chickens.

Then to we travelled a kilometer or so to Rambewa to see a Red Cross and government blood donation programme, followed by a ceremony to mark World Red Cross Red Crescent Day. Many of the donors and mobilisers were young people from the local Red Cross unit. As a fundraising venture, members of this unit were given some fallow paddy land and grew a very profitable crop of rice. Youth are certainly on the move here.

Next we inaugurated a community centre which was 50% funded by the Red Cross and the rest given by the community. Here we had a few speeches for World Red Cross Red Crescent day and then presented tractors to poor, flood affected farmers, kitchen sets and mosquito nets to other villagers, and school bags and kits to children.


On Wednesday morning I met up with Michael and we travelled to Vavuniya where we teamed up with Nimal Silva (SLRCS) and Dr. Mahesh (IFRC) who run our ever-exanding Post Conflict Recovery Programme. (PRCP). We all travelled to Kilinochchi district where we have built 900 houses, provided water and sanitation, and livelihoods. We visited Krishnapuram and Michael had the chance to see the programme for the first time. He was impressed with our integrated or holistice approach and spent much time examining the owner-driven houses, the latrines and water supplies, but the thing that grabbed his attention, was the varied livelihoods programme. He spoke to a number of villagers and went to see their fields and saw how their lives have dramatically improved since receiving livelihood grants and training.

Michael Annear talking to Sinathamby Vellachame who has a Red Cross funded house with water and toilet, standing in front of his chilli field which is an integral part of the Red Cross livelihood programme.

On Thursday we travelled to Karainagar a small island off the coast of Jaffna. This was my second visit to this very poor part of Sri Lanka where we are building 70 houses in two villages. In the first village 16 recepients of the owner-driven houses are widows as so many men were killed in the brutal conflict. Conditions in the village are grim with no potable drinking water and the poorly dug wells produce a sour and brackish water, and drinking water has to be trucked in daily. Since my last visit in late January this year, people are smiling and everyone in the two villages are building their houses. Men split wood for the roof, masons skillfully position and cement bricks, while women cart sand and stones. Before and after school, children contribute to the family owner-driven approach to house building.

Karainagar. After 3 months since starting, foundations are complete and the walls start going up. Each house takes between six and ten months to complete.

Michael Annear (l) Dr. Mahesh (centre) and Ganesh at Kiranchi village near Malankavil discussing the finer points of construction.

We left Jaffna late Thursday morning and embarked on a 2 and a half  hour drive to Mulankavil half way down the west coast of Kilinochichi, which must be the remotest part of Sri Lanka. We have an office at Mulankavil and we stopped there to pick up members of our dedicated Red Cross team.

The Red Cross PCRP team in Mulankavil with Michael Annear. Living conditions are basic but the committment shown, 'beyond the call of duty' is impressive.

In and around Mulankavil, we spoke to those building Red Cross houses, putting in latrines and water supplies and discussing livelihhoods. I am sure with 3000 houses nearing completion, we have got the formula right.

..

It was a successful trip and a chance to look at where we are with the current programme, and to further develop a methodology to market what we are doing and the need to advocate for those 100,000 families without permanent housing. I am hopeful some of our partners will get behind us and fund more houses, watsan and livelihoods.  Thanks to Michael Annear for joining us.

But it is so easy and understandable to focus on the hardware side of the project, but we are also dealing appropriately with people who have been traumatised by a 25 year long conflict is something the Red Cross quietly does as a cross cutting initiative. The photo above was taken at a YABC workshop I attended last year in Vavuniya.Youth as Agents of Behavioural Change (YABC) is an initiative to empower youth to play a lead role in transforming mindsets, attitudes and behaviour in their local community. It starts from the premise that a prior commitment to inner change and being the living example of our Fundamental Principles and Humanitarian Values is the best way to reach this objective.

YABC uses innovative and artistic platforms; it integrates peer education and non-cognitive learning to promote behavioural change and uses games, role plays, visualisation, drama, dance and art for youth to make the journey "from the heart to the mind" and succeed in social mobilisation.

Toolkit

In 2008-2009, the IFRC P&V department in Geneva developed a draft skills-based toolkit for YABC, together with the Youth Commission, Youth focal point of the Organisational Development Department, and a network of youth leaders from 42 National Societies world-wide. Here is an update on what we are doing in this respect.

Thavarani one year later. Poorest of the poor.

Thirteen and a half months ago I visited Thavarani a disabled widow with 3 children, in the village of Krishnapuram, in Kilinochchi district. She was in a very desperate situation and I was worried about her health, the health of her children, and was deeply concerned as to whether she would be able to build a house with the funds allocated by the Red Cross for her to build an owner-driven house. Today, her house is almost finished, just the floor to cement, and then she and her children move in. This is nothing short of a miracle.  I am so grateful to Red Cross volunteers who helped her. She looked so much healthier, and the children too. This is one of 3000 success stories, based on the 3000 houses Red Cross has built to date.

I was with Michael Annear, Head of the IFRC Disaster Management Unit for our Asia and Pacific zone.
Tonight I will sleep well knowing that Thavarani has a three roomed house with kitchen, water and sanitation, and a large vegetable garden that feeds her family, and surplus to sell.

This is the story I wrote 13 months ago.
 
Some nights I struggle to sleep wondering how a disabled widow like Thavarani survives with three children in a very basic make-shift shelter, while I am in a sound hotel or apartment. We work in some villages where people are in desperate situations, but it takes time to get communities functioning normally after such a long and brutal conflict in the north of Sri Lanka, which has grossly affected so many people, and ruined infrastructure, livelihoods, dreams and minds. Getting funds for this life-saving programme has been so difficult and we have had to graft all the way.

In my blog posting one before last. I wrote about Vimala Rani ( SEE LINK:vimala) who has rebuilt her life after a long and cruel war in the north of Sri Lanka.  She lost her husband, her house and nearly all possessions. Now she has a Red Cross house, a small income through our livelihood programme, a toilet and running water, and her five children are doing well, one training to be a nurse, and the rest at school. It takes time, patience and dogged perserverance to fund raise for such projects.

Last Thursday after visiting Vimala Rani in the village of Vivekanandanagar in Kilinochchi I went to visit the village of Krishnapuram where we are building another 100 houses for people who lost theirs. Some houses are completed but the majority are in various stages of construction. I asked Dr Mahesh, who runs our IDP programme to show me some of the poorest people in Krishnapuram. He said, the initial survey conducted by Red Cross shows that a 33 year old woman, Thavrani, as one of the poorest.

Thavarani, and her youngest child.

Thavrani is a widow, and has three young children. She lives in a very basic temporary shelter, while her Red Cross funded house is being built. During the conflict she got hit by a shell or mortar and her left leg is withered and left her with a bad limp. Her left arm was damaged and twisted so the palm of her hand is always in a face up position. The reason Thavrani is in a worse situation than most other widows as being disabled limits her in what she can do, her extended family is minimal, and support group limited.

Thavrani with her basic shelter on the left and her Red Cross funded house going up in the background.

A closer look at her very basic home where she lives with her three children

Red Cross has workers like Surethi and Nithya (pictured on the extreme right above)  ride on a small motor cycle, supervising this owner-driven housing programme, visiting all people in the community and when they find someone las destituteThavrani, they have the skills to discuss and advise her on problems, and also able to provide counselling and material support. Thavani, like many others, is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and needs regular visits and support. She also need Red Cross to provide her a voice for the future, and 'protection.'

Three of our staff supervising the housing programme Surethi and Nithya at the left and Chamini right, visit Thavarani and many others on a regular basis and do an amazing work helping them become self sustaining.

Thavrani's house will look like this within two months, and she will be able to move into it.



With the Sri Lanka Red Cross programme targetting 5000 familiers, it is frustraing seeing people suffering as they work even harder to get their houses completed before the next rainy season.

Thavrani maanges a broad smile as Dr. Mahesh asks her what additional help she needs. " I need a little extra help with laying the blocks, so I can finish it as soon as possible," she says.

As I walked away from her house I glanced back and saw her talking to  Surethi and Nithya and I know these two dedicated Red Cross workers  will watch over and care for Thavrani and her children, and ensure her house and other facilities are completed quickly.

It doesn't make me sleep easier as there are thousands of people like Thavani in Sri Lanka affccted by the aftermath of tsunami, recent floods and landslides and by a long and brutal war. But the hope comes from people like Nadeeka and Melinda from the Australian Red Cross who visited Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya last week, and have given funding for over 300 houses, plus livelihoods, water and sanitation, and a little extra to support very vulnerables women like Vumala and Thavani.

We need continuing support from our partners and the general public out there to ensure people affected by war and natural disasters can live with dignity and hope.