13th May 2005
Akkaraipattu
Sri Lanka
Dear Friends,
Its hello again from a very warm and sticky Sri Lanka. Here in the East its the hottest time of the year with daily temperatures around 32/35c and high humidity. We will get very little rain now until the wet season starts in December. We cope reasonably well providing we dont exert ourselves too much and take about 3 or 4 showers a day. The temperature drops a few degrees at night so as long as there is no power cut and the fan keeps going, one can sleep ok.
As far as tsunami relief work is concerned, things have started to move but quite slowly. Semi-permanent shelters are being built by the international relief agencies and people are starting to move out of the camps but it will be some months yet before this is complete. The Government still cannot completely get its act together and its efforts remain
disappointingly patchy. For example, the people in camps are supposed to be given 375 Rupees (£1.80) per person per week for food and other essentials. But sometimes when the people go to the state banks they say they havent received any funds from central government so cant pay the allowance.
The Government has not yet signed an agreement with the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) for a joint relief mechanism in the North and East which doesnt help matters. Unfortunately violent incidents continue. Some 10 days ago, a pro LTTE journalist was abducted and killed and this week police shot into a crowd protesting about the erection of a checkpoint killing a 62 year old man. These resulted in a Hartal, which is like a localised general strike when all businesses close, busses stop
running etc. bringing life pretty much to a standstill.
Nazza and I have felt a little frustrated that we have not so far been able to start any projects with our relief fund but the time has not been right. But now we can start moving and we have been discussing a concept proposal concerning the regeneration of the coastal area.
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 (RDF) with the assistance of the people living in the area would like to replant 75 m by 2 km in Sainthamaruthu 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 dramatically changed and is now much hotter. Re-planting will greatly assist in reducing the temperature by providing shade. The land is now barren and because it falls within the 200 metre buffer zone cannot be used for anything else. Planting trees will make the area look attractive again and is recognized as a therapeutic activity.
Wages and funds will assist the community in re-establishing themselves and the harvest will provide food and/or income. Water will be provided as it is intended to clean existing wells, and construct tube wells. The soil will be good enough to plant in 2 months (time to leach salt from soil) and July, August and September are good months to plant but much clearing will be required before planting can commence and this will be the 1st phase. It is estimated that
some 10000 trees will be planted with a total cost of approx £15000.
This will now be developed into a firm project proposal with detailed costings and a timetable which we anticipate will lead to a Memorandum of $Understanding (i.e. a contract) being signed by us and RDF. Work should start on the clearing element very shortly.
We liked this project as it came from the affected people themselves, it has environmental and income generation elements and will enable the people to be less dependent on Government handouts. The project will be supported by the Government through the Agricultural Department who will provide some assistance and advice. With all the major agencies still fully committed to basic relief work, none has yet had time to consider anything like this. Assuming it is successful, it will be expanded around the coast by seeking support from the major agencies.
Jeremiah, who is a Kenyan VSO Volunteer colleague working with RDF, will oversee the project on our behalf although,
as it is just up the coast from us, we will be visiting quite often. Unfortunately, Nazza is leaving Sri Lanka to return to
the UK having found the isolation in Akkaraipattu too much for him (and I think he misses his girlfriend as well which doesnt make it any easier). This would leave me in sole charge of the fund which I am not too comfortable about from a transparency and accountability aspect. I am sure you have all heard stories about corruption and misappropriation of funds (and some of them are unfortunately true). I have discussed this with VSO in Colombo and we have agreed
to form a small committee consisting of myself, the VSO country director and the manager of the Strengths Project which I work on to select and monitor the projects to fund. VSO also have some tsunami relief funds and we have combined the two making some £70000 in total to use and this is now in a VSO bank account. So as well as inviting local NGOs to submit proposals, we have invited those VSO Volunteers working in the tsunami affected areas to also submit proposals. We have received one already from David who is lecturing in the Maths Faculty at Jaffna University. Whilst not directly affected by the tsunami, the university does have tsunami affected students who need to replace their textbooks. He has arranged with colleagues in the UK for them to donate the textbooks and is looking for us to fund the shipping cost. This we have agreed at a cost of around £400. We know that more proposals are on the way both from
the Volunteers and local organisations which we are eagerly looking forward to receiving. We will of course keep in touch regarding these.
Finally for now, VSO have not yet been able to give us the exact final figure of our fund but we calculate this to around £40000. This is a tremendous achievement and our heartfelt thanks go to all of you in the UK, Italy and the USA (Nazza’s girlfriend is from Colorado). But the final figure doesnt matter too much as we have now combined our fund with theirs.
Regards to you all, John and Nazza.