Dear Friends,

It's been a while since I've chimed in with a personal update. Things have been busy at Empower Inc with us welcoming a new Director for Marketing (Nick Psaila), managing progress with Empower Malawi and scoping prospects for project expansion in Sri Lanka. I've been in Sri Lanka for 4 weeks to accelerate partnership development and community selection (I'm off to Malawi next week, more on that soon!).

Shyamika and I have been in Sri Lanka throughout December but our visits across the island have been seperate journeys. This has worked out well as we've been able to pursue different leads. Shyamika spent a great deal of time in the East while my visit focused on the North of the island. We've both been keen to get first-hand experience of the conditions faced by recently resettled communities in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. For those unfamiliar with the Civil War in Sri Lanka -This Wiki will help give you context. 

My time in Colombo involved meeting with like-minded organisations like Sarvodaya and SEEDO as well as contacts new and old. Both organisations appear keen to work in collaboration with us and have strikingly similar values.  I touched base with Dinah and Arun - passionate youth workers who organized my community visits in the North. I also had the pleasure of making my trip to the North with my former colleagues Florian, Daniela and Thushara - we worked on relief projects in Sri Lanka post-tsunami.This was my first visit to Northern Sri Lanka, in fact I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be able to visit the areas that I did. It was a long drive (10hours) made enjoyable but fantastic company.  

Needless to say it was a bittersweet experience. Seeing the devastation and knowing of the tragic loss of life in the region while still appreciating the beauty of the land and the incredible resilliance and optimism in the hearts of many survivors. I was able to visit two large communities that had been recently resettled after having lived in IDP Camps through the final phases of the war and its immediate aftermath. Both were located in Mullaitivu District 

1) Vishvamadhu (Theravil - 130 households)

2) Karnan Kudiyirippu ( 90 households)

A typical scene in Mulaitivu - Recently resettled civilans from IDP camps.

Conditions in both camps were strikingly simmilar. Upon resttlement, each household gets 1 1/2 acres of land, a grant of Rs. 20,000 (approx AUD 175) and roofing sheets. Needless to say, the structures (some over a year old) are only a slight improvement upon conditions in IDP camps. Most families have little in terms of a capital base to start over, have few able bodied family members for labour and are still disillusioned and traumatized. One needs to keep in mind that many families in these areas were not in financial poverty prior to the war. Many had houses and large plots of land. 

In terms of conditions, with the exception of a few households, none had access to energy (a few had leased solar panels). Water access is not a pressing issue due to an extensive network of wells. That said, the North has an extended dry period and these communities have no effective water management system to harvest and utilize water for both consumption and agriculture. A natural candidate for some permaculture work!

The theme across both communities appears to be that of a lack of consistent income. Most households rely on physical labour to generate subsistence income (households run by widows and the elderly are at a huge disadvantage). There seemed to be a genuine interest in increasing household income through small to medium scale businesses and co-op/community banking.

Of course, we were aware from the start that working in Northern Sri lanka would be a great challenge. The psychoglogical impact of the 30 year struggle is obvious - loss of family, childhood and a sense of place being a highly simplistic encapsulation on my part. The vacant gaze of a widow, seemingly struggling to salvage hope and her son, fearful of our presence, had a profound impact on me. There is no doubt that any part of our work in this region would involve a great deal of work on the psycho-social elements of addressing trauma and building a sense of community- a shift from a paradigm of survival.

Our discussion with the community in Karnan Kudiyirippu  was definitely a highlght. While conditions are similar to those with the community in Theravil, we were highly impressed by both the attitude and composition of their leadership committee. A progressive attitude and a seemingly determined approach towards being self-reliant was highly encouraging. Furthermore, young women were in key leadership positions in the community, a rare thing to encounter in a rural context. Dinah and Arun, the youth workers who organized our visits will be basing themselves in this very same area for 2 years (relocating from Colombo) in order to be of service to the community. They expressed that they were keen to assist us in their capacity as they believed in our values and our approach. 

For these reasons, our team reached the consensus that Karnan Kudiyirippu would form our first recommendation as a potential partner community for Empower's foray into Sri Lanka.

The customary group photo!

Next Steps

In addition to potential partners Shyamika has touched base with in the North and East, we are currently in the process of sharing our concept note for "Empower Sri Lanka" with as many local organisations as possible. We are keen to develop a holistic network of partner organisations as we are doing in Malawi. 

Identifying the necessary government clearance required, formalization of partnerships and an official initial assessment of the community through a joint-partner visit are obvious next steps on the road ahead. We are extremely excited and you can count on us updating you all on how this project develops from concept to implementation. If you are interested in supporting our efforts in Sri Lanka, please get in touch!

A Joyous New Year to you all!

Over and Out,
Shanil