Below is a rather dry update....but in general the visits to the conflict and tsunami affected villages has been quite a lesson in the double-tragedy that the northeast of the country has faced. ...Wish I could speak the local language. ...Will post photos soon.
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The first 2 days in Sri Lanka were spent meeting with international groups, such as Mercy Corps, and recommended local groups, such as Sarvodya and Energy Forum, in Colombo. With some contacts of a Sri Lankan friends, we've also met some influential folks who are backing humanitarian work around the island, such as www.unconditionalcompassion.org and hugely hearted Mr. Ajit Chitty. We also met the pioneer of solar in Sri Lanka (...and got to hear his daughters (ages 9 and 12) sing parts of the Phantom of the Opera!)
Day 3, Sat., Oct. 1
We left Colombo at 8am by road and reached Trinkomalee at 2pm. As soon as we arrived, we had our meeting with Gretchen Ansorge at Mercy Corps. Gretchen provided us with contact info for international and local groups she thought we should meet, namely the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA), SEDOT, and the UNHCR. As we drove thru town, we saw signs for countless NGOs and relief groups, including familiar ones like ZOA and UNDP.
In the evening, we met with the Energy Forum rep in Trinko named Sukannathan. Since Sukannathan spoke only Tamil and broken English, but we had our Sinhalese, Tamil, and English speaking driver helped to translate. Sukannathan had coordinated work in areas north of Trinko and also in Batticola (several hours driving south of Trinko, which after 20 years of war, became a peaceful area in 1991). He had helped with the implementing a loan based project which involved installing 300 SHLS in the Trinko area and 2000 SHLS in Batticola. He was stressing for us to work in villages even north of the villages in FIA, near Tiriyia. Sukannathan agreed to come with us to FIA's villages the next morning. We spent the night at Ajit Chitty's house 20km north of Trinko.
Day 4, Sun., Oct. 2
We were on the road by 7:30am to visit what we thought were just 2 villages, the accessible villages in which FIA works in. To our surprise, the day ended with visiting 5 villages, the other 3 being in the conflict areas north of the tsunami affected areas northwest of Trinko. Sukannathan had encouraged us to make the unplanned visits to the additional 3 villages, one of them being Tiriyia. We passed numerous military check points getting to the latter 3 villages…
Many questions came up during the day, we met again in the evening with Sukannathan. He was kind enough to go to town and copy some maps he had prepared for the various areas, which showed where there is and is not electricity.
Day 5, Mon., Oct. 3
Since we got in at Sat. afternoon (Sat. being only a half workday in Sri Lanka) and we had to leave Mon. at noon to make our other appointments with Mercy Corps staff in the southern towns of Ampare, Arugun Bay, and Hambantota, we had to make the most of Mon. morning meeting with Sarvodaya and the groups that Gretchen had recommended. We ended up having in-person meetings with Sarvodaya, CHA, and SEDOT, and a phone meeting with UNHCR.
Sarvodaya and SEDOT turned out to be excellent candidates for partnerships, although they differ in their scale of work (Sarvodaya being a large org working around the country and SEDOT being smaller working only in Trinko). CHA and UNHCR are worthwhile to consult before starting any work in northeastern Sri Lanka because they know about both the conflict issues and the tsunami reconstruction status.
Next
We left Trinko in time to get to Amapare, a seven hour drive south. Here in Ampare we will be meeting with the Mercy Corps office and one of its partners. We will leave Ampare tomorrow afternoon to reach Arugun Bay in the evening, where we will meet the local Mercy Corps office the next morning. From there we will continue south to Habantota to visit the Mercy Corps and ITDG offices and sites there.
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