Organized self-help lifts Vanni villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 00:11 GMT]
"Under 'Village Upliftment Project' economically worst hit villages in Vanni are identified and efforts are channelled to improve social and economic well-being of the residents through self-help. Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), local NGOs and Tamil expatriates are also financially helping us to carryout this project," Administrative Head, Anbarasan, told TamilNet during a recent visit to the interior villages of the Vanni.

(L-R) Sunderamoorthy, Director TECH (a local NGO), Kumaran, Project Officer and Anbarasan, Head of Village Upliftment Project on a visit to inspect Navatkadu land clearing operation (Click for a larger picture)

During the initial phase of the Village Upliftment Project, twenty eight villages were identified for urgent action. Seven active leaders among village residents and four members from locally operating NGOs are selected in every village to form a village level committee to provide the focal point for action in each village, the organizers said.

Village residents select lead persons to head subcommittees for Education, Economic Development, Health, Village Affairs, Women's Affairs, Arts/Culture and Sports. The subcommittees are tasked to identify areas for improvement, plan for self-help projects and to solicit financial help from NGOs or TRO, Anabarasan said.

Both parents in many families living in these impoverished villages work as day laborers and spend most of the day away from their home. A work day usually involves one or two mile walk early in the morning to the work place or to obtain transport, followed by 8 to 10 hours of manual work and return home late night.

Village Upliftment Project officers at their monthly meeting reviewing progress (Click for a larger picture)

The Upliftment project officers' first priority was to arrange help to look after the pre-school children in village community centers during the day and to offer a safe place for the school going children to study at night until their parents return. Volunteer teachers working with minimum compensation have already made significant inroads into improving welfare of these children, according to Mr.Sunderamoorthy, Director of TECH (The Economic Consultancy House -- a local NGO).

Mr. Sunderamoorthy pointed out that a recent project funded by US expatriates has enabled the Village Upliftment Project officers to install Solar Home Systems (SHSs) to all of the community centers in these villages. This has allowed children to study in well-lit areas without worrying about the cost of keeping kerosine based lanterns, he said.

Sign board leading to Children's Garden in Ilankopuram in Mullaitivu district (Click for a larger picture)

Teachers and children taking time-off outside the buildings in Children's Garden in Ilankopuram (Click for a larger picture)

Teacher distributing sweets to under-5 year olds (Click for a larger picture)

Viswanathan Nilamani, teacher-in-charge at the Ilankopuram Children's Garden (Click for a larger picture)

Ilankopuram village in Visvamadu, Mullaithivu district, is a disadvantaged village whose residents are mainly hill country Tamils of Indian origin displaced in 1973 .

In 1973 the SLFP government under President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s mother, Mrs. Srimao Bandaranaike, deployed army, Police and gangs of Sinhala thugs to drive thousands of Tamils overnight from their estates in the hill country. Some of the main Sinhala gangs attacked the impoverished Tamil resident labour families were led by President Kumaratuna’s brother Mr. Anura Bandaranaike.

A lone estate worker, Sivanu Latchmanan, who tried to organise a resistance to the forced and often violent evictions, was shot dead.

The acquiescence of the corrupt and nepotistic Ceylon Workers’ Congress was bought by the SLFP regime before it began the onslaught on the Tamils of the hill country.

The evicted Tamils were driven to destitution, begging in the streets of hill country towns such as Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Hatton. Many children and old men and women died of starvation on the roadside.

Others went north in search of succour. Some were helped by Tamil social service organisations to settle in the Vanni. War and resulting destruction have made the lives even harder for these residents.

In Siruvar Poonga ('Children's Garden'), Ilankopuram, teachers organized as part of the Village Upliftment Project and funded by TRO, look after nearly 140 children aged between 1-5 years.

Population Statistics of selected Villages District Village Number of families Number of family members Mulliyavallai Poothanvayal 115 460 Mulliyavallai AarumahathanKulam 47 402 Mulliyavallai Navatkadu 92 380 Mulliyavallai Sooripuram 55 300 Puthukudiyiruppu Venavil 143 680 Puthukudiyiruppu Karnan Kudiyiruppu 53 220 Oddusuddan Vasanthapuram 60 262 Mallavi Therangandal 159 700 Visvamadu Ilangopuram 158 612 Visvamadu Theravil 96 416 Visvamadu Bharathipuram 110 520 Vaddakachchi Mayanoor 300 1200 Vaddakachchi Sampukulam 250 960 Vaddakachchi Ten House Scheme 100 420 Kilinochchi Santhapuram 300 1200 Kilinochchi Barathipuram 293 1120 Kilinochchi Inthupuram 180 720 Kilinochchi Malaiyalapuram 151 1076 Kilinochchi Vasanthapuram 150 600 Kilinochchi Selvapuram 200 810 Kilinochchi Vivekananthapuram 157 921 Kilinochchi ThondamanNagar 135 548 Kilinochchi Krishnapuram 285 1271 Kilinochchi Ammalkulam 517 2068 Kilinochchi SelvaNagar 276 1094 Akkarayan GandhiKiramam 120 575 Akkarayan Ootupulam 125 610 Mulankavil IranaimathaNagar 280 1250

Source: Village Upliftment Project Publication

Sivakumar Naguleswary, a beneficiary at the Navatkadu settlement waits to receive her own plot of land (Click for a larger picture)

Village of Navatkadu in Mulliyavallai, Mullaitivu, is being used as a model resettlement farm. Many of the village residents currently have temporary huts in lands not owned by them and live in constant fear of eviction. Under the Village Upliftment Scheme, the landless villagers are being given plots of land for legal ownership. Sivakumar Naguleswary and her sister are two of the families among the 35 families waiting to receive title to their own land to build their future.

Many of the landless families in Navatkadu are second or third generation hill country tamils uprooted from their central provincial towns in the 70s.

"Local villagers were initially hostile to the new refugee families often preventing new families from obtaining water from irrigation channels feeding the village fields," Anbarasan said.

Residents showing the collected personal statistics of other soon-to-be owners of lands in Navatkadu (Click for a larger picture)

Villagers temporarily occupying lands that do not belong to them in Navatkadu (Click for a larger picture)

Dirt path leading to Navatkadu (Click for a larger picture)

Sign board in front of community hall in Poothanvayal (Click for a larger picture)

Sooripuram and Poothanvayal are two other villages in Mulliyavallai that are included in the Village Upliftment Project. Poothanvayal has a new Common Hall built using financial aid from FORUT. Villagers benefit from regular visits from mobile health care clinic such as those run by the International Committer of Red Cross (ICRC).

Kumaran, who is the local Project Officer in charge of Sooripuram, said that village children attend two schools within a mile distance in Vattapalai. In addition, the Village Upliftment Project has organized a pre-school in Sooripuram where teacher, Maheswaran Subashini, attends to the needs of the children.

Public hall built with the assistance of FORUT in Poothanvayal, Mulliyavallai (Click for a larger picture)

Village Upliftment Project officers looking at a newly built well in Poothanvayal village (Click for a larger picture)

Sign board along the lane leading to Sooripuram Village (Click for a larger picture)

Maheswaran Subashini, teacher supported by the Village Upliftment Project, with the pre-school kids under a shady tree (Click for a larger picture)

In close proximity to Vattrapalai Amman Temple, there is Ootangarai Pillaiyar temple. Both temples provide focal points for religious activities for village residents in Mullaithivu district and surrounding villages. There is a prevailing myth among villagers that the injury to the Ootangarai Pillaiyar's Ther (chariot) by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was the reason for the 28 July 1996 debacle at the Mullaithivu SLA camp where more than one thousand SLA soldiers perished when the camp was overrun by the LTTE.