Sri Lanka Foundation

It’s our 4th and final week here and it’s time to sum up the trip while on the road to the airport. It’s surreal to think of heading home to a country that has been caught up in its own hurricane catastrophe now going for several weeks.

Personally, both Sadna and I have taken much real world experience from this trip and left behind a bit of naive theory on how successful relief work is done on the ground. Each type of contribution has it’s place depending on what stage a crisis is in. For example, donating money directly is helpful during a certain period, but if done wrong it can quickly create dependency on outside money, and people will eventually lose interest in pursuing work. Organizations that help get people back to work or look for buy-in from a town before going forward with a large community project sound like common sense, but it’s surprising how many outside groups still look to impose their own belief systems and solutions without doing homework on cultural differences and local politics.

The Child & Youth Center in Hambantota. Over 300 children drop in for help with school work, instruction, sports, socializing and computer use.

After an 11 year run, a new Sri Lankan President will be elected November 17 of this year. The effect on NGO’s (Non Governmental Organizations) and the enormous aid promised to the island from the outside world, 3.4 billion, hangs in the balance on which of the two candidates is chosen. If it’s Mahinda, then groups such as Mercy Corp, US AID, OXFAM, RedCross, and well over 100 others could be on the President’s chopping block. Mahinda’s campaign to further seize control of the country for the government means foreign companies and even aid agencies will most likely be pushed out.

For RCI, the recommendation given by Jim Jarvie of Mercy Corp was to find a group that is already entrenched here doing something well and add your expertise to make it even better. In a political climate this volatile, it is better to concentrate on the ‘process’ than on leaving a ‘footprint’. For example, a group may have more success teaching contractors about sounder building methods than trying to wrestle with half a dozen government organizations on initiating the development of a new housing project from the ground up.

Caught some news on the US this morning about hurricane Rita rolling in towards Florida, and possibly Louisiana. After Katrina’s wake, it seems unimaginable that another hurricane is looming. Eric Klein’s organization, CAN-DO (www.can-do.org), is working in New Orleans and keeps his website updated on his teams progress and needs….check them out if you want to get involved on the ground or would like to mail supplies.

We regrouped in Colombo this weekend to purchase children’s clothes and hold a meeting with the Director of Program Development for Mercy Corp. I would say this was the most enlightening meeting so far on rebuilding efforts in Sri Lanka…I hope to write more on this later as it relates to the inner workings of relief organizations and in the case of Sri Lanka, the effect of government politics. The parallels of how the US government is handling Katrina come to mind: http://www.mirror.co.uk

We are on the Southeast tip of the island staying 2 nights in Tissamaharama. Our work with Rebuilding Communities International (RCI) may have found a home here, as we found a Buddhist monk willing to donate enough land to put up a community center in a small town named Kirinda, but this is where our work intersects with the local government. The approval process for a development or rebuilding project must come through the ‘AG office’ - a term used for the local government. First step after finding land to build on is obtaining AG office approval.

As a sign of what’s to come, our driver caught the attention of a woman working for the German Development Cooperation whose project is data basing all the project information of over 40 relief agencies working in the South of Sri Lanka. This way overlap can be reined and one should hear less stories about a fishermen receiving 3 boats and 20 mosquito nets, for example. Another part of this work is to identify ‘beneficiaries’ or people that have already received the aid they need. The AG couldn’t provide her any assistance with this, although it is the responsibility of this office to do so.

When talking to people on the ground in Sri Lanka who work as part of the relief effort, you are confronted by a wide diversity of opinions on how best to help. Some say build houses, some say buy affected families necessities, some say do no more than employ victims since anything else creates a culture of dependence.

Subsistence and sustainable redevelopment is a recurring theme but different groups and different individuals have strongly differing opinions on how to get there. There is consensus on one point for the most part. Individuals and organizations MUST do what they can, with the time and resources at their disposal, and it must be done with thoughtfulness and a sensitivity to donors and to the beneficiary community.

We have been here for 9 days now. Every day in Sri Lanka brings a more acute perception of the finer points and rougher edges of the country, culture and the collective experience of the people here.

There are people from all walks of life suffering from the Tsunami and people from all walks of life benefiting from it as well. There are some areas saturated with NGO presence and some areas completely left behind.

Nothing is ever black and white here, but a thousand shades of grey - a spectrum of emotions, approaches, levels of poverty, wealth and intentions.

Some photos to help tell the story today…

The typical coastal view from the road

Yesterday was a whirlwind meeting tour starting with the World Conservation Union, The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, and with an old friend who just now happens to be a National Director for OXFAM. Meetings were setup to make contacts & identify projects in tsunami affected areas before we head South from Colombo.

Each organization had expertise in specific areas and all were very helpful in providing us information. As examples of what they do, The World Conservation Union assesses the environmental & wildlife impact of the tsunami, The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka is working directly with small to medium sized businesses providing fishing nets, sewing machines, building materials, etc., while Oxfam is working on long term quality reconstruction of housing.