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| Wednesday, 9 February 2005 |
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Science, politics and social intervention - part 2 by Prof. S.T. Hettige Continued from 08-02-05 Livelihood restoration and resettlement of affected families alone cannot ensure future stability and well-being of the affected population. We are here dealing with a highly traumatized population. Some families are totally disoriented or disorganized due to the demise of family members. It is also reasonable to assume that some people would not easily recover from the loss of their property and livelihoods. Some may not want to go-back to their former economic activities. Others may find it difficult to overcome their sense of vulnerability. These are issues that cannot be taken care of by implementing livelihood restoration and resettlement programmes alone. These issues can persist for many years after resettlement. Hence, the need for formulating long term strategies to address persisting social and psychological issues. Such strategies are critically important because once the affected families are resettled in some way or another, authorities and civil society organizations are more than likely to withdraw from the areas. The result would be that those who do not overcome their problems will continue to suffer in silence or cause other social problems such as crime, suicide, drug abuse, mental illness, etc. Many families and individuals affected by the tsunami are more than likely to need continuing support to cope with diverse social and psychological problems. These needs can vary depending on their specific circumstances and problems. Ideally, we should deploy trained social workers in the field so that they can visit families at regular intervals to offer them assistance but, the population is too large to be covered by trained social workers who are not available in large numbers. The second best solution is to enlist volunteers from among youth, retired public servants and teachers. They could be deployed after a short orientation training. A few such volunteers can be deployed in each GN division so that each one will cover a small number of families. These volunteers can be organized and trained at the divisional land, under the supervision of professionally trained personnel. Expenses of these volunteers should be reimbursed in order to encourage and motivate them. We do not know whether the country is going to be affected by another tsunami in the near or distant future. On the other hand, we should be ready for natural disasters of various kind. Public awareness is an integral part of disaster preparedness. If people in the coastal areas were knowledgeable about tsunami waves, many would have reacted differently and saved many lives. Schools and the mass media should endeavour to create public awareness about national disasters and how they should behave under such situations. Many Westerners are surprised that most Sri Lankans cannot swim even though the country not only is surrounded by the sea but has a large number of rivers and internal water bodies. On the other hand, it is not surprising to us because most children in this country have no access to systematic instruction in swimming. Apart from a few privileged urban schools other schools have no swimming pools, so swimming is not even a sport available to children, let alone part of a life skills training for them. Even if we take into account the floods that often ravage many parts of the country, it makes sense to encourage children to learn swimming as a life skill. It may not be a luxury to provide at least one swimming facility for several schools. Resettlement of families affected by tsunami is likely to change the resettlement pattern in the coastal areas. While there will be changes in the old settlement, wholly new settlements are also going to come up in these areas. When such change and developments take place, it is necessary to ensure that the resettled people have not only opportunities to maintain their social networks but also access to diverse support services. This can be ensured by employing social development officers in the context of the resettlement programme. These officers can provide a vital link between the prospective resettles and the resettlement programme. Social development officers can also connect the target population with agencies that provide various services to local people. An effective way to determine whether various interventions produce the expected outcomes is to establish a systematic monitoring and evaluation system. This system can be used to monitor progress on a continuing basis. Such a monitoring system would allow the implementation of various programs to take every corrective measure if things do not go according to the plan. On the other hand, those who donate funds to meet the needs of disaster victims would naturally like to find out whether such funds have benefited the target population. (Concluded) |
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