May minds be cleared soon
Spirit of voluntarism:
I had heard the rest of the world call them Internally Displaced
Persons or IDPs. But not Supem de Silva, the lead volunteer coordinator
of the Rotary Club’s effort at the Arunachalam Transitional village’s
sections A, B and C. I was taken by his use of the nomenclature of
Internally Displaced Sri Lankans or IDSLs to describe our brethren in
the camps. Such focus I thought, augers well for our future, where we
need to identify, own and seek solutions to our issues by ourselves.
I appreciated that Supem had identified the need for us to recognize
and own both the problem and the solution. He had realized that this was
critical if we were to have lasting peace in our country, with conflict
and terror never, ever raising its ugly head again.
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IDPs
engaged in reconstruction. Picture by Chaminda Hiththetiya |
He together with his wife Eshani, had left their three little
children, with his mother-in-law to leave Colombo at 3 a.m. that morning
to reach Chettikulum in time to meet his other colleagues who had
already arrived.
Having begun these visits in April, this perhaps is his eighth or
ninth weekly visit to coordinate the work that the Rotarians were doing
here in sections A, B and C. Other Rotarian who joined him on this visit
was Senaka Kotagma, an exporter of tea, when away from the voluntary
effort supporting the IDSLs.
We also had with us Stanley Obeysekera, who joined in as a volunteer
observing the needs with a view of supporting future efforts.
For medical doctors, Ajith Amarasinghe, Suranga Ranasinghe, Nilupul
Perera and Anil Weerasinghe, the visit that originated in Colombo at 2
a.m. was indeed no fun run. After a hard day’s work in a leading private
hospital in the city, they drove with Rotary Club’s President- elect
Hiran de Silva.
Dealing with the many
Sections A, B and C under their charge is at the far end of the Zone
3 village and houses families with children, the disabled, elderly and
expectant mothers in the main.
There are 4,000 persons in over 400 tents and it was established
since April this year in a well planned manner. But with the sudden
inflow of IDSLs in mid May, the tents had to be occupied by more than
the desired numbers.
The doctors, saw the enormity of the task before them in identifying
the manifold problems faced by the people in the three sections and
seeking adequate solutions for them. True, there is a Grama Niladhari
appointed to each section.
But with inadequacy of water supply, toilets and other basic
facilities in the early days, the task faced by each of them had been
insurmountable. To add to this situation, until a little over a month
ago, most in the camps had viewed outside volunteers with suspicion and
doubt.
With the doctors providing initial care and medicine at the several
clinics, they were able to win some level of confidence that gave them a
way ahead to seek involvement of the people in setting up self-help
initiatives.
Interactive solutions
With Dr. Suranjith’s experience and training as a community medicine
specialist and the assistance of the Grama Niladhari, they began
appointing a volunteer leader for a cluster of 10 tents.
The task of the leader was to visit each tent and record in Tamil in
an exercise book provided for him, all details of the families and their
needs such as the health status, clothing needs, food and nutritional
status, displacement from other family members, special needs of
children, pregnant mothers, disabled and the elderly.
Each week, the doctors would sit around on a mat with the volunteer
leaders and have an interactive discussion (with the help of
interpreters found from within the leaders) to identify and prioritize
the most urgent issues.
At the sessions I observed last week, there was discussion on the
need for more toilets and for a scheme for them to be operated under
supervision of the leaders to ensure cleanliness.
To establish study centres with adequate electric lighting in the
night, seek permission to extend the tents with pol athu shelters, the
poor segment wanted to seek work within the camp for wages to enable
them to buy additional items of food and other needs from the Sathosa
Cooperative Shop established within the Zone 3 camp site were the other
identified issues.
They also wanted to begin cultivating maize, manioc and spinach
plants around their tents and sought a supply of mammoties and other
basic implements for that purpose.
No false hopes
When I walked around, I met several men and women who sought
assistance in locating their missing kith and kin.
I was advised earlier that we as volunteers should not make promises
or give hope where we did not have the ability to assist with a degree
of certainty. The doctors were collecting information through the
appointed volunteer leaders on this aspect to present them to the
appropriate authority to assist in the process of locating them.
A significant observation I made while at the Arunachalam
transitional village was that everyone there from the assigned volunteer
organizations were performing useful functions.
The school area at the edge of the Zone was operational even at 4.00
p.m. A few weeks ago, a vocational training centre had been set up where
wood work, carpentry, welding and computer training is provided on six
months NDT certificate level courses.
A Kovil for worship was to be available from this week set up by the
Rotary volunteers. Setting up of a Christian Church is also on the
pipeline, a barber shop (run by an IDSL) has set up business and was
already active.
A library with Tamil and English books is to be set up soon and
several TV sets are to be installed.
Discussed and resolved at last week’s meeting, a home-grown solution
has been found to counter the problem of flies that were breeding in the
garbage disposal pits.
This week they were covering it with the ash from the cooking area.
An idea suggested by a volunteer leader at the interactive session.
Mending hearts and minds
All is not certainly well at Sections A, B and C of the Arunachalam
Transitional Village or Zone 3 of the Menik Farm IDSL Camp. But what I
observed encouraged me immensely and gave me a renewed sense of faith in
the spirit of voluntarism and the level of commitment our young
demonstrate, in working towards healing our wounds and mending our
hearts.
May the minds be cleared, while the process of clearing the mines
goes fast forward to ensure safety, security and the well-being of all
sons and daughters of Mother Sri Lanka. |