As
he rocks his baby’s cradle and fans away the ever persistent
flies, 26 year old Mathan talks calmly about the fears he has
for his family’s future. “We lost everything to
the tsunami and when the fighting started we lost everything
all over again. My home is gone, my fishing boat and nets have
been stolen and now I have another mouth to feed.”
The temperature in Mahan’s makeshift hut is stifling.
The sun beats down relentlessly on the corrugated iron roof.
A ragged tarpaulin serving as a wall flaps idly in the wind.
Barely two months old, his daughter sleeps peacefully in her
wicker bed which hangs suspended by rope from the rafters of
the hut. Apart from the cradle there is little evidence that
the hut is inhabited by a family of four. A sleeping mat lies
rolled up in a corner and some clothes hang on a nylon line
strung across the hut.
Mathan’s village, Uriyankuddu, lies in the Vaharai region
of Sri Lanka’s north eastern district of Batticaloa. Vaharai
- a 15 km peninsula sandwiched between the sea and an inland
lagoon - is a former frontline area captured by government forces
in January after months of heavy fighting with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Like most of Vaharai - Uriyankuddu has suffered considerable
hardship. Most of the houses in the village were destroyed in
the 2004 tsunami. In September 2005 an escalation in the conflict
coupled with growing economic hardship led the German and Hong
Kong Red Cross Societies to support World Food Programme distributions
in the area. Volunteers of the Sri Lanka Red Cross organized
many of the distributions but access soon became difficult and
by January the area’s entire population had left. Families
from Uriyankaddu who returned to their homes in March found
many of the new houses that had been rebuilt after the tsunami
lying in ruins. Mahan’s former temporary shelter had taken
a direct hit from a shell. All that remains is a scorched cement
foundation.
It was only recently that the Red Cross has been able to get
regular access to the area. Across the road from Mathan’s
hut the foundations and half built walls of 58 houses built
by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies are visible in the encroaching jungle. One of the
houses is intended for Mahan’s family but work on the
site stopped last September when it became too dangerous for
the building contractors to reach the site. Plans are now in
place to resume work and complete the project by the end of
the year.
“The needs here are particularly acute”, explains
Paul Emes, deputy head of the International Federation in Sri
Lanka. “This community has not known stability since before
the tsunami and providing them with a permanent home is one
of our main priorities.”
Mathan’s neighbour – 48 year old Sothi Malar faces
difficulties of her own. She returned to find that her five
goats and all her chickens had been looted. Having lost her
husband to the war in 1997 she is largely supported by her son
and also receives a government ‘poor allowance’
which amounts to 120 Rupees (1.5 Swiss francs or US$1.20) each
month. Survival for Sothi Malar is a day to day affair. She
has borrowed money from neighbours and pawned her remaining
jewelry to get some cash. The exodus from Uriyankuddu was particularly
traumatic for her. “We spent three days trekking through
the jungle,” she said. “Sometimes we had to wade
up to our chests through lagoons and rivers to avoid the fighting
– four people from our village drowned."
The returnees are slowly rebuilding their lives. Some are living
in tents provided by the government while others have managed
to reconstruct the remains of their original tsunami shelters.
All are dependent on outside support. The International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) together with the British Red Cross
and volunteers from the Sri Lanka Red Cross recently conducted
an assessment of household economies in 16 villages in the Vaharai
area. “Most people returned to find that their homes and
livelihoods had been looted or destroyed,” explains Ben
Mountfield, country coordinator with the British Red Cross.
“There is no local market to speak of so there is an urgent
need to bridge the food gap for a few months until people can
re-establish their livelihoods.”
The assessment has led to a three month relief operation that
is targeting the entire returnee population of Vaharai –
about 14,500 people. Items such as cooking pots, hurricane lamps
and hygiene kits are already being distributed and in place
of direct food distributions, the British Red Cross is setting
up bank accounts for each household into which a monthly sum
will be paid that covers their food needs. At the same time
productive assets will be replaced so that livelihoods linked
to fishing, masonry, tailoring and livestock rearing can resume.
“The idea is to kick-start the local economy in a way
that doesn’t depress the local market,” explains
Mountfield. “After a few months we will start a more substantial
programme that strengthens and diversifies local livelihoods.
We will also be looking at rebuilding the divisional structures
of the Sri Lanka Red Cross.”
Since the fighting ceased, the Red Cross has also been able
to return to run the health post at Vaharai Hospital, the only
functioning health facility in the area. Five days a week Dr
D.A. Matthews of the Sri Lanka Red Cross travels up from Batticaloa
with his small team to conduct outpatient clinics at the hospital.
“We serve a catchment of about 10,000 people and on average
I see about 80 patients a day. We have plenty to keep us busy
here,” he explains.
Dr. Matthews has been with the Mobile Health Unit since January
2005 when the Italian Red Cross first established an emergency
health post at the hospital to treat casualties of the tsunami.
As well as supporting the hospital, the Italian Red Cross also
funds two mobile health teams which provide outreach medical
services to camps in Vaharai and Batticaloa that house internally
displaced people (IDPs) who have fled the conflict.
At the Savukadi IDP camp the mobile team from Batticaloa has
been hard at work for four hours and still the queue of patients
snakes outside the tent where the clinic has been set up. There
are 2,000 people living here and the weekly visit of the medical
team provides the only regular opportunity to receive medical
care. Despite the long queue the clinic is well organized. Once
each patient is registered they wait in line to see the doctor.
Those who need a prescription go to the pharmacist at the next
table while others might be referred to one of the volunteer
nurses for First Aid treatment.
According to Jeya, project coordinator with the Italian Red
Cross, conditions in the camps give rise to a number of common
health problems. “We treat a lot of cases of gastro-enteritis,
and communicable diseases associated with poor hygiene such
as skin disease and eye infections. The dust also causes respiratory
problems.”
For the Red Cross, the prevailing security situation in Batticaloa
has meant that some post tsunami recovery programmes have been
put on hold while the focus has shifted to meeting emergency
humanitarian needs. Even though the population of Vaharai has
returned, continued fighting in western areas of Batticaloa
district has meant that over 100,000 people still remain displaced
from their homes, either living with host families or in camps
such as Savukadi.
“In some areas of Vaharai we’re on track to resume
tsunami projects again,” explains Paul Emes, “in
other places the situation is more complicated particularly
where there are uncleared minefields and unexploded ordinance
which prevent us from working and which make life difficult
for returnees whose livelihoods depend on farming.”
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For
Sothi Malar and her granddaughter adapting to life back
in Uriyankuddu has been particularly difficult. Her husband
was killed in 1997, and with no breadwinner in the family,
Sothi has had to borrow money and sell her belongings
in order to survive. (p15829)
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“We
lost everything to the tsunami and when the fighting started
we lost everything all over again,” says Mathan.
Until he receives a new house from the Red Cross, home
for Mathan and his young family is a corrugated iron shed.
(p15826)
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Since
the fighting ceased, the Red Cross has also been able
to return to run the health post at Vaharai Hospital,
the only functioning health facility in the area. The
Italian and Sri lanka Red Cross Societies first established
the emergency health post at Vaharai Hospital in the immediate
wake of the tsunami. (p15831)
Dr. Matthews has been working in Vaharai since January
2005. “We serve a catchment of about 10,000 people
and on average I see about 80 patients a day. We have
plenty to keep us busy here,” he explains. (p15825) |
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Lanka Red Cross Society (SRLCS) volunteers form part of
the mobile unit, helping the pharmacist to dispense drugs
and providing First Aid. (p15827)
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| Most
of the medical problems treated by the Sri Lanka Red Cross
Society mobile units relate to the difficult living conditions
that intern displaced people (IDP's) face in the camps.
(p15828) |
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