May minds be cleared soon

(Written in mid 2010, this column is an account of personal experience of mine of that time.)

 

By Renton de Alwis

Reportedly, around 400,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are located away from their homes. Over 80% of them are housed in large temporary facilities at several Camps in Mannar, Batticaloa and Vavniya. At different times, similar facilities also operated at different locations to meet immediate transitional needs. This was a need at times, when the LTTE terrorists forcibly sent away Sinhalese and Muslim villagers living in areas controlled by them.

To meet the needs of the mass exodus of people who were caught up in areas where the final battles took place, the single largest facility was set up at the Menik Farm Complex at Chettikulum in the Vavniya District. Here a reported 261,000 live in Four Transitional Villages named after well known leaders of the Tamil community; i.e. M/s Kadirgarmar, Ramanathan, Arunachalam and Cumaraswamy. According to sources, four more such camps are being set up to ease the current discomfort in having more occupants in each of the tents than its specified capacity.

Questions are asked by many as to why the displaced are not allowed by the authorities to get back to their respective villages. Issues are many; the land mines laid by the terrorists need to be cleared for farmers to return to their farm lands. Even the surrounds of irrigation tanks, we were told, is laid with mines that can be fatal for children and adults alike. In the minimum, basic infrastructure need be set up in areas cleared of mines. Security issues need be sorted out and rehabilitation of tortured minds needs to be done.

It is indeed a sad reality that we have had to face such an unfortunate situation, similar to the devastating Tsunami, where several hundreds of thousands have been made homeless and destitute. Unlike the Tsunami, this is a devastation we have brought upon ourselves, as result of the conflict that raged within our country for nearly three decades. It is also a reality that it is a huge responsibility and a moral obligation, we as the Sri Lankan nation have to face and overcome with a deep sense of responsibility.

While these thoughts linger in our minds, I was able last week to witness a saga of different sort. Within the barbed wired perimeters of Menik Farm IDSL Camp’s Zone 3 or the Arunachalam Transitional Village, I witnessed first hand as a volunteer visitor myself, how a group of young Sinhalese doctors from Colombo, with the support of a few volunteers from the Rotary Club of Capitol City, were conducting participatory counselling clinics to identify the needs of over 4,000 IDSL’s under their charge. My column today attempts to capture the spirit and the care they shared with those in need, in a most humble manner.

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 recognise and own both the problem and the solution. He had realised that this was critical if we were to have lasting peace within our country, with conflict and terror never, ever raising its ugly head again.   

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 has been established since April this year in a well planned manner. But with the sudden inflow of IDSL’s 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 Niladari appointed to each of the sections. 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 medicines at the several clinics held, they were able to win some level of confidence that gave them a way ahead to seek involvement of the people themselves 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 Niladahri, 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 prioritise the most urgent issues that need attention.

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’ (coconut thatched roofing) 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 maze, 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 organisations 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 (Hindu Temple) 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 himself) 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 & 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 the safety, security and the well being of all sons and daughters of Mother Sri Lanka.