Help-O's work in Galle

Notes from a conversation with Somsook Boonyabancha after a visit Nov 4-5

Toilet building :  The Help-O NGO has a lot of enthusiasm.  One of the good projects they've undertaken has been to construct toilets in tsunami-hit areas.  Even before the tsunami, a lot of people living in these communities along the coast didn't have toilets.  In one of the communities, for example, Help-O has been supporting the construction of something like 20 toilets.  They are very nice, very clean and people are happy.   This is a good project, and they want to increase this toilet building movement.  They have a plan to build something like 200 toilets.  They always paint the toilets some shade of green, and call their toilet-building  process the "Green Movement."  When we were there, they organized a big ceremony to inaugurate some of their toilets, with children dancing and ribbon-cutting and lamp lighting!

Purchase of alternative land for resettlement : 

Help-O has proposed one project to the Joint Tsunami Fund to buy some land that has been developed by a real estate developer in Galle.  It was a very large plot that had already been subdivided into residential plots.  Help-O was able to negotiate to buy 8 or 10 plots for the relocation of some poor renters who had been living along the coast.  There were a few problems with this project though: 

   
the new land is far from the beach, about 5 kms inland
there seems to be government land around this area standing idle, so why should we have to purchase private land? 

And thirdly, if this is the solution, to buy commercial land for resettlement, why not just ask the government?  The government will be very happy to provide the budget to relocate people further away like this!  This is exactly what the government wants:  to relocate people far away from the beach!  So I wonder if this is a very good policy to move people away from the sea, and then pay for both their land and their new houses?  What kind of model is this showing?

It is crucial to deal with land issue, because we keep putting a lot of questions on their idea to purchase this far-inland land for resettlement of poor renter households from coastal communities.  That discussion will continue.  In one sense, we can understand what they are trying to do:  all of us feel sad when we see the situation of these affected people, still living in tents almost a year after the disaster, with nowhere to live.  We spoke with some of the families who are supposed to move to this new land - it's quite bad, two or three families sharing one tent, it's not healthy at all. 

So probably Help-O is thinking just do anything to solve this problem, even if the solution isn't very sound.  We went to see the new land, which is on the mountains, about 3-4 kms inland.  The air is very fresh there, everything is very green, but for fishermen, it is a long way to the beach!  Are people willing to go?

Yes, the people are willing to move inland, away from the sea.  They say, yes we will wake up early every morning and go down to the sea!  I've been involved with these land and housing projects for 30 years now, and when landless people who face eviction are offered some land which is green and fresh, even though it may be far away, everybody wants to jump to it.  Yes, yes, surely we can move there, no problem!  But after they have gone there, in many cases, they find that this new location is not going with their life.  They can't survive in that new place.  I've seen this happen again and again - too many times to count - where people end up selling the land and moving back, regardless of the risks.       

I explained the problems I feel about this proposal to purchase this land, and my uncertainty about what kind of message we are showing to others with this project.  If this project is going to show something different, then fine.  For instance, if everything is collective.  But if the project is not going to show anything different but the standard welfare approach, where the people get land and house, then I doubt whether this is a good solution.

Meeting with groups linking together through the new Joint Tsunami Fund :
- notes from conversation with Somsook Boonyabancha - ACHR

In the afternoon of the first day, we had a meeting with the groups we are trying to pull to work together, including :

• Sevanatha
• Help-O
• East-coast fisherfolk group
• Women's Bank
• UN
• National Housing Authority people.

All these people sat together in the meeting and shared information about who is doing what, and what they would like to do next - very simple reports.  This group has regular meetings now - monthly or even sometimes weekly.  This is quite important to bring the different groups together to meet and talk.  More-less they have patience to listen to each other!  And they are also able to agree about projects that the various groups would like to do, using support from the joint fund.  The decision-making about all projects supported by the fund is communal. 

One of the very good thinks about this linking process is that in some areas, these groups are starting to help each other.  For example, the Women's Bank is helping Help-O (which operates along the lines of a conventional NGO) by helping to set up savings groups in areas where Help-O is active in Galle.         

More on our visit with the Women's Bank here