update November 2005

Update from ACHR visit

A lot of interesting stuff going on with the Women's Bank.  WB seems to be the more enthusiastic group.  Now they have about 150 women leaders going to different places all over the country to start new branches.  This is to get the tsunami-affected families to link together into a group, to start saving together, and then they pass some external money to the new group.  So these new groups have both the money from their own savings, plus this extra "seed money" from WB to start their income generation and housing loans.  I think this is one of the best projects.

They keep emphasizing that development should come from people, and people themselves should start, link together.  The language they use to describe this process is mostly the language of loans and money, so it might be difficult for outsiders to understand how powerful the process is, as a mechanism to bring people together and get them to take charge of their own rehabilitation. 

Housing reconstruction :  I think so far, amongst our friends, the greatest amount of housing reconstruction has been done by Women's Bank. 

They are working now in 117 tsunami-hit villages, in about 11 districts, with about 4,000 new members in 20 new branches in tsunami areas. 
That's not small at all. SO it's spreading into a big scale. 

Big WB meeting in Galle :  When we went to Galle on the second day, where the Women's Bank organized a big meeting, where about 300-400 affected people gathered - they completely filled a big room, a sea of faces sitting on the floor!  This is clearly a process where you get people first - a big number of them - and you have such meetings every week, every month.  In the meeting, we asked how many people still have problems with housing (everyone in the room raised their hands!), and we asked how many people still have problems with income (again, everyone raised both hands!).  So it is still a very big challenge over there.  But the point is that if you have a big number of people like this, and if you make room for them to sit together and discuss with each other about the key issues, this is immensely powerful.                       

The Women's Bank is also able to link with many other groups, especially to organize affected communities through their savings group system.  They are working closely with Help-O, Sevanatha, and other groups. 

Women's Bank   Relief Activities

For a day or two after Tsunami, calls and emails were not very easy from Japan with the Women's Bank (WB) of Sri Lanka. But I found the core members of WB survived and they started relief operations immediately after the disaster. The quickest way for me to do at that moment was to request them to withdraw my small deposit with a WB branch for their use. It was used for purchasing medicines and hiring vehicles to transport. But I was able to visit Sri Lanka in person only for the ACHR meeting on 12-13 March and my extended stay for 14-15 March with WB. My brief, limited observations as of mid March, and some follow-up information as of end April, follow.

Soon after the Tsunami, WB examined the situations of its members and their families all over the Island. Out of around 30,000 WB members and associate members, 189 families were directly or indirectly affected (death, lost houses, lost jobs). They spread in five districts (Colombo, Gampaha, Moratuwa, Kaluthara, and Hambanthota). I interviewed a woman in a shanty area near Kelani river, Gampaha; her Tamil husband was found dead under a bridge downstream two days after the Tsunami. She intends to come back to WB group.

In fact, WB had established a Disaster Management Committee a year ago, having one representative from each branch to study every month about disaster preparedness. But it was not so active. Facing the post-Tsunami situations, the committee was revitalized, and instrumental in relief activities to its members as well as other affected people in coastal areas, after the WB core leaders quickly reviewing the situations of camps and devastated areas. For example, there were members who used be vending sweets and food items in their shed shops along the street in Hambanthota. Due to road disruption, transport was totally stopped and they had no way of continuing vending. WB considered them also Tsunami victims (though the government did not so recognize) and supplied foods and clothes. WB relief donations were the only thing they got so far for their survival.

For Tsunami victims in general, personal donations of WB members were collected, and new clothes, medicines, dried foods, school books and kitchen utensils have been distributed. In so doing, WB worked with Green Movement (Haritha Vyaparaya) very closely as a sister organization. WB had established, as part of their community welfare and safety-net programmes, three health clinics of their own in Moratuwa. Medicines were transported from Colombo to these places and other remote areas. WB mobilized 2,000 members to join shramadana (working together through labour contribution) with Green Movement, for clearing debris, cleaning land and help rebuilding houses from scraps in coastal areas of Moratuwa and Kaluthara in the west and Batticaloa and Ampara in the east. New clothes supplied by Green Movement were voluntarily sewn by WB members. Establishing an orphanage for children who lost parents in Gampaha is being discussed by the Gampaha branch, and a WB member has offered her land for this purpose at a very low price.

WB made several decisions to assist Tsunami-affected people to recover their livelihood. First is an accelerated group approach to apply to Tsunami victims.

-Ease WB rule (normally requiring eight-month probation period before formal membership) and grant membership to new associate members, but community mobilization process should be carefully intensified;

-Admit new women with special difficulties into an existing group, if Executive Committee approves;

-Accelerate normal loan stages, so that new members may not have to wait for normal stages before obtaining housing and income generation loans (15-25 thousand Rupees).

For example, in Tsunami-hit Moratuwa, a new group was already given a loan in March for its member to buy new land. It was made possible by incorporating new groups into a Colombo-based experienced branch and extending management training and advice through weekly visits by a branch leader from the latter.

In this manner, even in such severely affected areas as Hambanthota, Mathara, Galle and Ampara, as well as within evacuation camps in Colombo North, new groups and provisional branches are rapidly organized. In Manner District in the north, 40 groups have been established in two government-controlled settlements and two other settlements in LTTE-controlled area.

Another important decision applicable to Tsunami-affected members is a special loan scheme.

-Provide loans at reduced rate of interest (1% per month) for any purpose, but particularly for housing and income generation;

-Grant 3-month grace period; this could be applied in combination with an interest free facility;

-Balance of loans issued to members before Tsunami is added to new loans with 1% interest, and the grace period is extended for three months after the new loan issuance.

WB also made the following decisions after the disaster.

-Watch carefully the government land policy and safeguard the tenure rights of the victimized people;

-Push the administration and political authorities for quick remedies to bring the people to normal life, and coordinate their activities.

I observed that WB has already initiated negotiations, for example, with National Development Bank and Social Service Department for housing projects in Moratuwa, Galle and Kaluthara, and for boat repairing yards in Moratuwa and Kaluthara.

Hence it is noted that a system exists and functions to deliver relief and reconstruction work. External assistance, when it arrives, can be channeled effectively through the existing, and expanded, mechanism. So far, there have been several external supports from this part of the region including the following that are channeled to this mechanism:

SELAVIP fund

On 28 December I coordinated with Mr. Nandasiri Gamage of WB, and conveyed to Fr. Anzorena that WB was confident in operating a re-housing project on a loan basis. SELAVIP approved its funding support as early as 5 January to establish an emergency housing fund for reconstruction and provision of houses to poor families who have totally or partially lost their homes. The committed fund of US$60,000 arrived in Sri Lanka on 11 March, and WB arranged a matching fund of 1 million Rupees to establish the special revolving fund (totaling to 7 million Rupees) for affected members applying the above-mentioned special loan scheme. According to their plan, 70% of the new fund was immediately released to victimized members in 5 districts for housing (3.7 million Rupees for 161 families) and income generation (1.2 million Rupees for 104 families) as the first batch.

The WB Executive Committee assigned four leaders from four established branches to regularly visit new groups in the affected areas, support them and monitor the fund. After carefully reviewing the first batch, the second release was made in April and the third batch will be issued in May to the rest of the victims. Since more affected families are joining WB as new members under the accelerated scheme, the increasing number of victims will be covered by the self-revolving fund, with due consideration of hardest-hit people being adequately covered including those in north-eastern coastal areas.

I visited groups in Kaluthara where people live in tents near the coast and suffer from hygienic problems. WB leaders encouraged them to discuss with municipal and political authorities for land and to build common toilets from debris; the SELAVIP fund could be used for cement bags and stools. Five places have been identified for twin toilets.

Some families need income-generation loans to reestablish their livelihood before housing. Use of such loans is to obtain the means of their livelihood that were lost: tool kits for carpentry, raw materials for handicrafts, bicycles and weighing scale for fish selling, a camera for a photographer, etc. These requests have been processed, loans have been accordingly issued from the SELAVIP-supported special fund, and income-generation activities have began.

The special fund is also being used for new community mobilization efforts in hard-hit coastal areas. In Hambanthota District, a provisional branch was newly established in late April, and its leaders already go to nearby villages for mobilization activities. Green movement has identified a land to build houses for 31 Tsunami-victimized families in the same area, hence WB agreed to assist in social mobilization and promotion of new WB branches there. WB and Green Movement also work together in Sangamam Graman village of Kalmune, Ampara District in the east, for house construction and group formation for 80 families.

ACHR-Japan and ACHR-Korea

During January and February, ACHR-Japan raised relief funds among its members and citizens, organizing seminars and communicating through e-mails. The contributions amounting to 948,080 Yen ($8600) sent to WB has been kept under the name of Sahayogitha (friendship) Aramudala (fund). The fund-raising proposal was translated and conveyed to Korea. Fr Park Mun-Su felt that it would be an opportunity for ACHR-Korea to re-establish its long-term links with groups in Asia. Korean citizens collected voluntary contributions and sent directly to WB joining the friendship fund.

ACHR-Japan wished the fund be used for whatever purposes WB felt urgent and necessary. WB decided to establish a boat-building team as a cooperative society, named Community Action & Technical Assistance Marine Association (CATAMARAN), maintaining three repair yards along the west coast. The initial fund was used for purchasing tool kits, moulds and raw materials for boat building/repairing.

I visited one of the yards in Kaluthara where the husband of an affected WB member, together with his relatives, also affected, were already working to build small fiberglass fishing boats. He was given by WB a new tool kit, as he lost all his belongings, and a small capital to procure raw materials. Once he completes one, the boat can be purchased by National Development Bank (NDB) for free distribution to an affected fisherman; the CATAMARAN will send the bills to NDB (raw materials, labour charge, 20% profit margin). Using this refunded money, the CATAMARAN will purchase raw materials for another boat to repair/build. In this manner, WB investment in boat repairing will revolve, and it is expected in a few years, the initial fund will also be recovered by WB.

I also visited a coastal land in Moratuwa which WB had been negotiating for a repair yard. A Minister already approved and the land will be soon granted to WB. Using the friendship fund, another yard of CATAMARAN will be open soon on the land. Demand for fishing boats is huge. Another team is being formed in Colombo North for boat repairing work. WB is planning to organize a group of youth (WB members' children), provide them with carpentry tools, encourage them to start carpentry business, and also join boat building work in the yards. CATAMARAN will extend support to such new groups in moulds on a recovery basis, in technical assistance, in capital fund, in identifying accessible lands, and in management skills.

Nihon Fukushi University students

Several students initiated a campaign to raise funds in the university campus. A part of the fund was transferred to WB, as they wish to study and learn how reconstruction activities are carried out in a sustainable manner using micro-credit funds as a leverage. The WB leader group identified an affected associate member, Ms. X, in Gampaha, as a beneficiary of the students' credit fund though she is not specifically told of the original funding source.

When Tsunami hit their shanty, Ms. X was with her grandson at a Hindu temple nearby. She was hurried to return to her house and find water flowing over the bridge washing away her house. She evacuated in a church, then moved to her sister's in Colombo. After two weeks, she came back to her community where WB distributed food items and new cloths, as well as school books to all children including her grandson. She was given a full membership of WB immediately and applied for a housing loan of Rs 25000. She sells joss sticks at the Hindu temple gate. In late March, she received the loan and started reconstruction.

Updates from our friends in
Sri Lanka HERE