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Organized self-help lifts Vanni villages[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 00:11 GMT]"Under 'Village Upliftment Project' economically worst hit villages in Vanni are identified and efforts are channelled to improve social and economic well-being of the residents through self-help. Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), local NGOs and Tamil expatriates are also financially helping us to carryout this project," Administrative Head, Anbarasan, told TamilNet during a recent visit to the interior villages of the Vanni.
Village residents select lead persons to head subcommittees for Education, Economic Development, Health, Village Affairs, Women's Affairs, Arts/Culture and Sports. The subcommittees are tasked to identify areas for improvement, plan for self-help projects and to solicit financial help from NGOs or TRO, Anabarasan said. Both parents in many families living in these impoverished villages work as day laborers and spend most of the day away from their home. A work day usually involves one or two mile walk early in the morning to the work place or to obtain transport, followed by 8 to 10 hours of manual work and return home late night.
The Upliftment project officers' first priority was to arrange help to look after the pre-school children in village community centers during the day and to offer a safe place for the school going children to study at night until their parents return. Volunteer teachers working with minimum compensation have already made significant inroads into improving welfare of these children, according to Mr.Sunderamoorthy, Director of TECH (The Economic Consultancy House -- a local NGO). Mr. Sunderamoorthy pointed out that a recent project funded by US expatriates has enabled the Village Upliftment Project officers to install Solar Home Systems (SHSs) to all of the community centers in these villages. This has allowed children to study in well-lit areas without worrying about the cost of keeping kerosine based lanterns, he said.
Ilankopuram village in Visvamadu, Mullaithivu district, is a disadvantaged village whose residents are mainly hill country Tamils of Indian origin displaced in 1973 . In 1973 the SLFP government under President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s mother, Mrs. Srimao Bandaranaike, deployed army, Police and gangs of Sinhala thugs to drive thousands of Tamils overnight from their estates in the hill country. Some of the main Sinhala gangs attacked the impoverished Tamil resident labour families were led by President Kumaratuna’s brother Mr. Anura Bandaranaike. A lone estate worker, Sivanu Latchmanan, who tried to organise a resistance to the forced and often violent evictions, was shot dead. The acquiescence of the corrupt and nepotistic Ceylon Workers’ Congress was bought by the SLFP regime before it began the onslaught on the Tamils of the hill country. The evicted Tamils were driven to destitution, begging in the streets of hill country towns such as Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Hatton. Many children and old men and women died of starvation on the roadside. Others went north in search of succour. Some were helped by Tamil social service organisations to settle in the Vanni. War and resulting destruction have made the lives even harder for these residents. In Siruvar Poonga ('Children's Garden'), Ilankopuram, teachers organized as part of the Village Upliftment Project and funded by TRO, look after nearly 140 children aged between 1-5 years.
Many of the landless families in Navatkadu are second or third generation hill country tamils uprooted from their central provincial towns in the 70s. "Local villagers were initially hostile to the new refugee families often preventing new families from obtaining water from irrigation channels feeding the village fields," Anbarasan said.
Sooripuram and Poothanvayal are two other villages in Mulliyavallai that are included in the Village Upliftment Project. Poothanvayal has a new Common Hall built using financial aid from FORUT. Villagers benefit from regular visits from mobile health care clinic such as those run by the International Committer of Red Cross (ICRC). Kumaran, who is the local Project Officer in charge of Sooripuram, said that village children attend two schools within a mile distance in Vattapalai. In addition, the Village Upliftment Project has organized a pre-school in Sooripuram where teacher, Maheswaran Subashini, attends to the needs of the children.
In close proximity to Vattrapalai Amman Temple, there is Ootangarai Pillaiyar temple. Both temples provide focal points for religious activities for village residents in Mullaithivu district and surrounding villages. There is a prevailing myth among villagers that the injury to the Ootangarai Pillaiyar's Ther (chariot) by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was the reason for the 28 July 1996 debacle at the Mullaithivu SLA camp where more than one thousand SLA soldiers perished when the camp was overrun by the LTTE.
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 Sunderamoorthy, Director TECH (a local NGO), Kumaran, Project Officer and Anbarasan, Head of Village Upliftment Project on a visit to inspect Navatkadu land clearing operation (Click for a larger picture))
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