TRO donates clothes to Aligambay resettlers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2003, 18:58 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) on Friday donated clothes to the resettled people in the village of Aligambay, in the Thirukovil secretariat division in the Ampara district, TRO officials said.

In 1990, during Sri Lanka Army operations, many people of Aligambay lost their lives and the surviving villagers--most of them aboriginal people (or ‘gypsies’)-- were forced to flee, and bereft of all their belongings, they sought refuge in refugee camps in Thirukovil, where they have lived for the past 13 years in wretched conditions--without food, clothing, sanitary facilities, access to health and education.

Neglected by the Sri Lankan government and aid agencies, they were reduced to living a nomadic life of begging even when they were in the refugee camps over a decade.

In the current conditions of relative peace following the Ceasefire agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, the villagers are resettling in Aligambay, and the TRO has contacted foreign organizations and taking steps to provide for the basic needs of the people. The donation of clothes is the first stage of such aid, TRO sources said.