Service Civil International - Sri Lanka

In the aftermath of the tsunami, Pietro Galluccio, then member of the IEC, visited Sri Lanka in the company of Sergio Cipolla – the President of the Italian NGO – CISS. Discussions were held with the local leaders and it was agreed to construct a Vocational Training Centre for tsunami affected youth – with more emphasis on helping young women to find self employment. SCI was happy to introduce the aspect of Intercultural Integration into the project and finally the INTERCULTURAL PROFESSIONAL YOUTH TRAINING CENTRE was established in a temporary rented premise in September 2005 with plans to move into a permanent building within a period of one year. CISS – Italy negotiated funds for the permanent building, with the Italian Government and finally on the 17th of November 2006 the building was ceremoniously declared open by His Excellency the Italian Ambassador in Sri Lanka Dr. Pio Mariani. Other distinguished invitees were the Head of the Italian Co-operation and President of the CISS – Dr. Sergio Cipolla. Government officials, religious leaders, NGO representatives also graced the occasion in addition to a large number of local people.

This project has fulfilled a much felt need in the area. During the short period of one year three batches of youth numbering 321 have passed out from the centre and majority of them have found employment in the building industry where there is a big demand for trained workers. Training is conducted in the areas of Plumbing, Electrical Repairs, Aluminium Fabrication, Computer Skills, Sewing, Fabric Painting, Languages – English and Sinhala. Youth belonging to the two predominant communities in the area – Tamil and Muslim undergo training and a good opportunity has been provided for them to meet and understand one another. At the time of writing this report 184 youth are undergoing training at the centre. The Centre has employed a staff of 10 persons who are paid a monthly salary. Suitable accommodation for Long Term Volunteers has been felt and construction would be undertaken shortly.  Management of the Centre is being primarily handled by a locally elected Governing Board consisting of village leaders, religious dignitaries, Govt. officials and SCI – SL representatives. The functioning of the local board has not been very satisfactory and the need for capacity building has been felt. SCI has made it very clear, from the very outset,  that the final responsibility of managing the Centre would rest on the local leaders and that they should get ready to take over the project sooner than later. In the meantime the German Branch of the SCI has expressed their desire to establish a long term partnership for support and volunteer involvement in the project. This we welcome very much.

In the aftermath of the tsunami besides our Work Camp activity the Children’s Programme took pride of place. Children were a very much neglected lot and they were in a state of shock, frustration and dispair. The local pre-school which was badly damaged by the tsunami was fully reconstructed and re-furbished. The furniture was repaired and repainted. A children’s toy library was set up mainly with the toys that were received as donations from various sources including our foreign volunteers. New books were procured for the children’s library and two local volunteers were appointed to manage the library. After nearly six months of satisfactory functioning we negotiated with the local branch of the SARVODAYA organization who undertook to take over the pre-school project and run it efficiently. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Sarvodaya and the SCI and the pre-school project was formally handed over to the Sarvodaya for the continued functioning and further developing. SCI is closely monitoring the functioning of the pre-school and shall have the right to take it over if it does not function properly. This pre-school is situated in the predominantly Tamil populated area and the Muslim children are not able to attend this facility. In view of this plans are underway to construct a pre-school in the Muslim area also. A suitable land has been identified and funding has been received from an Italian NGO network referred to as COASIC (Coodinamento delle ONG e delle Associazioni di Solidarieta Internationazale della Campania) . Construction would begin soon and is expected to be completed within a time frame of six months. Once the Muslim pre-school is established regular exchanges between the Muslim and the Tamil children would be organized to promote intercultural understanding. The cost of this project is estimated to be in the region of 75,000 Euro.

In our special effort to promote peace and intercultural understanding we gave priority to repair places of religious worship as a first measure as the people really needed the solace of the gods in the aftermath of the great disaster. Much of our labour was spent on repairing the Kalmunai “Iyanar Kovil”. The unique feature of our activity was that our team comprised of volunteers belonging to all religions and races and a fair number of foreign representatives. Our work was very much appreciated by the local people. It has been the first time that a large number of Sinhala youth had volunteered in a predominant Tamil–Muslim area and more specially to repair their places of worship.

The establishment of the Intercultural Professional Youth Training Centre has been a great blessing for the SCI as far as our peace initiatives are concerned. We got the opportunity to involve a large number of youth belonging to all three communities in our regular work camp programmes. 106 youth belonging to the Muslim and Tamil communities, who were enrolled at our vocational training centre were given the opportunity to travel to Kandy and participate in 5 works – cum study camps along with sinhala youth from the central region. These youth had never been to this part of the country nor have they had the opportunity to interact closely with the sinhala community. The Tamil and Muslim youth were given the opportunity to stay with sinhala families for a few days and enjoy their hospitality and to understand their culture and habbits. SCI –SL will continue with this programme on a long term basis. With the opening of our new residential training centre in Kandy we have the necessary facilities to bring regular batches of Tamil and Muslim recruits, who join our vocational training centre in Kalmuna, to Kandy and give them an opportunity to interact with the sinhala youth.

The most commendable and encouraging aspect of our work was the response we received from volunteers, both local and foreign. They responded to our appeal in an unprecedented manner. We were able to muster the services of more than 1000 local volunteers, from all walks of life, to contribute their manual labour for periods ranging from one week to three months or more. 10 local volunteers have been engaged on a full time basis, for a nominal pocket money. The response from the International volunteers was also amazing so much so that we had to turn down several applicants. We had the services of 4 volunteers from the USA, 2 from UK, 7 from Italy, 6 from France, 5 from Belgium, 2 from Japan, 3 from Ireland, 2 from Canada, 5 from Catalonia and one from Netherlands.  Hanae Tsujimoto from Japan and Alexander Norvak from Germany served for one year each in Kalmunai under very difficult circumstances. They also helped with our fund raising efforts. Many of them are continuing to maintain contacts with us through regular mails. Barbara Scettri – the Italian SCI volunteer has been appointed by the CISS as their project manager. She has been a source of great strength to us in completing the difficult jobs that we undertook.