So should I be pissed off...?

...or accept it as simply one of those things that happens in a disaster relief situation, even though it really could - and should - have been avoided? Anyway, to fill you in...

Yesterday we had a visit to the YMCA from a representative of the government department TAP (Temporary Accommodation Program, I think...), set up by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister himself to oversee the numerous NGOs and their temporary shelter construction projects. And it seems he was none too impressed with the shelters being built by ADT, the small NGO I've been assisting, and so "discussions" are being had between ADT and TAP as to how to proceed - whether to continue with the current shelters with some amendments of some type, or else to scrap all that's been done so far and start from scratch!

Yep, from scratch, one of the possibilities mooted by the TAP representative, so much do ADT shelters not meet their brief and minimum requirements. So, that would be a whole lot of work done by myself, and a few other volunteers that have worked on the project, that would have all been for nowt.

Avoidable? Yep, I believe that indeed it was. For starters, the designs did not meet international relief standards in terms of size. I found this out a couple of weeks ago, when we had a brief discussion with some guys from GTZ, who are a German government organisation assisting the Sri Lankan government with the coordination of shelter construction. These specifications are available for anyone doing the most cursory search into the subject, and I would have thought essential for any NGO working in the area, even a new, small one. Now, that to me is a very fundamental - and very obvious - stuff-up that somebody should get their balls strung up for.

Secondly, the design and materials do not seem to me very unsuitable for the climate we're in. They have a tin roof, and a windowless dark coloured tarp wrapped around a metal frame, with only a small door opening. Hardly something that you would think of designing for a hot, humid country, no? Even allowing for a tin roof (due to costs, perhaps), and some form of soft wrap around wall (I have seen MSF shelters that have windows, a wider door and white walls), the addition of some form of simple roof insulation - low cost styrofoam for example, as someone from another NGO mentioned to me at some stage - would keep out the worst of the heat. Anyway, just some very fundamental design flaws it would seem.

Then there are also the concerns I've had since first assisting with the shelters with regards to the three public spaces allocated for the "camps", which in all honesty are as close or even closer to the ocean than the actual properties of the families who would supposedly be moving there. So, if you're a family to afraid to move back to your own property because of the vicinity to the ocean, are you going to want top move to an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp closer to the ocean. Well, duh!

The worst thing about all this is, of course, that we are three months down the track since the tsunami hit, and people are still living in tents, and in some cases (though not locally fortunately) sheltering in schools and churches. And in a month or so we have the start of the wet season...

The shelters ADT are constructing...





...are quite similar in design to those from MSF...



...which in some ways are not quite as good as those from LEADS and EHED...





...but then they don't take nearly so long to construct, which means construction of permanent housing can begin sooner. In theory...

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False alarm

Well, as I'm sure you're all well aware by now, the tsunami alert that flashed through our village (and across the whole of Sri Lanka from what was coming across the local airwaves) was in fact a false alarm. While that is of course a very fortunate thing - though not so fortunate for the thousand or so Indonesians who lost their lives in the initial earth quake measuring 8.7 on the richter scale, just .3 less than the December 26 eartyhquake that caused the tsunami - I do worry about the lack of information that was available for up to 3 hours after this most recent earthquake. Surely it should be known within that time whether a tsunami had resulted or not, and that information should be broadcast out to everyone in the various areas so as to avoid widespread panic that could in turn claim victims itself?

Instead, we got local radio stations and even international websites with no new information until hours after the initial earthquake, and local people understandably scared and in many cases running for high ground.

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Tsunami alert!

Woken from a VERY deep sleep (took them 20 minutes to wake me apparantly) by one of the other volunteers pounding on my door to tell me everyone was panicking due to another earthquake near Sumatra. Now busily trying to get the news online, by phone, and any other possible means, to see if there's actually a resultant tsunami. Online news still talking about the "possible" affects of the earthquake, though by this time I would have thought we'd know for sure, and that they would have confirmed either way. A bit like the weather at the moment, hedging their bets about the "possibility" of rain, rather than actually confirming either way.

Will post again when there's more news.

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Faces of Hindu

The main Hindu temple in town, though damaged by the tsunami, still has some amazing characters and colour within its structure. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity can all be found in Sri Lanka, and the mutual respect shown between the followers of all of the religions could perhaps act as a great example for other parts of the world.

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And so life returns to... normal??

Heard last night from Father John, the priest for the local Catholic church, that the LTT are pulling out of the 3-year cease fire between them and the government. Apparently in part due to the government being very slow with any deals or compromises, while in Jaffna the government forces are still occupying public buildings and private homes, leaving many local Tamils living in refugee camps, unable to return home. This has obviously worsened since the tsunami of course. The father also described how discrimination is still occurring in schools and other government bodies towards Tamils, but while the reaction of the LTT may in part be understandable, it is still a very unfortunate development.

The LTT itself has split up into two groups, one of which is siding with the government. The other side (the remaining “original” LTT) is the one withdrawing from the ceasefire, and though not strong enough to fight directly against the government forces due to the split, according to the father may go back to using guerrilla tactics targeting government facilities and personnel.

The additional worry is the LTT was renowned for using child soldiers – the UN has instigated action against them – and so Father John says that some of the local kids may have to go into hiding. A little worrying indeed…

But just to re-emphasise what I’ve read and heard a number of times, even during the 20-year civil war prior to the ceasefire, the fighting carefully and very deliberately avoided all foreign nationals and tourists, so I’m not feeling concerned for my own safety at all. However, for the kids and youth I’ve been working with it’s another story altogether…

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Kallar characters

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The corporate world of relief work

Just looked back over my previous musings, and noticed that they seem to have got a little bit less "exciting" than my earlier posts. I guess it's due to the fact that the work I'm doing now is more of the "long haul" kind, the type of work that does involve such exciting stuff as "government bureaucracy" and "meetings" and "project management". Damn, even relief work involves business-type principles!!

Anyway, apologies for the lack of action and excitement. I'll do my best to add some colour next time. For now though, I'm tired... and I have a meeting at 10.00am tomorrow morning!

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Reflections from a hammock

So, roughly half way through my time here, and I was lying back in the hammock in the YMCA courtyard tonight, nursing a cold beer after returning from dinner with the family of one of our local shelter foremen, and mulling over what I've seen and learnt over the past month and a half. And I do mean seen AND learnt, as everything I've seen since arriving in Sri Lanka has been a learning experience.

There was the initial impact of the heat and humidity of Colombo after flying in at 11.00pm, which hit you like a damp sponge as you walked out of the air conditioned airport. A different kind of humidity to Bangkok, perhaps due to its proximity to the sea, and the heat seemed to hang heavier in the night air than I recall from any previous location of my experience.

Then there was my first experience with Sri Lankan (or is it sub-continent?) disorganisation when the volunteer organisation that I had arranged to work with seemed to simply disappear from the radar. Even after all the different people and NGOs I have come into contact with, and who I have been conversing with over different relief areas, on both the east and west coasts, I have heard no mention of this organisation at all. They were certainly real enough when they sent me the letter confirming my placement with them that got me my 3 month visa, however their seemingly lackadaisical (or is it lazy?) attitude did mean a wasted few days in Colombo when I first arrived, right at the time when assistance of any kind was being sought in so many places around the country.

And then of course there was my first hand experience of an actual natural disaster area itself. Even arriving 6 weeks after the tsunami, at a time when so many NGOs and other volunteers had already done so much work to clean up the mess and address the immediate basic human needs, it was still plain to see just how much devastation had been caused. Whether it was looking across a whole neighbourhood of destroyed houses while still standing some 2 or 3 kilometres from the sea, or walking past the tents scattered amongst the wreckage, tents that were now home to families with grinning children who ran out to wave hello to the seemingly funny white man passing by, it was very clear just how much everyone's life had been completely and utterly changed forever.

Even putting aside the 5,000 or so deaths that occurred in the general area around the Kallar district (25,000 around Sri Lanka in total), those that survived face such a huge challenge simply to go on with their lives. Their world has been turned upside down, literally... their possessions have been lost or destroyed... in many cases their entire livelihoods have been wiped out. They do not - and perhaps never will - look to the sea quite the same way again. Their apprehension is palpable, and their fear totally understandable. Parents now demand that their children are home by dark. Many would cry out in horror if their child even considered going for a swim in the ocean.

But things do change, and time does make a difference. I probably should have noticed it first just from my ongoing interactions with the local kids while walking through the village. Their increasing boldness and willingness to engage in a little more conversation with the international volunteers than their earlier hesitant "Hello" and "What's your name?" of my initial few days; the wide-eyed and innocent smiles on the faces of the children that slowly and almost unknowingly crept across to their parent's faces, at least in some form or other. However it was brought to my conscious attention first by the Don, the children's sociology professor father of Joel, one of the American YMCA coordinators working in Colombo who came out to volunteer for a week, and then by Nigel, one of the "mad five" Northern Ireland volunteers who made such an impression over their week of volunteering. They both eluded to, in their differing ways, that the children were the ones helping to heal the community; that through their innocence and perhaps inherent ability to adapt they were the ones showing their parents how to "move on" with their lives, how to accept that change had occurred and that dwelling on their losses was of benefit to no one, least of all themselves. Sometimes, perhaps, behind the innocence of a child lies the road to salvation. Perhaps.

Of course, balancing this positive outlook on the psychological recovery of the local community is a warning by one of the Australian medical team who left a couple of weeks ago, that depression "lulls" come in three monthly cycles, and so we could expect to see some less positive behaviour as we moved through March. Time will tell, but considering the stories I was hearing from the fist few weeks after the tsunami, when on hearing about the possibility of another tsunami people who had lost everything were heading down to the beach to let "fate" claim them as well, then I can only think that time does seem to heal most wounds, however deep they may have cut.

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Kickin' it with the kids

Apart from our actual physical relief work, another very important part of our time here is interacting with the kids, whether that be informally as we walk through the village, or through various activities we implement.

Football in the park, with the football goals the volunteers have constructed for the kids...





Volleyball too...



...and perhaps a little cricket on the beach...



...though those from Israel may be a little less adept than the locals.





We seem to generate quite a crowd when one of the international volunteers heads down for a spot of evening sporting activity, which is a good thing. Not so great, though, is the seeming lack of enthusiasm for the local youth to organise and/or participate in things without the help of the volunteers. We go down a bit later every evening, hoping that they have started playing themselves and aren't just waiting for us to arrive before they start. I even held a meeting with one of the local "sporting clubs" (a group of kids and youth from 12 to early 20s, with one member nominated as "president" of the club), and asked them exactly what they wanted with regards to the sports they wanted to play during the week, arranging for one of their members to come and sign the equipment out from the YMCA...etc. We worked out a weekly calander of sporting activities, one which they chose, and yet still, if we do not show up it doesn't really seem to happen. As they say, you can lead a horse to water...

Anyway, am going to try to get the local YMCA youth volunteers involved, and see if they can keep the sports program running. They do have to prepare for life after the international volunteers...

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Funny how some things change...

...while others remain the same...

Have actually had a reasonably successful week of dealing with the local government bureaucracy with regards to the shelters. And believe me, being able to say that with any amount of substance is cause for a minor celebration in itself. After having the ADS (Assistant District Secretary) tell us 2 weeks ago to stop building all shelters, and then at the fortnightly shelter meeting between all the NGOs and the ADS a week ago finding out that another NGO had been given a list of families requiring shelters that had many of the same names that appeared on the lists we had been given, I decided it was time to sort the issue out, sans ADS.

So, contacting the 6 GS's (General Secretaries - there are 6 for the Periya Kallar District) and EHED, the other NGO providing shelters in our area, I arranged for a meeting with all of us in attendance to sort out once and for all who was doing what. I mean, seriously, how hard could it be? There are 817 affected families in the area. That means 817 families who have either totally lost their home, or who have homes that are partially damaged. Either way, they all require shelters, and there is plenty of work to keep two relatively small NGOs very busy.

Anyway, sat the attendees down in front of a white board, listed across the top the 6 GS areas, listed down the side the number of affected families, and then the NGOs who were providing the shelters (there are actually three - LEADS have already provided shelters for 42 families), and then got each of the NGOs to tell me the total numbers for each of their areas, EHED to tell me the total numbers for each area they had been allocated, and lo and behold... yeah, I'm guessing you can see the outcome. After at least 3 weeks, and around half a dozen (at least) changes to both allocated numbers and requirements, we had a final number we can work with. Hallelujah brother!! (Oops, that "C" out of YMCA is getting to me a little...) ;o)

So, Project Management 101 did come in handy after all. And it's actually something that has been glaringly lacking within the NGO we've been working with, ADT (Alliance Development Trust): basic project management principles. The project team leader is working very hard, and doing a great job, however with so much of the information kept in his head, and hardly any task tracking or reporting documentation of any kind, the old theory that any and all projects should be able to run irrespective of any individual is just thrown into the garbage. I try to offer as much help and advice as I can - creating task lists with deliverable dates that can be passed around; documenting decisions, responsibilities and milestones that arise from meetings such as the one mentioned previously; and "suggesting" that a general task and milestone notice board be kept so these dates aren't missed just because someone "forgets" them - however as they say, you can lead a horse to water but... With all the help I'm giving, I'm still simply an external volunteer offering assistance, rather than an official part of the team. Well, will have to make sure the situation isn't quite the same for my next NGO work... ;o)

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Well, 4 weeks down the track...

...and 2 months since the tsunami hit, and it's kind of an interesting feeling I have arriving back in Kallar from 5 days in Colombo. Overall, the relief & development senimar was not really worth the time taken to travel back to Colombo and attend. It really was about basic project management, about including the correct people when planning and implementing a project, about how to monitor and report on your relief (ie. project) work, with no specifically relevant info at all. Project Management 101 to be exact. The most valuable thing to come out of the three days was a list of resources and contacts for further info on relief and development resources and training, which may actually be relevant, but more on that later...

Anyway, as I said, back in Kallar now, and it was a little bit disappointing to find that a few things that I had left for people to do had not been done. We have a few volunteers here at the moment who are only here for a short time - a couple of weeks at most - which is a slight change from those who arrived straight after the tsunami and were here for a month, or even more for a couple of them. And with their shorter committment there seems to be a slight change in the amount of effort and ownership of projects. Maybe it's the "hey I'm in Sri Lanka for a while so I'll go and help out in the tsunami area", mostly to say that they've done it rather than any real desire to make a difference. Cynical bastard ain't I? I don't know, could be just a tired and frustrated comment after a really tiring train trip last night, but there are a few things that I had asked a couple of the guys to take ownership of that haven't been pursued - to do with the sanitation for the shelter camps amongst other things - and that I'll have to take over again and see them done after these guys leave on Wednesday, things which really only required a day or so's perseverance (sp?) and effort.

Politics, and self-interested NGOs

I ran across an English guy in Colombo I'd met in Kallar, who had passed through lookng for areas in which the NGO he had volunteered for could do some work. The NGO - Impact (or Impakt, not sure) Aid - was a real estate business in Colombo run by an American or Canadian (not sure, haven't got their history yet) couple until the tsunami hit, and then went into the relief business due to the overwhelming need. There's actually been a few NGO's that sprung up within Sri Lanka after the tsunami, some to more effect than others. From all reports Impact Aid has been one of the more effective newbies.

Anyway, after a number of beaurocratic dramas on the east coast trying to set up a couple of relief camps, and realising that the east had slowly been inundated with NGO's and money after the initial early delays with the focus on the south, he headed back to the west coast, and is currently working just an hour or so south of Colombo, near the town of Morotuwa, where apparantly no other NGO or government agencies have been working at all. This is apparantly due to the affected peoples being gypsy-type, previously living in a ramshackle area between the railway tracks and the ocean that was not "officially" recognised by the government. Hence thay are now being ignored. So while the rest of the country has had tents and water supplied, and are now moving into shelters both in camps and on their own land in some cases (no one can build within 200m of the shore now), these people are still living in schools, temples and similar such buildings.

And apparantly just a week ago a truckload of tents destined for the area had been "confiscated" by the government, officially because the period for distributing tents has now ended and we are in the shelter building phase. Easy to say if you have a home, and if you haven't been told that you must vacate the school you're living in within 2 weeks!

Another interesting though unfortunate aside to the work their doing over there... they apparantly had an Australian doctor volunteering for a while, who then went back to Aus and mentioned to somebody that the Red Cross were "bloody useless" and not addressing some basic and immediate needs in the area she had been in. This got passed on in some way or other to the Red Cross in Australia and then to Sri Lanka, who called up Pam, one of the directors of Impact, taking issue with the comment coming from one of her "employees". She pointed out that all those helping Impact were volunteers, and she had no control over anything any volunteer chose to say. The guy them asked here what Impact's view was, to which she replied that she would love if the Red Cross could help out in their area, that she had a list of all the camps they had created, and all the families within the camps. The Sri Lankan Red Cross caller's reply?

"I'm not interested in that, I am calling about the comment that was made."

Even her attempt to say, "let's move on from that", and let's look at how you could help these people, didn't change the guy's tact, he just wasn't interested. And then I also heard from one of the guys here about one of the Red Cross organisations I'd mentioned in a previous email, who caused all the dramas in Aragum Bay, taking some of the local hotel owners from Aragum Bay to court in Geneva for libel due to the comments they made because of all the crap that was caused. Damn, while I realise there will always be another side to these stories, still seems like a lot of crap being thrown around when more help could be offered instead...

Anyway, and overall, hence my "interesting" mood at the moment. Here in Kallar, we're approaching the end of the shelter construction period. Along with the shelters, the water and sanitation needs of the community are being met. After that, in practical terms, we move onto building longer term shelters on their own land, and then permanent housing (which is its own beaurocratic nightmare in itself, but that's another story). In less tangible terms we move into community and psycho-social development, working with members of the community on a number of social and health programs. However, as important as these areas are to the long term rebuilding and health of this community, I'm having some difficulty in aligning myself to stay during this period while there are other areas of the country that are still struggling for the basics in order to live, and a small NGO working in these areas that could use my help, passion and (limited) experience.

Apart from the different stages outlined above, there is also the fact that overall, us independant guys working out of the YMCA really are simply assisting the actual NGO and relief agencies. This was very important to the local community in the first few weeks, and even up to a week or so ago, when our physical labour plus chasing up of both local government as well as NGO contacts got things happening much faster than they otherwise would have in this small village. However now that the basic needs have been dealth with these NGOs now have the time and personnal on the ground to deal with the longer term work required.

On the other hand, Impact Aid are an NGO, albiet a small one, who have an entire population they need to deal with all themselves, without too much cooperation of even the local government. And I just LOVE harrassing the local officials to pull their fingers out and give approval for relief work to be done (trust me, EVERYTHING needs approval over here!).

Anyway, less an informative post this one than a sounding board... I have a few things to consider, and a few more things to find out, before deciding to stay in Kallar or head back to the west. Again, in it's own way staying in Kallar might be a little like staying home in the first place, the comfortable and "easy" solution. Maybe I need to break out once again from this little comfort zone I have in Kallar in order to do the most good.

Stay tuned for the next episode! So much has happened in the last few weeks, God knows what's going to eventuiate over the next few...

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