Monday, November 16, 2015

Leaders of National Women Federation, lead by Lavena Hasanthi, the women coordinator of NAFSO met the leaders of SNEHA in Naga[attinam on 24th October. Jesurethinam Christy, the coordinator of Coastal Action Network lead the discussion and shared their valuable experiences of the struggle against the Nuclear Power Plant i Koodankulam which is one of the most hazardous projects in the coastal communities. This is one of the possible threats among others to the small scale fisher communities in Tamil Nadu and also in Northern SL too.

Jesurethinam shared in her presentation, "SNEHA supposed to be an organization fight for the rights of coastal communities and ensure their sustainable livelihoods. Nuclear power plants are not meant for the development of the poor and marginalized rather those are about to run with the cost of poor and marginalized communities wiping out them from their ancestral lands and coasts. We expect the communities will take this battle forward as they are the victims of the such development." Adding to what Jesurethinam shared, Laxamann Thamarajina, a woman leader representing Poonthalir women federation in Jaffna in the SL team shared, "We are also losing our original lands hence lose our customary rights and the GOSL is not pay genuine attention to release the captured and occupied lands by military and other development purposes. Our attempt as National Women Federation under the banner of NAFSO to fight to get back our land snd coastal areas. We fought 25 years and will continue further till we get the land.
 




 

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Sri Lankan women team with 07 women and a man attended a visit to meet their relatives, friends and counter parts in Tamil Nadu for a week long tour on  22nd of October 2015.
 The women group met their friends in Trichy and learnt how the women are surviving with limited resources and under priviledged conditions.


"I feel we are learning how under privileged women are progressing with the ARDES work for build up their lives. 


 





Wednesday, September 23, 2015

උතුරු නැඟෙනහිර පළාත්වල තවදුරටත් අවතැන් කඳවුරු නොමැති බවත්, යුද්ධයෙන් අවතැන් වූ සියලූ පවුල් නැවත පදිංචි කොට අවසන් බවත් හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ ආණ්ඩුව ප‍්‍රකාශ කොට තිබුණද යාපනයේ පමණක් තවමත් අවතැන් කඳවුරු 43ක් තිබෙන බව ජාතික ධීවර සහයෝගීතා සංවිධානය අනාවරණය කරයි.
එම කඳවුරුවල වෙසෙන ඇතැම් දරු පවුල් වසර විස්සක්, විසි පහක් වැනි දීර්ඝ කාලයක් ගෙවා ඇත්තේ එම කඳවුරු තුළ බවත් එවැනි පවුල්වල පරම්පරා තුනක සාමාජිකයන් තවදුරටත් කඳවුරුවලට කොටුවී ඇති බවත් එම සංවිධානය කියයි.
’‘අවතැන්වූ ජනතාවගේ හා ගෘහමූලික කාන්තා පවුල්වල ඉඩම් අයිතිය තහවුරු කරමු’’ මැයෙන් ඊයේ කොළඹදී පැවැති එම සංවිධානයේ සමුළුවකදී මේ තොරතුරු අනාවරණය කෙරිණි. යුද්ධය අවසන් වී වසර දහයකට ආසන්න කාලයක් ගතව තිබියදීත් තවදුරටත් අවතැන් කඳවුරු ජීවිත ගෙවන උතුරේ ජනතාව පිළිබඳ සිදුකළ අධ්‍යන වාර්තාවක් එළිදැක්වීම සඳහා එය සංවිධානය කොට තිබිණ. උතුරු නැෙ`ගනහිර දෙපළාතේ තවදුරටත් කඳවුරු ජීවිත ගෙවන පවුල්වල කාන්තාවන් විශාල පිරිසක් මේ අවස්ථාවට සහභාගි වූහ. ජාතික සමඟිය සහ සංහිඳියාව වෙනුවෙන් බලවත් උනන්දුවක් දක්වන නව රජයේ අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයාට සහ සමාජ සංවාද ඇමැතිවරයාටද මෙම අවස්ථාවට ආරාධනා කොට තිබුණද කාර්ය බහුල බැවින් සහභාගි වීමට නොහැකි බව ඔවුහු සංවිධායකයන්ට දන්වා තිබිණ.
P1040616~1 තවදුරටත් කඳවුරු ජීවිත ගෙවමින් සිටින පවුල්වල ගෘහ මූලික කාන්තාවන් මෙහිදී අදහස් දක්වමින් කියා සිටියේ කඳවුරු තුළ තමන්ට අවශ්‍ය මූලික අවශ්‍යතා පවා ඉටු කරගැනීමට එහි පහසුකම් නොමැති බවය. ජලය, සෞඛ්‍ය වැනි අවශ්‍යතාවන් පවා සපුරාගත නොහැකි බවත්, බාහිර සමාජය සම`ග සම්බන්ධකම් පැවැත්වීම වැනි සමාජීය අවශ්‍යතාවන්ටද ඉඩක් නොමැති බවත් ඔවුහු පැවසූහ. අවම තරමින් සිය ගැටළු පිළිබඳ බාහිර පාර්ශ්වයකට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට හෝ ඉඩක් නොමැති බැවින් දීර්ඝ කාලයක් තිස්සේ ඒ ප‍්‍රශ්න යටපත්ව ඇති බව පෙන්වා දුන් ඔවුහු එවැනි කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් කළ හොත් හමුදාවේ බුද්ධි අංශවලින් විවිධ පීඩාවන් එල්ල කෙරෙන බවත් පැවසූහ.
P1040619~1 එහෙත් තමන් වගකිව යුතු අංශවලින් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ සහනාධාර හෝ අලූතෙන් ඉඩම් නොව අක්කර කිහිපයක සින්නක්කර ඉඩම් අයිතියක් ඇති සිය මුල් ගම්බිම්වල නැවත පදිංචිවීමට අවස්ථාවක් බව කී ඔවුහු ඒ අවස්ථාව ලැබෙන්නේ නම් තමන්ගේ ප‍්‍රශ්න තමන්ටම විසඳාගත හැකි බව ප‍්‍රකාශ කළහ.

 


P1040623~1









P1040627~1













oday (07. Sep. 2015) National Fisheries Solidarity Movement conducted a successful round table discussion on IDPs and women headed families in North and East with about 250 participants from highly war affected 5 district of North and East (Mannar, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Baticaloa and Ampara) and 6 other districts from south including Mathara, Galle Kaluthara. 


With high militarization, people have no enough room even for their privacy in those confined camps. People who live in camps saying that they have no much respect from any of the government authority or even from the out side community as they living in camps. 
Women who have lost their husbands due to war are facing much harder situation in camps. Most of them have no livelihood for feed their families; some of children still go to school from the families who can afford for their education but most of the children from women headed families do not go to schools as they have no family income, some live with having one meal per day as no body look after them, for the government, they didn’t exists until few months back.  Only recently the new government accepted that still there are IDP caps in North and East with around 45000 people in those camps.   
     
Some of these people are holding land titles, some have lost their deeds during during the war time since they displaced time to time, one place to another, lands belongs to these people are acquired by the government in name of security and most lands are occupied by the militaries and some using for  and economic activities by the militaries in North. Several large scale, star grade hotels have build in HSZs. 

Now a new opportunity has emerged after the change in political arena of the country in 8th of January 2015 to find a sustainable solution on resettle the displaced people, develop the families who’s members were disappeared and people with disabilities due to war.
NAFSO invited to the Provincial ministers of North and East provinces, Ministries of Land and Land Reform, Women Affairs, and Resettlement-Reconstruction and Hindu Religious affairs and other relevant officers in civil services for the event. 
 
Several foreign diplomats from France Embassy, of Switzerland, Norwegian embassy were participated to the event while   Representative from the Ministry of National Dialogue, Representatives from Eastern Provincial counsel and additional secretary of Jaffna divisional secretariat was also present at the event. Several representative from SAAPE also attended to the event and given their active participation. 
 
 
Doing the videos and documentation will not enough, we have to practical things to solve these issues we discussing told one of participants from North, and a lady from Civil Organization sector told that when we invited to authorities some times they come and just showing their faces and leave soon, even before the discussion starts, she proposed that civil sector people should not allow such things to happen in the future During the audience had a chance to give their views and opinion on the matters we discussed,
“We had not exposed to this much of information on the people in North and East who are still suffering due to war, every body in the country should know these facts, as people from South we wish to give our hand to the fight to win their rights” told a women from Mathara district.  
Almost all these people asking for the land they belongs nothing else. They hope the new government will act according to people's will and help them to to get released their properties form the military.
NAFSOs convenor Mr. Herman Kumara present the content and background of the report and Mrs Lavina Hasanthi, Coordinator of NAFSOs Women desk clarify the objectives of the program and several representatives from subjective districts and from invites were preset their views and opinion to the audience before open the discussion for audience. 

This as first step, affected community members from Jaffna, Ampara, Mannar, Trincomalee and Baticaloa districts, States and political authorities, Civil activists and general public was sat together to develop a progressive dialogue and will have develop a sustainable program to resolve those issues as a nation who have common responsibility to build an equal ground to all people in the country. 
 
 















 
 

Monday, July 27, 2015

Women representatives from 5 districts of North and East of Sri Lanka met several foreign diplomats and explained the present situation of the their lives as women who have lost their bread winners during 3 decades of war in Sri Lanka.

North and East women together with women from 7 other districts have formed a women federation and working with common galls to establish fair and peaceful country.  For decades they have spend their lives as politically, socially, economically as well as culturally depressed human beings in this society.  


There were good number of representatives attended from 7 diplomatic missions to listen the issues, difficulties and efforts to sustain their lives, security, well being of their communities.
Women leaders from 5 districts in N/E raised their voice strongly claiming their land back, livelihood assistance and security of the women and girl children.

Ms. Kanthan Saraswathie, leader of Marumalrchchi women federation in Batticoloa district gave a firing speech at her presentation and said; "We expected some thing better than this when  we voted to present President. We can see some progress. But there should be speed up the process as handing over the land as decided by the Cabinet on 11 February 2015." 

This is what we agree and need more attention by the government.
Ms. Raajini, a WHF leader of Poonthalir Women Federation in Jaffna who has been displaced in 1990 and since then living in more than 5 places and still living in displaced said in her presentation; "I lost my father's land in KKS in my age of 20. After 25 years I am still displaced as military had occupied our land. Unfortunetely, Our land has not been used for military purposes as revealed and are using for tourism purposes instead. So this is unacceptable at all as while we are suffering in displacement our land used for commercial purposes."










Friday, July 24, 2015

A press briefing was conducted by the women federation to reveal the political, social and economical issues they are facing in North and east especially after ending of war.
Representatives from Mannar, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Baticaloa and Ampara were participated to the event and revealed the present issues they facing as women who lost their breadwinners of the family.

Among several issues they  facing commonly, land grabbing is the main issue almost all are speak about. Since they have lost their husbands, Sons who provided the economical strength and security to the family.
Militarisation of the areas they are living have created very disturbing situation specially for women.
Issues in educating of children who have no father any more and  further more drug addiction of youth is increasing in alarming rate in the areas they are came from.

Several media representatives participated to the press briefing which was conducted in Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) in Colombo -10.


  

Categories

EMPOWERING WOMEN FOR FUTURE

Powered by Blogger.

Recent Comments

Search This Blog

Puntaleer - Women Committee Jaffna District at 2015.01.19

Petition hand over by nafso to batticaloa ds office

Handing over a petition on the issues of IDPs and women headed families in Ampara

Popular Posts

Recent Posts

Text Widget