Discussion with women whom family members disappeared 

Discussion carried out on present situation of women in Thumpalachchole whom family members disappeared during war. There was a media briefing in 24.01.2012 on the issues, but there was no any reaction from the authorities according to the family members.

Issues They Face at Present:

• No information on disappeared persons, family members including children are living under stress. They want to know whether the disappeared persons are living in somewhere or not.

• No proper way of livelihood, even day labor is scares.

• Some have started self employment activities but they cannot strengthen the family economy since there is no any proper market. The day income is about 100 to 150 LKR but expense over 300LKR per day. Most are borrowing money for the survival and whole the time they are in cycle of loan. 

• Children have no sufficient nutritious food, most of the time they are having one meal for a day and also children lack materials for the education purposes. 

• Due to security reasons, at night most families live together with neighbors.  

• Social discrimination of widows.

• They have to walk about half a mile for drinking water.

 Decisions taken:

• Meet again on 23^rd March, 2012 to discuss for strengthen the group.

• Prepare work plan for next quarter.

• Permanent day for meeting and discussion in every month.

• Take the participation of 13 widows live in village who are not yet in the group.

Participants:

12 members from disappeared person’s families in the village.

Mr. A.Jesudasan

Mrs. Lavina Hasanthi.

Mr. Shashikaran.

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Discussion on present Situation with war effected widows and providing dry ration for them in Mannar district.

Date- 23.02.2012

Venue- Cultural center in Mannar

Objective of the visit-

A meeting was organized with objective of understanding the existing situation about the widows in war effected villages and discuss about future process in five villages of Mannar district.

40 widows from Pesale, Madukare, Mullikulam, Thottaweli, and  Walkepttrankandal  villages were participated to the program.

Main finds-

• ·   Still they are living in temporally huts.

• ·   Any systematic process was not taken to resettle them properly especially in Mullikulam

• ·   They have been facing economic crisis. According to the received information most of them take only one meal per day.

• ·     Subsidies are provided by the Government consisting of dhal, rice, sugar and other essential goods monthly.  But it is not enough and even that subsidy is not provided properly.

• ·   Life of some old widows is totally depends on earnings of their children.

• ·   Due to lack of education facilities, children do not attend to school properly.

• ·  There are no any basic facilities especially lavatory facilities, so women have to face so 

                many difficulties.

Ongoing process and future program-·    

•  Widows have formed small groups with least five members. 

• Especially the widows who are in Pesale area have cleaned their lands to build houses and have taken some assistance from Nongovernmental organizations in the area,  to re build their family  life. 
• Mullikulam people have decided to discuss with religion  leaders and government officials in the area on resettling their own land. 
• The process is stated again  on  going to their own places in Mullikulam

 







Reported by Laveena Hasanthi 

Women’s Coordinator

 

 

 

 

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Isue of Disappeared

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Media conference

Media conference on women whose husbands

have been disappeared

The women section in National Fisheries Solidarity Movement is conducting various programs on women issues especially women whose husbands have been disappeared due to the civil war in the North and East in Sri Lanka. NAFSO focuses on their programs to identify and highlight the real situation about the women who are being in the village level.

NAFSO is intervening for the women through main two ways. One of them is to provide knowledge them by training for ensuring their rights. On the other hand, NAFSO organizes many programs to assist women for developing their lives condition.
So, NAFSO organized a media conference to bring out the issues of specially women group who are living Thumpalachcholie in Beticaloa district on 24. 01.2012 at the center of corporative society in Beticaloa. There were 12 women whose husbands as well as their family members have been disappeared in the post war situation. The special fact is that they were disappeared after the war situation within 2008 and 2009 years. The women have inquired about their family members from Grama sevaka, Divisional secretary, police as well as non government organizations but they were unable to get any information about them. As a result of losing their breadwinners the women are living without any security and economic strength. They have to face many social, economic and cultural problems.
There were about nine media representatives consisting of electronic and print Medias in the conference.
The main expectation of the media conference was to reveal their expectations on their family members who were gone missing Media conference on women whose husbands have been disappeared
The women section in National Fisheries Solidarity Movement is conducting various programs on women issues especially women whose husbands have been disappeared due to the civil war in the North and East in Sri Lanka. NAFSO focuses on their programs to identify and highlight the real situation about the women who are being in the village level.
NAFSO is intervening for the women through main two ways. One of them is to provide knowledge them by training for ensuring their rights. On the other hand, NAFSO organizes many programs to assist women for developing their lives condition.
So, NAFSO organized a media conference to bring out the issues of specially women group who are living Thumpalachcholie in Beticaloa district on 24. 01.2012 at the center of corporative society in Beticaloa. There were 12 women whose husbands as well as their family members have been disappeared in the post war situation. The special fact is that they were disappeared after the war situation within 2008 and 2009 years. The women have inquired about their family members from Grama sevaka, Divisional secretary, police as well as non government organizations but they were unable to get any information about them. As a result of losing their breadwinners the women are living without any security and economic strength. They have to face many social, economic and cultural problems.
There were about nine media representatives consisting of electronic and print Medias in the conference.
The main expectation of the media conference was to reveal their expectations on their family members who were gone missing during and after the war, and highlight these issues in the society to build up the discussion on it.

Our husbands and other Family members are alive or not? If they are among livings, where are they? Women are asking by the government.

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Life sharing program between widows and southern groups in Jaffna

A program on “The dialog between Northern people and Southern people for freedom to nations and resettlement to displaced people ” which was pointed out the existing situation of displaced women headed families in Jaffna was conducted by the women section with the collaboration of people to people dialog on sustainable development program of National Fisheries Solidarity Movement in the agrarian collage of Marudanamadam jaffna on 11 of December 2011. The main objective of this program was to build up an united process for getting some action to solve this problem as southern civilians providing exact understanding for southern people such as civil organizations and other representatives who came from different areas in South on displaced widows due to the last war and other displaced people since 1990. About 45 widows in the North , some representatives from district fisheries solidarity in Jaffna, some civil organization’s representatives of Jaffna and some representatives from National Fisheries Solidarity Movement were participated to the program. The NAFSO group consisted of some civil organization’s members in south, some representatives in state sector and other members from various areas in south. Some problems which the displaced widows face such as social, economic, cultural and political problems were discussed and selected the committee to carry on the process furthermore in this program. Some especial presents were provided for all participants who came from Jaffna and the packs of dry ration also were provided for the widows on the women program in NAFSO at the end of the program. Not only that but also there was an especial lunch for all participants arranged on their own cultural method. At the same time, there was a program for the children. That was focused on building up the children’s mentality. Most hidden tenant of the children was able to come out through that program. Then, some children showed their colors on the stage. Finally, some school instruments were also provided to the children. Note- Full report on this program will be provided future.

Reported by Lavina Hasanthi & Anthony Jesudasan

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The meeting with widows on standard of resettlement and analyze the existing 

situation of them

Place- Fisheries cooperation’s community hall in Punakari

Participants- 30

Covered areas- Nachikuda, Pallikuda, Irenamathanagar, Kiranchi, Valepadu

Basic information of five villages 

The village	The date of came back to the village after the war	Number of family members before the last war	Number of existing people
Nachikuda	2009.09. 07	360	650(Came back Muslim people displaced in 1990)
Pallikuda		450	219(Rest of people have gone to Jaffna)
Irenamathanagar		289	320( Muslim people came back to resettle)
Kiranchi		507	430
Walepadu		247	257

 Information about widows 

Name of village	Number of widows due to the last war	Other reasons	Total widows
Nachikuda	15		75
Pallikuda	40		67
Irenamathanagar	32		53
Kiranchi	-		-
Valepadu	27		40

 The situation of resettlement conducted by the Government

1.      People were able to settle in their own lands

2.      12 sheets and 06 poles were provided by IMO for the people

3.      43 houses in Irenamatahanagar  and 30 houses in Valepadu have been built b by the organization of CARITAS

4.      Most of other families live in temporally houses

5.      Toilet and water facilities are not supplied for above people

6.      Although the government provided dry ration for 6 months  it does not extant  furthermore

7.      120 small boats were provided for fishermen by the government but total requirement is 2300

8.      The government did not yet stabilize proper plane to build up income generation ways for the people. Most of them works as labours and carpenters in many places.

9.      Some sewn machines were provided for widows by one of the organizations but the widows were not given a training or any knowledge about the marketing system.

The major problems-

1.      Some people who are coming from Gurunagar and Mannar use destruction fishing gears especially Trolling method.

2.      Lack of basic facilities (Toilets and water facilities)

3.      Insecurity of widows

4.      Fear of the people due to the grease devil

5.      The government has no any proper plan to provide basic facilities for the people

According to the community leaders, they thought that it is better to be in the camp than being without any rights. People have no ability to express their point of view in existing  political context and people are being with fear. Therefore most of people have to live hiding their sorrow.

Future plans-

1.      To  select the 40 widows for providing dry ration

2.      To arrange an awareness program on Food Sovereignty and provide dry ration on 5 th of October.

3.      To arrange an expose visit in Kilinochchi between Northern and Southern people

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Dry ration for widows in Velikakandi

Packets of Dry ration were distributed for widows in Velikakandi on 2011.09.08

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