Indian Ocean tsunami: Three years on

Three years on, the effects of the Tsunami are widespread. ActionAid is committed to long term and sustainable help for those in need, particularly women, children, the elderly and handicapped. This is possible due to partnerships with more than 60 local organisations and hundreds of community groups.

The young Muslim women of Iqbal Nagar, in North East Trincomalee district in Sri Lanka, are hemmed in by cultural curbs on higher education and employment, but a project to equip them with income-generating tailoring skills has found favour with strict community elders.

Nine women in this community were selected under a livelihood initiative carried out by local organization Women and Child Care Organization (WACCO) in partnership with ActionAid to train them in sewing garments and painting on fabric so that they could work within their own neighbourhood.

"I was very keen to become a school teacher," said M. I. Rifaya whose ambition was thwarted by the reluctance of her family to allow her to continue studying. There were few alternatives the teenager could then pursue.

"In our community, marriage comes next," she said while her companions nodded vigorously. But Rifaya sees the potential in staying on with the project and is now eager to develop her dressmaking expertise so that she can continue even after she marries.

Among the features of a successful small enterprise are its ability to respond to market changes and diversify products, said Madhavi Ariyabandu, a disaster and livelihood expert with the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. "People who live in the conflict areas find it difficult to have these resources to develop enterprises on their own," she observed.

Better than before
After three years of supporting income-generating programmes for the most vulnerable people in Sri Lanka, ActionAid is fine-tuning its interventions to target individual needs and specific circumstances.

"Our intention is to see that the projects we support generate enough income for right-holders to have a decent life," said Rohitha Rajendra, ActionAid’s Food Rights Theme Leader.

Putting that into practice, WACCO has suggested additional money-spinners such as selling iced drinks and traditional sweets to their mainly Muslim customers and producing poultry feed. By finding ways to overcome the barriers around them, these women can now design their own success.

photo : ©Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi/ ActionAid