SIX VILLAGE PROFILES:
WOMEN’S JOURNEY FROM THE TSUNAMI TO THE FUTURE
Compiled by SSP in support of the Gender and Disaster Sourcebook December 2005
Community Profile: Unawatuna
Community Members Link with Tourists to Support Those Most in Need
Village Profile
Unawatuna is a quiet picturesque bay located near Galle in southern Sri Lanka. Most community members depend on tourism for their livelihoods, although occupations determine the mode through which they receive their income. Small guesthouse and restaurant owners are the most well off, then come petty shop owners, street and beach vendors and fishermen. The Tsunami destroyed all property along the coast, eliminating residents’ primary source of income. Hotel and restaurant owners challenged the government by obtaining loans and rebuilding against new restrictions. However, many of the poorest residents remain in temporary shelters without access to loans or knowledge of when they will be allotted houses. A number of innovative community initiatives have helped to bring Unawatuna’s economy back onto its feet and ensure that the most vulnerable residents reap the benefits.
Community Initiatives
Lal Jayantha owns and runs a small guesthouse on the beach with 3 of his 4 brothers and 2 of his 4 sisters. He uses an auto rickshaw for transportation and to transport tourists throughout Unawatuna and to Galle and back. At the time of the Tsunami he saw the first wave hit and alerted his family working in the kitchen. Then he hopped in his rickshaw to warn his neighbors who had a 3-month-old baby. As they collected their things, the second, larger wave hit and the family was immediately swept away. Lal survived by holding onto a tree and soon met up with the rest of his family who had sought shelter in the town temple. Since the day his property was destroyed he has struggled to get his family’s livelihood back on its feet.
Lal rejected the government’s restriction from rebuilding within 100 meters of the seashore and, by doing so, gave up the opportunity to receive the 100,000 Sri Lankan rupee government concession. Instead, he obtained a loan from a local bank, with a special interest rate for people affected by the Tsunami. It took 6 months for the loan application to be approved, but Lal never gave up. He was determined to not put himself in the hands of the government’s ineffective rehabilitation program that would have prevented his family from pursuing its traditional livelihood. Within 3 months of obtaining the loan, he renovated his property and reopened for business. Now he uses his rickshaw to take tourists who want to help out to temporary shelters. He says that tourists and foreign donors have been very effective at helping those who lost everything. They have supplied furniture, kitchen supplies, fans and construction materials to people who were haphazardly placed in square wooden box-like shelters without kitchens or bathrooms. He plans to continue supporting temporary shelter communities through linking them with beneficent tourists.
The Unawatuna Tourism Development Society (UTDS) is another innovative community program residents created to support vulnerable groups (see about disabled). The society started in November 2004 as a group of 20 small hotel and restaurant owners with links to European funding organizations who wanted to better their community. After the Tsunami, they organized a major cleaning campaign which has turned into a regular program that supports locals to keep the beach and surrounding areas clean. They also started extensive free programs for children that include art, music, dance, computer training and employment facilitation. The programs enrich children’s minds through exposure to the arts and provide psychosocial support.
“We only want the children to be happy. If they are happy, we are happy. Now they don’t think about the Tsunami,”
- Hiresha, UTDS Child Development Project Officer
Other programs include offering low interest loans and working with the government to establish an early warning system. In the future they plan to expand their lending base and build a state of the art community center for children.
Women’s Involvement
Since the Tsunami, women have organized into credit collectives, participated in business management trainings and began taking out loans to start or rebuild their businesses. A local NGO provided the financial support but the women decided who should take the first loans based on stated need. Groups consist of women who manage hotels, run fruit stands and sell clothing and handicrafts on the beach. When the group was deciding who should receive the first batch of loan money, one empowered female hotel owner, Priyanka, said the criteria should be based on what people say they need. Collectively, the women then decided that priority should be given to women who want to start businesses for the first time. Most of these women are not and will never own or run hotels. They do plan to invest, however, in opening small shops or buying material to sew into clothes that tourists may want to buy. According to the group’s consensus, previous business owners may be considered for the next batch of loan money.
Priyanka showed particular resilience in the face of post-Tsunami recovery challenges. A single mother, she lost her house and hotel and was told she would not be permitted to rebuild. She ignored the government warnings, moved in with a friend and put up a new hotel. Family members financed it initially, but later she obtained a loan from the UTDS. When a couple of loan slots became available for the first batch of loan money form her credit collective members chose her to fill a slot as a reward for her suggestion that the first set of loans be based on people’s stated need. The group had recognized the importance of trusting one another’s stated needs and supporting each other to meet them.
Community Profile: Indira Nagar
Women’s Groups Lead an Innovative Recovery Strategy
Village Snapshot
The village of Indira Nagar formed due to caste conflict. Thirty years ago, Indira Nagar was part of the neighbouring village of Pudhupettai. Due to caste issues, the people living in the area of the village that is now Indira Nagar did not intermarry with those living in the area that is now Pudhupettai. To mollify residents disturbed by the internal division, the District Collector divided the villages in two. Pudhupettai remained Pudhupettai and the hamlet of Indira Nagar came into being. However, its nascence was not thoroughly recorded on public records and, as a result, in the post-Tsunami relief and recovery effort, SHG members have utilized all the resources available to them to obtain relief and recovery support.
Community Initiatives
There are 185 families in Indira Nagar and 10 lost all their property when the Tsunami hit. During the first 3 days following the Tsunami, nobody arrived to help. However, relief aid did arrive in Pudhupettai. When residents pleaded for help from passing vehicles, they were tossed a few small items, but none stopped to deliver supplies as they were doing in other villages.
One SHG leader, Janagi, decided it was time for Indira Nagar residents to help themselves. First, she joined the women together to cook for the entire village. Then she organized the entire community to clean the debris and rubble that the seawater had strewn throughout the village. When the influx of relief agencies bypassed Indira Nagar, community members formally complained to the military officer in charge of relief operations. It turned out that there were two problems blocking Indira Nagar from receiving relief aid. One was that some of the records supplied to relief agencies did not distinguish Indira Nagar as a separate village from Pudhupettai and another was that certain Pudhupetti residents were claiming Indira Nagar’s aid. Finally, as a result of the formal complaint issued by the community, the village began receiving its own supply of goods.
The problem of identity did not end there. When the District Rural Development Agency invited residents of Tsunami affected villages to attend a presentation of the construction of a model house and discuss the opportunity for rolling funds for SHGs, the invitation did not name Indira Nagar. This meant that SHGs in Indira Nagar would not be allocated separate rolling funds, but would be linked to the funds allocated for Pudhupettai’s SHGs. Community members again issued a formal complaint, this time to the district official in charge of coordinating the event. Again they met with success. The invitation was changed to include Indira Nagar and rolling funds for Indira Nagar SHGs were established.
Women’s Initiatives
Women’s SHGs have not only led the community effort to obtain its fair share of support, they have also taken the initiative to invest in community learning. When a team of women with experience rebuilding after the 2001 Gujarat earthquake visited Indira Nagar to share their experiences, SHG members decided they wanted to learn more. With the support of an NGO they travelled to Maharashtra to learn about how women are organizing to improve access to basic services. When they returned, they shared their learnings with other community members. A plan soon formed to create sector committees to be in charge of ensuring their community has adequate access to public services. Committee members will be in charge of registering complaints of poor service provision to higher authorities. If talking to 1 or 2 people isn’t enough, they will keep seeking out the ear of higher authorities until their voices are heard.
Vulnerabilities
Despite strong social cohesion within the community, the rivalry with Pudhupettai weakens the social fabric that supports communities in times of disaster. Community members claim that their biggest challenge in the relief/recovery process has been that they have been excluded from much of the relief and recovery aid supplied. When advocating for fair distribution, some people received death threats from Pudhupettai residents intent on securing more for themselves. Additionally, opportunities to increase income and expand income generating activities are limited. Men are fishing less due to rough waters and lack of enough varieties of nets. When they do go out, they end up spending more on fuel than they earn from their catch. Further, SHG members do not have a history of running small businesses. They recently participated in a pilot training program to begin making and selling incense, but it was the first livelihoods training they had received.
Looking Ahead
Indira Nagar SHG members successfully led the community recovery effort and are now leading an innovative development strategy. They have demonstrated tremendous initiative, however, the village leaders do not work with them or directly support their work. They have yet to receive an invitation to a village assembly held in a neighbouring village or to consider introducing an initiative directly to their local leaders. Looking at the larger picture, it is clear that the challenge still remains for women to have a voice in village-level political structures. With the organizing skills and interest SHG members have demonstrated, the next step for them is to demonstrate solid accomplishments through their sector committees and earnings from incense making. These mechanisms will give them a platform to prove their capabilities and interact directly with local leaders.
Community Profile: Pudhukuppam
An Anganwadi Works with NGOs to Strengthen her Childcare Centre
Village Profile
The village of Pudhukuppam is home to 1,426 women, children and men. The men earn their livelihoods from fishing and the women from fish selling, cattle rearing, tailoring, running small shops and group businesses as well as homemaking and childcare. There is one Dalit family in the village, the male member of which is the town herald. The nearest water tank is located in the neighbouring village of Pudhupettai and the nearest Primary Health Centre is located 6 kilometres away in the town of Pudhuchattiram.
When the Tsunami hit, the village was transformed. About 100 people lost their lives, nearly 10% of the village population. Further, more than 200 houses were damaged or destroyed along with nearly all boats and nets, taking away the primary form of livelihood of the majority of Pudukuppam’s residents. Since then, the village childcare worker (Anganwadi), part of the government’s child development scheme, has faced new challenges of competition from NGOs and the newly expanding SHG movement is gaining a strong and positive foothold.
Community Initiatives
The local Anganwadi worker, Rukmani, has run the government childcare centre in Pudhukuppam for 22 years. Without adequate financial support, she administers government education and nutrition programs for women and children through the labour of love and the support of 1 paid assistant and 2 young volunteers. Since the Tsunami, an NGO opened a private childcare centre and many parents withdrew their children from the government centre and enrolled them in the new one. Immediate benefits included free tuition and clothing. However, the centre will begin charging next year and it intends to make money. In the meantime, Rukmani risks castigation for low enrolment and feels she is not meeting her capacity or adequately supporting the community. So she took the initiative to appeal for support to strengthen her centre. She soon established a partnership with an NGO. The staff now regularly visit the centre to check its progress and play with the children. In response to Rukmani’s request for more nutritious food to provide the children and newborn babies, the NGO obtained powdered cereal and milk packets and is now regularly supplying them to the centre. Rukmani plans to continue seeking support from NGOs for her centre. She is driven by the philosophy that if NGOs really want to help, they should support existing infrastructure, not undermine it.