A Look Into The Past Present and Future
_With Gratitude and Appreciation_
Dr. A.T.Ariyaratne
On behalf of our sisters, brothers and children affected by the tsunami disaster and those of us who stood in solidarity with them I extend to all of you our love and heartfelt thanks for all the spiritual, moral, financial and in kind support you have given to Sarvodaya so far and are expecting to give in the future.
We acknowledged by letters written to you along with official receipts all your remittances except of those whose addresses could not be traced. Even these we acknowledged through e-mails and posted all donations on the website. If we have inadvertently missed any one of you please send an e-mail to check with us. We will immediately respond to you.
Yesterday we posted what Sarvodaya has done so far in great detail holistically as well as district by district, on the web. The next report will be the 5R activities which we are continuing to carry out village by village alongside the programs that are implemented sector by sector as given in our 12 point integrated plan. Special projects funded by governments, UN agencies, World Bank, Foundations and other funding agencies, if and when they support us, will be accepted, implemented, reported and accounted for as they come. Now we are ready to submit specific projects if you are prepared to fund them.
For us in Sarvodaya, Tsunami is an opportunity for sacrifice, learning, hard work and spiritual awakening. Though most of our full-time workers and thousands of volunteers from unaffected areas worked around the clock taking a lot of risks and undergoing hardships, none of them demanded additional salaries or extra payments for overtime work. Neither did they seek any cheap publicity or recognition for their work. They only shared the sufferings and woes of those who lost their loved ones and everything they had. They helped to satisfy their immediate basic physical, psychological and social needs and in return got a dispassionate joy of living and serving in the true Sarvodaya spirit.
We stretched our administrative capacity to the fullest using our already available manpower thus keeping our administrative costs to the minimum. So we were able to save your donations for mid-term and long-term real personality, family- and community awakening activities. We are busy doing water and sanitation, health and nutrition, and such other activities and from next week we will get into permanent house construction and community building.
Compared to the government and rich international organizations who received big grants, we have received smaller donations from a larger number of people in the world. However our spirits are very high and we strongly believe as time passes our contribution will be recognized by sympathetic, right thinking and generous human beings and organizations and come to our help to help the affected people in 226 villages to begin with and finally 1000 village communities in all surrounding them during a three to five year period. Our desire is to get these villages integrated into the 15000 Village Development Program which is already being implemented by Sarvodaya, the approach being primarily based on Self-Reliance and Community Participation in their own self-development.
*AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO REAWAKENING*
The following twelve sectors have to be implemented in an integrated way to realize our final objective of reawakening these village communities.
*1. Women, Children and Orphans*
* Establishment of Pre-Schools
* Nutrition and Health Care
* Conduct of Mental Health Development Programs for Pregnant Mothers
* Conducting Psycho-Social Healing Programs for Needy Children
* Preschool Children’s Training
* Conduction of Children’s Camps
* Awareness programs for mothers in household management
* Psycho-Social healing programs
* Provision of educational and recreational material for children
* Organized Excursions
*2. Water and Sanitation*
Principally through the Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services Unit:
* Purification of drinking wells
* Repair of damaged wells
* Construction of new wells
* Construction of temporary latrines
*3. Health and Preventative Care*
Through Sarvodaya Community Health Services and Sarvodaya Women�s Movement:
* Persuade affected people to boil water
* Promote awareness of primary health care
* Educate on personal hygiene
* Promote a balanced diet
* Conduct of health clinics
* Conduct of disease prevention programs
*4. Camp/Community Management*
Principally through Sarvodaya Shanti Sena Movement:
* Meeting the requirements of camp residents (food, water, clothes, medicine, etc)
* Establishment of temporary preschools
* Conducting spiritual programs for children
* Meeting educational requirements of children
* Self-governance of camps
*5. Environmental Management and Ecology*
Principally through Sarvodaya Shanti Sena Movement (Peace Brigades) conduct programs for:
* Clearing the area of polythene material
* Cleaning drainage systems
* Motivate people to keep the surroundings clean
* Tree replanting and soil conservation
* Environmental and Ecological Education
*6. Psychological and Spiritual Healing*
Principally through Sarvodaya International Peace and Meditation Centre – Vishva Niketan:
* Conduct of counseling programs
* Conduct of spiritual programs
*7. Housing and Resettlement*
Principally through Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services carry out:
* Construction of new houses
* Repair of damaged houses
* Supply of kitchen utensils
* Supply of garden tools and seed material.
* Cleaning of dwellings and surroundings
* Environmental conservation programs
*8. Livelihood Support, Trade, and Micro-Finance*
Principally through Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Service Unit conduct following activities:
* Management of training to maintain economic equilibrium
* Identification of self-employment projects and training
* Provision of loan facilities on easy payment terms
* Training in entrepreneurship
* Conduct of awareness programs on savings and credit schemes
*9. Disaster Management and Mitigation*
* Educating the people on measures to be taken in a crisis situation
* Collection and maintenance of crisis-relevant data
* Training of First-Aid and Services Teams
* Establishment of a Coordinating Network to link all levels from the grassroots up.
*10. Communication*
Principally through Sarvodaya IT Units:
* Establishment of a grassroots-up network
* Network facilities to facilitate instant information exchange
* Internet connections from the village to the national level
*11. Documentation and Legal Assistance*
* Assisting the people through Sarvodaya Legal Services Movement to get back their national identity cards, birth-, marriage- and death certificates, deeds of properties, school certificates etc.
*12. Integrated Village Awakening*
All these 226 villages and later with the adjoining villages we may be working in around 1000 villages (904). As the reconstruction program develops we will get the villages to go through the normal Sarvodaya development programs which have five phases. The stages build infrastructure at the psychological, social, legal, economic, and technological levels.
Sarvodaya’s strategy for relief, rehabilitation, reconciliation, reconstruction and reawakening will operate at 3 different levels:
# At the level of the village/community: Sarvodaya is currently active in 226 tsunami-affected villages. The plan is to link each village with 3 other tsunami-affected villages, taking the total number of villages to 904.
# At the level of the organization: Sarvodaya will internally reorganize, and develop systems and capacity to deal with the problems on hand.
# At the level of national policy: Sarvodaya intends to take a lead role in informing and influencing policy decisions on tsunami-related issues. Sarvodaya will take up those issues that pertain specifically to the welfare of the people.
To act effectively, efficiently and compassionately at all these levels, Sarvodaya has identified the above 12 cross-cutting areas of focus, which Sarvodaya already has experience in.
In each of these areas of action, Sarvodaya will systematically carry out the following steps:
*1. Assessment of needs*
These needs, once again, are at 3 levels: village, organizational and national policy. At a village level, we will evaluate the social, economic, and psycho-spiritual needs of the people. At an organizational level, we will rigorously and honestly evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, and identify capacity building needs within all levels of the organization. At a national level, we will remain apprised and involved in the policy process, and attempt to influence it in ways that places the social, economic, and psycho-spiritual needs of the people above all else. Assessing what these needs are will be a substantial information gathering and analysis effort, supported by the establishment of a management information system.
*2. Identification of appropriate techniques, technology, tools and materials available to meet these needs*
For every area of action, Sarvodaya will endeavor to use, or develop state-of-the-art systems. This does not necessarily mean the most technically advanced, but rather the most locally appropriate, in terms of utility, social and environmental sustainability, costs, and aesthetics.
*3. Elucidate and adhere to Sarvodaya�s philosophical position on the 5R program*
This position will place the social, economic, and psycho-spiritual welfare of the people at its core, and above all else. However, these people include not only those affected by the tsunami, but other poor people in the country as well. Sarvodaya will not support the development of some at the cost of others. Sarvodaya will develop a position paper on how it plans to link development in tsunami-affected areas with development in non-tsunami affected areas, as well as with Sarvodaya�s existing grassroots peace process. These philosophical positions will also directly feed into our involvement in the policy process.
*4. Evaluate existing and potential resources*
Sarvodaya is flooded daily with offers of help, ranging from voluntary labor, to funds for specific areas, to capacity building grants, etc. We will systematically evaluate all offers of help, and work only with those donor partners who support Sarvodaya’s philosophical position on issues like providing development benefits to all ethnic groups, and supporting the development of both tsunami-affected and non-affected, yet poor communities. Our goal is to work with a few credible partners who understand and support Sarvodaya’s long-term mission in this country.
*Costs for Housing, Water and Sanitation Needs of Tsunami Affected Sarvodaya Villages.*
* No. of Affected Districts – 14
* No. of Affected Sarvodaya Villages – 226
| No. | Details | No. of Units | Unit Cost (Rs) | Needed Fundsv(Rs) | US $ |
| 1 | Houses | 17497 | 500,000 | 8750 M | 87.50 M |
| 2 | Repairing Houses | 10961 | 200,000 | 2192 M | 21.92 M |
| 3 | Common Buildings | 240 | 500,000 | 120 M | 1.2 M |
| 4 | Toilets | 3593 | 25,000 | 90 M | 0.9 M |
| 5 | Wells | 169 | 30,000 | 5 M | 0.05 M |
| Total | -| – | – | 11,157 M | 112.1 M |
If Sarvodaya is to do this project by itself it is obvious that it is impossible to raise the funds as estimated above. However for those who are interested in helping us, they may like to have this information. All we can do is to try our best to raise the necessary resources with your co-operation.
*Table 1:* Funds already committed for Housing, Water and Sanitation and Pyscho-Social Healing
| District | Villages | Name | Houses | Donors | Amount (Rs.) |
| Kalutara | 1 | Katukurunda | 56 | AGNT | 25 M |
| Jaffna | 1 | . | 20 | . | 10 M |
| Trincomalee | 2 | Gopalapuram
Kalawanchikulam | 37
22 | . | . |
| Galle | 2 | Brahmanawatta
Mohottiwatta | 27
15 | Holcim | . |
| Matara | 3 | Kottegoda
Beliwatta
Suduwella | 12
10
20 | Holcim | 65 M total |
| Batticaloa | 1 | . | 22 | Holcim | . |
| Galle | 1 | Venamulla | 44 | SUA/Newz | 20 M |
| Galle | 1 | Malawenna | 42 | Australia | 20 M |
| Ampara | 2 | . | . | AJDC | 20 M total |
| Galle | 10 | . | . | AJDC | . |
| Hambantota | 4 | . | . | AJDC | . |
| Kalmunai | 4 | . | . | AJDC | . |
| Batticaloa | 1 | Vakarai | 304 | . | Austria |
| Trincomalee | 1 | Sumedagama | 100 | . | 338 M total |
| Kalmunai | 1 | Marudamunai | 310 | . | . |
Holcim – Holcim Tidal Wave Reconstruction Fund
SUA/Newz – Sri Lankan United Association of New Zealand
AJDC – American Jewish Distribution Committee
Austria – Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution
USA – AGNT � Association for Global New Thought
Australia -Australia (Perth) Sri Lankan Group
The following are the specific funds from USAID. You may view the full details of the USAID Project here.
| District | No. of Villages | Toilets to Be Built | Toilets to Be Repaired | Wells | Compost | Water Tanks |
| Galle | 24 | 593 | 519 | 122 | 1212 | 44 |
| Hambantota | 13 | 451 | . | . | 951 | 20 |
| Ampara | 3 | 150 | . | 14 | 150 | 6 |
| Kalmunai | 0 | . | . | . | . | . |
For those who have made donations above a certain amount, such as Rs. 20 Million ($200,000), and committed to raise more funds on a continuing basis, we have allocated, e.g., the following housing schemes. At the site we will have a plaque to commemorate their donation. They can have continuing relationships with this village. Others who wish to do the same are requested to get in touch with us.
Those who cannot afford that amount of money, are also informed that that they can identify themselves with a smaller project in a village, which will also be acknowledged as above. For example,
# One well with a water pump, buckets, basins etc
# One pre-school building with furniture, playing material, cooking utensils, and a small allowance for the pre-school teacher.
# One house with simple furniture, kitchen utensils, and a small cutlery set.
# Set of agricultural implements, seeds, organic compost, etc.
# Set of carpentry tools
# Set of Masonry Tools
# Playing material for school children and youth eg footballs, volleyballs, cricketing material
# Repairing places of religious worship
# Community Centre building with furniture, library and indoor games facilities
# Seed money to start small businesses, cottage industries, etc
# To maintain primary- and secondary school children, and university students, per year through extra support systems.
# To provide support to school teachers by supply of clothes and books.
Others will follow.
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Downloading the PDF is recommended as it includes extensive tables on Damage Assessments, Funds Already Committed, Itemized Cost Estimates, House Blueprints, Well Blueprints, and Rainwater Harvester Blueprints. There is detailed information for large donors, and specific items which smaller donors may contribute towards.