EDITIONS: | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |   [ MANRECAP ] Bulletin No.6 OCTOBER 2004 No. 6 Article #1: Shelter Materials Distributed to Kurai and SeethuvinayagarKulam Villages. Kurai and Seethuvinayagarkulam villages are situated in Mantahi West AGA division. These villages are approximately 60 km away from Mannar Town. There are three accessing road to these villages and these roads are severely damaged, especially the accessing road called “Kattadi Vial” which is mostly used by the villages since it the shortest rout. During the conflict period, practically the entire village was displaced and mostly relocated at Ththavaddy. Due to the remote locality of these villages, development wise they were neglected and thus, these villagers did not have access to basic needs. Even the access roads were in a very poor condition and after heavy rains, these villages were cut off from the rest of the District, until the flood water receded. It was due to these reasons, that these villages were selected as Focal Villages under MANRECAP/JICA programme. When resettlement commenced after the signing of MOU, to their dismay these re-settlers found that even their poorly constructed huts have been totally destroyed during their long displacement period. Thus, they were literarily living under trees or in make shift huts with plastic sheeting as their roof. Thus, housing was an urgent need for these re-settlers who were identified as 56 Families. As housing was not within MANRECAP mandate, support was sought from other relevant NGOs. At this stage International Organization for Migration –IOM came forward to supply housing materials in the form of 12 nos. Corrugated Tin sheets, Wire nails and 04 bags of Cement for each family. As this was not sufficient to construct a house and also as Tin sheets were not suitable as roofing in hot climatic conditions, it was agreed to supply the following construction materials to each of the 56 families identified. Cadjans- 500 nos, Cement- 04 bags, Timber (Jungle poles)- 24 nos. (assorted), Coir rope- 02 Kg and Palmyra Eekel - 01 Kg Arrangement was for IOM to supply the above materials and for MANRECAP to be in charge of Transportation and coordination. With these materials supplied, these beneficiaries are able to construct a decent house.   Article #2: Handing over of Machines and Equipments   MANRECAP is implementing Projects in Manthai West AGA Division & Mannar DS Division especially in the MW Focal Villages, which are under developed, many basic needs were identified during the CAP Workshop, which are being currently addressed in order of prioritization. Two Wheel Tractor Generators One of the prominent needs was construction of Multipurpose Hall incorporating Pre School. In keeping with MARECAP mandate, all construction work is implemented via Community Contracts now termed Community Managed Rehabilitation-CMR. These CMR are awarded to Registered CBOs in these villages such as Rural Development Societies-RDS, Women Rural Development Societies –WRDS etc. In order to facilitate construction process, MANRECAP has supplied relevant Machinery and Tools such as Cement Block Making Machine, Generator , Two wheeled Tractors, Water pumps ,Wheel burrow, Shovels , Crow bars etc.to contracted CBOs. These equipments are issued on a loan basis with Operation & Maintenance being with the relevant CBOs and with responsible persons appointed by them to be in charge.  <- Bloch Making Machine       Water Tank ->    Article #3: Survey on Ganeshapuram and Sewa Villages Most of the people living in Sewa and Ganeshapuram villages do not possess deeds for their land. When MANRECAP conducted a workshop to prepare a community action plan, one of their request was to provide them deed for land. MANRECAP in collaboration with Survey Department and other relevant authorities conducted surveying of land in Sewa and Ganeshapuram villages and soon these families will be provided with official deeds. A.G.A Manthai West, agreed to follow the normal land alienation procedure to issue the necessary permits to ensure the ownership. MANRECAP is also expecting to take similar action to other villages where there is no ownership of land to the community. Picture shows water resources board staff are surveying aquifer of underground   Article #4: Saving Group Activities are progressing In order to promote Saving habits and there by initiate Micro Finance Activities, under the guidance of Women’s Bank, Women’s Saving Groups were formed in all of the MANRECAP Focal Villages. Representatives from Women’s Bank regularly visit these villages to monitor their progress and to strengthen them. Following good progress shown ,04 Leaders Group have been formed.      Saving group at weekly meeting   Article #5: Restoration of Seethuvinayagarkulam Tank Seethuvinayagarkulam Tank is a minor irrigation tank adjoin medium tank. This tank was very much popular among the ancestors of present community. According to villages, in 1964 there had been a flood and due to the high inflow of water the tank bund was breached. As a result of this, people were unable to do the cultivation with the insufficient quantity of water in the tank. Rapidly, people lost interest on cultivation and started to leave the area and the cultivation land became jungle. Since then this tank had been abounded for a long time. At present resettled families who are living in Seethuvunayagarkulam and Kurai approached several government and non government organizations for the restoration of this abounded tank but no favorable answer given to them. MANRECAP conducted a workshop at these villages, as a result of this workshop they made high prioritize restoration of the tank MANRECAP initially made preliminary a study on this tank, and village people cleared the area removing all bushes on a Shiramadana bases in order to cultivate some area in this MAHA. The restoration is up to10 feet from the bottom of the bridge in order to help the community to cultivate their paddy lands during the forthcoming MAHA season.   Surrounding area of tank is cleared by the community Breach filling – Seethuvinayagarkulam Tank     Article #6: Training on Community Construction Management The goal of MANRECAP is to make the people in the project area to act spontaneously in order to improve their quality of life and sustainablly develop their own community. In the selected focal villages it is the first time that the community based organizations have been awarded contracts. To strengthen them communities were trained in the field of management. As part of the Management training programme, training on community construction management was conducted by MANRECAP staff at Santhipuram, Puthukamam and Thethavady villages. The objective of these training is to enhance the basic technical know-how in community construction, and the supervisory and monitoring abilities of the community in these aspects. Community representatives are on training   Article #7: Laying of Foundation Stone Ceremony at Paliaru Laying of foundation stone ceremony was held on 15th October 2004 at Paliaru. WRDS who was awared the contract for the construction of Multipurpose Purpose Hall, organized the ceremony. They invited MANRECAP staff together with AGA, Manthai West, Mr. V. Visuvalingam, GA, Mannaar and other special guests. Following the garlanding of invitees and lighting of traditional oil lamp, foundation stone was laid by the invitees and village people incorporating religious and traditional ceremonies.    Cultural dance presented by village children Foundation stone laid by community representative  Lighting of oil lamp by Mr. T.Saisho, Chief Advisor, MANRECAP This ceremony was well organized by villagers and this ceremony showed their initiative and interest in developing their village. Mr. V. Visuvalingam in his speech requested the community to show their effective and efficient cooperation and contribution to make this project a success. He further said that there is more development work planed in near future to uplift the living conditions of people living in Vellankulam area. The participants were entertained with dance, by children folkdance and songs. This ceremony gave people an opportunity to show their hidden talents. The ceremony concluded with vote of thanks delivered by Mr. S. Vijenthiran, Grama Niladari Vellankulam.   Article #8: Laying of Foundation Stone Ceremony at Puthukkamam Laying of foundation stone ceremony was held at Puthukamam on 20th October 2004 with the participation of Government officials together with MANRECAP staff. This peogramme was well organized by the Women Rural Development Society of Puthukkamam. Eventhough the ceremony was interrupted by heavy rain, villages attended the ceremony with courage and also by entertaining the invitees with cultural programmes.   Article #9: Opening M. P. C. S Outlet at Santhipuram Santhipuram village is one of the focal villages under the MANRECAP project. There are 419 families resettled from the year 1987 on words. For the issue of dryration and for their own marketing they have to travel more than 4 km to Mannar Town. This difficulties were highlighted at the CAP (Community Action Plan) workshop held by MANRECAP and requested our organization to rectify the situation. Accordingly discussion was held with the Government Agent, Assistant Commissioner of Corporative Development and General Manager of MPCS with the concurrence of the board members of the Manner MPCS and finally an outlet was opened in Santhipuram on 22nd October 2004 for the convenience of the families who have been suffering without a branch outlet in their own village to collect dryration and to purchase their consumer items. Established M.P.C.S outlet at Santhipuram   Article #10: Monthly PIC meeting held at Kachcheri The monthly Project Implementation Committee meeting was held at Government Agent’s Conference hall, Kachcheri, Mannar chaired by Mr. S. Visuvalingam GA, Mannar. MANRECAP project sectional heads explained to the members the progress made up to October and the future plans which are to be accomplished by the end of 31st of March 2005. The construction of 3 multi purpose halls in the villages of Sewa, Ganeshapuram and Paliaru are in progress and have come up to D.P.C level. The study on the utilization of ground water for irrigation and drinking has been completed and the discussion with relevant authorities are carried on for the implementation and also the awareness propramme on the implementation of the micro finance is in progress. Committee members were well satisfied with the fast and steady progress made by MANRECAP. Committee members at PIC meeting   Article #11: MANRECAP Established a Sub Office at Manthai West A sub office of the MANRECAP/ JICA has been established at Illupaikadavai. This office will function from 1st November 2004 with an Office Facilitator, Field Facilitators, Engineering Assistants and Field Supervisors. This Sub Office arrangement will benefit the community of the project villages to have a close contact with the MANRECAP project office and to transact their project matters without delay.       MANRECAP Site office established at Illupaikadavai, Manthai West     Article #12: Communities’ Study Tour to BAJ construction site As part of the Capacity Building Training to CBOs, MANRECAP has organized a study tour for community representatives from Sewa, Ganeshapuram and Paliaru villages to BAJ (Bridge Asia Japan) construction site in Vaarikully Vavuniya. The objective of this tour was for the benificieries to gain more knowledge as to how to carry out the construction work and preparation and maintenance of accounting books and records, and also the maintenance and supervision of the tools and equipment. Community members learn concrete mixing Explanation on construction procedures by BAJ instructor   MANRECAP BULLETIN Editor and publisher: MANRECAP All correspondence should be addresses to: T. Saisho, MANRECAP / JICA, District Secretariat, Mannar, Sri Lanka Phone: 023 – 2250029, Fax: 023-2250067, Internet address: http://www.manrecap.com  Comments and Suggestions: info@manrecap.com  PREVIOUS MONTHLY BULLETINS | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |