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4 years ago, MANRECAP started its activities with a
lot of hopes shared with the people in Mannar.
People in the Project focal villages are mostly
resettled families and returnees from India or other
areas in Sri Lanka. At the inception of the Project,
most of the people in these villages, especially in
Manthai West AGA Division (uncleared area), live in
temporary huts built with earth and palm fronds, and
live on dry rations and income from labor work.
Although the main industry is agriculture, lack of
facilities to supply water prevents people from
cultivating in these villages.
Through a series of discussions with stakeholders,
several issues were raised as reasons for the
central problem "hardships of people in poor living
conditions". Among these, the following two points
were stressed; "lack of basic infrastructure," which
is the foundation for socio-economic activities, and
"community capacity building" from the standpoint to
stimulate self-support efforts of the community
It is realized that "basic infrastructure" and
"community capacity" developed in the Project would
lay the groundwork for full-scale rehabilitation of
agriculture, fisheries, and other income generation
activities in the community. Consequently, the
project took the approach that promotes community
empowerment.
For 4 years of the Project implementation, various
activities were conducted to tackle the hardships of
the people in the focal villages. New buildings such
as preschools, multi purpose halls and market
facilities were constructed by Community Managed
Rehabilitation (Community Contract) method, which
provided opportunities for people to get a direct
benefit by being employed as skilled or unskilled
workers and for CBOs to accumulate the fund within
the organizations. Establishment of community water
supply systems and rehabilitation of an access road
greatly improved the living conditions of the focal
villages.
In addition, socio-economic activities such as
agricultural activities, cottage industries and
Women's Saving Group activities were introduced and
promoted, though the progress has been affected by
deterioration of the security situation. Especially
in 2007 (4th and final year of the Project), the
security situation in the District has steadily
deteriorated and during the latter half it reached
its pinnacle with the closure of the Uylankulam
Exit/Entry Point and enforcement of restrictions on
many of the building materials such as cement,
reinforcement. The situation was worsened with
severe artillery fire and sporadic fights between
the two conflicting parties along the Forward
Defensive Line located in Mannar District. This war
situation severely affected socio-economic
activities in the entire District. At the focal
villages in Manthai West AGA Division, economic
activities almost came to a standstill, due to the
massive displacement of population in the South of
the Division and temporarily settling in the
Northern half of the Division mainly in and around
MANRECAP focal villages.
Even under such a harsh situation, the Project could
mostly achieve its Project purpose and major outputs
since the prioritized infrastructures were
rehabilitated, and the communities in the focal
villages have been empowered in the process of
implementation of Community Action Plan (CAP) and
CMR.
Now we are closing the four-year Project with a lot
of gratitude toward all the people related to the
activities and sorrow for leaving Mannar in the
middle of turmoil. However, we strongly believe in
the people’s strength to be able to overcome the
severe situation and stand on their own feet.
With best regards,
All the MANRECAP staff |
