Coconut saplings for war widows an

innovative project worth emulating

by MCM Iqbal - on 06/15/2015

Since the end of the war the

Government and other organisations within and outside Sri Lanka have
being helping the victims of the war in the North and the East to enable
them to resume their normal lives. Among the organisations that helped
were many charitable institutions of the Tamils in the diaspora. Their
affinity towards the members of their own community prompted them
instinctively to help the victims who had survived the vagaries of the war.
These charitable organisations and some of the philanthropists in the

diaspora have disbursed large amounts of monies during the past six
years providing various kinds of assistance for the rehabilitation of the
victims and to reconstruct some of the damages caused by the war to the
infrastructure.
So far no one has done a proper evaluation to make an assessment of
the extent to which such assistance provided to war victims has borne
fruit, and to see how better the funds could have been utilized. The extent
to which all the assistance provided during the past six years has helped
the victims meaningfully, is debatable. However it is evident that many of
the victims have now become afflicted with a dependency syndrome and
continue to look forward for more and more help from the diaspora. The
paucity of employment opportunities and the regular flow of help to their
relatives by the diaspora, has perhaps made them lazy and created a
fertile environment to let a good percentage of the unemployed youth
among the war victims and even school boys to be enticed by dealers in
drugs and alcoholic beverages. A news report in the Ceylon Today dated
14.6.2015 states that there has been a five fold increase in the
consumption of alcoholic beverages in 2013 in the Jaffna Peninsula. Some
blame the visiting relatives from the diaspora are to blame as they had
encouraged the proliferation of alcoholic drinks in the parties and other
functions they attended during their stay in Sri Lanka. Whatever the causes
may be, there is an urgent need to stem the drug menace and the
consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is heartening to hear that
Honourable Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council has taken a
serious note of this scourge and is to collaborate with the Central
Government to deal with this matter.
It was reported that recently a decision has been taken by the current
cabinet to allow an unhindered flow of funds to help the war victims,
especially the women in the North, who form a bulk of them. This decision
provides a golden opportunity for those in the diaspora to launch on well-

considered and meaningful projects to deal with the current issues facing
the people of the North and the East. They need to think of innovative
projects to deal with not only the menace of drugs and liquor but also the
other problems of the war victims. They also should review the manner in
which assistance had been provided to war victims in the past. Some of
the organisations which have been making remittances to various
livelihood activities so far have now realized the need to review their
methods. They are now looking at the other options available to help them.
Some of the options being considered include providing funds for livelihood
activities for feasible projects of the beneficiaries through community
based co-operative societies among them. Since such co-operative
societies are grass-root level time tested democratic institutions that
appears to be a good option. But there is a need to improve the capacity of
such societies to deal with the current issues and to manage their
institutions effectively. Therefore some funding agencies have decided to
conduct programmes to systematically raise the awareness of the victims
to the options available to them; and, to build the capacity of the
victims to develop themselves and manage their own institutions such as
their co-operative societies. Most of the war victims are women who now
find they have to play a dual role, as the sole breadwinner of the family
and as the head of their households. Many of them still suffer from the
trauma they have gone through. The last government had placed a taboo
on counselling programmes to get them out of the effects of the trauma.
Perhaps now they may allow such programmes. The women also need to
be trained to manage their homes and their livelihood activities more
effectively. They have also to be educated on group dynamics so that they
could uplift themselves as a group rather than as individuals. For this
purpose the promotion of the co-operative or other societies among them
could be considered. It has been stated that there are more than 1300
grass root level co-operative thrift and credit societies in the Northern

Province. Since the membership of these societies consists largely of

victims of the war it would be worth strengthening these societies which
have already formed themselves into five District Unions in the Northern
Province. These District Unions have recently formed an apex body in the
Province called the Federation of the District Unions of these societies in the
North.

Strengthening the management capabilities of these societies and

their ability to identify feasible projects for their members is a need of the
hour. That would facilitate donor agencies to avail of the community based
co-operatives to channel whatever assistance needed through them and
ensure effective management of the funds and the activities for which the
funds are going to be provided. Some of the officials of these societies had
undergone training by the Co-operative College in Manchester on the
effective management of the activities of their societies. The Co-operative
College in Manchester is to continue the training of these officials in the
coming months in collaboration with the Co-operative Institute of Charitable
Organisations of the United Kingdom.
Realising the importance of these societies, a co-operative society in the
Netherlands which has been collaborating in the past with these District
Unions to provide help for the livelihood activities of the war widows among
the members of these societies, has launched on a novel project this year.
That project is to provide quick yielding coconut saplings to as many war
widows as possible through the Federation of these societies, to
commemorate the International Widows Day falling on June 23rd. The
Provincial Council in the North has given its blessings to this project.

The

society in the Netherlands has been able to raise the awareness of the
Tamils in the diaspora on the environmental damage caused during the war
by the destruction of a large number of coconut trees.

Those in the

diaspora have been made to realize the importance of providing coconut

saplings to the widows. These saplings would start yielding in a few years
and provide them with a steady source of income to supplement their

needs, for many years.

Realising the benefits of this innovative project, it

is learnt that a large number of Tamils in the diaspora and Hindu Temples in
Netherlands and the United Kingdom have contributed generously to make
the project a success.
Arrangements have been made for the Federation of Thrift and Credit Cooperative Societies to collaborate with the Coconut Development Board of
Sri Lanka in implementing this project. The beneficiaries are to be trained
by the officials of the branch of the Coconut Board in Atchuvely. This
training is to be provided in the localities of the beneficiaries before they
actually receive the saplings. The training is to focus on how best to nurse
the saplings, protect them from pests and get optimum benefits from these
plants. The saplings to be provided are those that the Board had
recommended as suitable for the Northern Province. So the chances of the
success of this project is high. It is hoped that they will extend the project
to as many villages as possible in the Northern Province and even to the
East.
More innovative projects of this nature is needed to help the war victims. A
cost benefit analysis of the coconut sapling project had shown that this is
an exceptional example of how more and more could be helped at the
small cost of coconut saplings to be provided. As the life of a coconut tree
extends to about ten to twelve years or more a whole generation is going
to benefit from it when these trees start yielding in three or four years.
It is hoped that donor agencies would henceforth consider innovative
projects that need low cost inputs which would benefit more and more in
the years to come. The resources available in the diaspora need to be coordinated and focussed on specific projects that could benefit more and
more persons and benefit the community as a whole. They should explore
the manner in which the diaspora could collaborate with the efforts of the
Northern Provincial Council to stem the proliferation of the drug menace
and the consumption of alcohol. They should make optimum use of the

window of opportunity that has been created by the current government

which has openly invited the diaspora to provide funds for development of
the war victims in the North and the East.
Posted by Thavam