Plight of children stuck in Sri Lankan camps
Written by: Save the Children
I visited Vavuniya in early May, one of the towns in the north of Sri Lanka where lots of people uprooted by fighting between troops and rebels have arrived over the last few months.
Since my previous visit in March, the number of displaced had really grown.
In addition to the camps, transitional welfare villages have been set up to accommodate up to 800 families each. The villages are up to 100 acres - when you stand in one corner you can't see where it ends.
[Reunited: Rohini, 10, with her mother Rajakumari in a camp in Vavuniya. Photo by Save the Children]
Although the welfare villages are spacious, some of the displacement camps set up in schools and colleges are very crowded and people are living in difficult conditions until they are moved into welfare villages. In particular I met lots of mothers who told me their children were missing. They held photos of their children and asked me: "Can you find them for us?"
I think we've registered nearly 400 children so far, who are separated or unaccompanied. I managed to follow up one story of a girl called Rohini who was separated from her parents in March. After 50 days we managed to reunite them. Rohini didn't speak to me much during our first encounter but this time she was all smiles. She was hugging her mother.
"She's stitching my uniform for school," Rohini said. "She's brushing my hair every morning she's washing my clothes and she's buying me food." Most of all Rohini said she had missed sleeping with her mother. Now she can concentrate on her studies and she's very happy.
When I met other children, who we've yet to reunite with their parents, this story was all I had to console them. I couldn't promise we'd be able to find their parents.
Many of these children have missed out on about six months of school and we, together with U.N. and other government agencies have set up temporary learning spaces. One of the most rewarding visits I had was seeing up to 7,000 children already attending school.
RESILIENCE
Recreation facilities are also now available for these children. They come together in the evening and play. This helps them forget about their traumatic experiences.
In the camps and welfare villages there are community kitchens where there's a roster for cooking. In many camps I also saw little makeshift barber shops where hairdressers or barbers are providing their service for a nominal fee.
In certain camps water was a real issue, as was accommodation. I saw one children's play area occupied by displaced people because they didn't have enough tents. It was difficult to know whether to ask the people to leave. In the end we managed to provide extra tarpaulins for shelters so the children could keep their own place to play.
I helped our team out during a relief distribution and one of the things that really impressed me was how they prioritised the injured as well as mothers with infants. These mothers told me they found the hygiene items like soap, disinfectant and buckets for bathing very useful. Vavuniya is very hot and dry - the temperature is around 40 degrees Celsius. Sometimes they throw water on the tents just to keep the temperature down.
I also saw many men and women with wounds who were still in a lot of pain. One woman had metal screws fixed into her upper arm - the bone was fractured in three places. Many had bandages and plasters, others were on crutches or in wheelchairs. I didn't see many children with injuries but it was easy to see the trauma of what they'd been through. It was clear in their eyes.
One of the striking things in any emergency is children's resilience. I saw many making toys and kites using whatever was available - polythene, paper, sticks. Going back to school and engaging in activities really helps them cope with bad memories. The children were very hopeful, especially those who had begun school. They had aspirations of becoming doctors, nurses, lawyers, cricketers and one young girl said she even wanted to become a nun.
The parents weren't sure about where they'd go next. Many didn't want to go back home. The children had very high hopes. One of the Tamil boys said he'd like to learn the other national language (Sinhala) so that he could make new friends. I saw great examples of how education can help them to see beyond conflict, beyond the war and look forward to something positive.
AT RISK
So far we've provided school kits for over 5,000 children and we're continuing to do this daily wanting to reach 50,000 school going children.
Something that I noticed, particularly in the more crowded places, was that parents were taking out their frustrations on children because they were at the end of their tether. There were so many times when I and my colleagues had to intervene to tell parents not to hit their children.
It shows how in an overcrowded place children are even more vulnerable to abuse, even from within their families. If parents are doing this you can only imagine how strangers may treat children - so it's a great concern for us.
One of the most moving experiences during my trip was meeting colleagues who had been stuck in the war zone. In September 2008, when the government asked international aid agencies to vacate the region, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam didn't allow us to move out local staff who were resident in the conflict area - about 25 remained behind.
They've been living in extremely difficult conditions. They were displaced themselves many times during the last months of the conflict but they still delivered aid and helped with activities for the children inside the war zone. These were people we knew very well and I was worried whether they would get out safely.
One such person was our deputy district manager -a very dignified man and a great example of real commitment to children. I finally met him again in the camp. It struck me really hard to see him as an internally displaced person.
8 Comments
These children are the future of our country and whatever is done to help them get over the traumatic effects of the war is welcome. Just as foreigners are helping, if Sri Lankans too could help in reuniting these families and rehabilitating these young ones it will go a long way in creating national unity.
I sincerely hope that something substantial be done
for these children along their parents, on a
priority bais in resettling them.
The curses they make will undoubtedly reflect on
the Rajapakses families in time to come?
This article is really disappointing, one would have expected, especially from a reputed prganization like Save the Children , an article which throws some light on the impact the armed conflict is having on children who spent their entire life in a conflict area, moreover,how the children are responding to the new situation, what needs to be done etc.Simply providing school kits is not sufficent to meet the challenge.
Save the Children should also look into how the Ex. Child soldiers are been rehabilitaed and what the organization is proposing to do in this regard.
Thank you for bringing this. Save the children is a real helping hand.
Students are loosing an year of Education. This is for all people in the Wanni region.
Can save the children help for a school setup? Gov will not allow them to leave for few years. So, better they have scooling atleast inside.
UN who were highly critical about tiger's child soldgers education, now silent, probably release a news release, if pressure mounts.
One can say, the most prevalent emotion in the camps is fear. Whatever is going on in the people’s minds, they will not fully express it due to fear. On the other hand, they have been through too much to simply forget and move on. They need a way to voice their grief. It is a very artificial situation. You are talking about people who have survived months of war, and now they are taken from their homes and put in barb-wire camps. Even the worst of murderers and robbers are given better treatment than this.
The writer describes the travails of the disposessed and injured persons,and separated families, but does not say whether local health personnel, especially medical officers, have visited these camps.It is the duty of state health personnel to visit,survey,provide at least primary health care & advice to the camp administraters.
This appears to a failure of health administraters.
Exceptionally touching article. We realise of course that this article doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the hardships underwent by those IDPs in those Concentration Camps. The government is going over-the-top with punishing the Tamils as there is a need to grab land from them. There is also the need to hype up anti-Tamil feelings as long as possible to cash them into electoral advantage.
The international community funded a fascist regime, destroyed the Tamil militant uprising against the opressive Sinhala state and disappeared. Who is going help Tamils win their rights. The government in power are ultra-nationalists - a popular euphermism for fascism - who are hell bent on destroying any semblance of Tamil presence in the island.
But, at a more fundamental humanitarian level, which is the most desperate need right now, I have no words to describe the value of the caring and help you provide to those most in need. Ten year old Rohini and her mother's elation at being reunited speaks volumes. One only hopes other children too would soon be able to find their mothers and hug and sleep with them, as they should always do.
As I say, words defy my sense of gratitude for you have done to help those hapless refugees. Thanks anyway. May God bless you!
Perhaps much more goes into the pockets of agents than what the chidl gets. Save is one example of high flying executives who travel the world and only see what exists or on the surface. The come and go, make a name for themsleves leaving communities to fend for themselves. All they get is a fame for themselves. Ask any executive how much he or she earns and you will know how much of donated funds go into their pockets. They forget the world is watching. They should not be allowed in any country. if they want to help money should be given to local agencies to develop what they see best.