News
Sri Lanka: looking at the year ahead
09 February 2010
W J Shirantha Perera is RedR’s Learning Support Manager in Sri Lanka. Here he talks about the plans and challenges for the coming year. Shirantha has been involved with RedR’s Learning Support and Capacity Building (LSCB) Programme in Sri Lanka since its inception and has also been a RedR Member since October 2008.
Shirantha’s role includes programme development, training and facilitation as well as being involved with the capacity building of local aid workers. He also manages the RedR accredited Associate Trainers in Sri Lanka.
The RedR Sri Lanka programme has achieved a lot since it started in 2005, following the devastating Asian Tsunami. Last year the team trained over 780 people, 92% of whom were national Sri Lankan staff.
Shirantha finds his work extremely rewarding; ‘‘I find that the most satisfying aspect of my job is when I come across the impact of the programme, and the words, ‘If you believe in your dreams, you can do miracles!’ proves to be true,’’ he comments.
The programme in 2010
Grass-roots level organisations and government institutes are becoming increasingly important and are going to be the main target group for capacity building in the future. Therefore, in 2010 the Sri Lanka team will explore various ways the programme can be even more accessible to grass-roots level humanitarian workers and organisations both government and non-government.
Larger humanitarian organisations are increasingly partnering with community-based organisations (CBOs) or government authorities as implementation partners of their programmes. An example of this is in the North and East of Sri Lanka, where demand for developing local skills and capacity is high, especially in areas where internally displaced persons (IDPs) are located. Here there is a change of focus, as most leading agencies aim to implement their rehabilitation and development programmes for the IDPs through local partner organisations.
RedR Sri Lanka’s experience with the programme conducted for local government authorities through World Vision Lanka, has indicated that modular courses of a maximum of two days covering a particular thematic area such as Leadership Skills, Team Building and Negotiation are in high demand.
The team have also been in discussion with several leading agencies to explore the possibility of partnering for the capacity building component in their organisations. One such important link they have made is with the Vavuniya District Consortium, which is the central coordinating body of all humanitarian organisations operative in that district.
For further information about RedR’s programme in Sri Lanka, please visit our Sri Lanka pages.
View RedR Member and Shelter Expert Joseph Ashmore speaking on Channel 4 News about the Haiti quake.
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