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Sri Lanka

The tsunami in South East Asia on 26 December 2004 claimed the lives of 30,000 people and destroyed Sri Lanka’s southern and eastern coastal communities. Approximately half-a-million people were left homeless. We were part of the initial response to this catastrophe, working with our international offices in India, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

More than two years on there is still an urgent need to equip local people with the skills to rehabilitate their lives, rebuild their communities and respond better to any emergencies in the future. With the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) we have been working in Sri Lanka since February 2005 to provide local communities, humanitarian agencies and government organisations with these skills. CHA is affiliated with RedR. From planning and managing relief and development projects through to educating organisations on how to support people following the emotional and physical devastation of the tsunami, RedR is making a difference.

In response to the ongoing civil conflict in the region we are also using our expertise in safety and security to run training courses that enable local organisations and frontline relief agencies to work more securely. 

Read a case study which looks at the goals, roles principles and approaches of the District Learning Support Offices, set up as part of the Learning Support and Capacity Building Programme in Sri Lanka.  

  Field Level Learning in Sri Lanka
 

Humanitarian need

Sri Lanka has faced civil conflict for over two decades between the government and armed rebels. Devastating suicide bombings and violence throughout the 1980s and 1990s killed more than 60,000 people. Three-hundred thousand people have fled to neighbouring countries. 

In 2002 a cease-fire was agreed, but it was undermined by regular clashes between government troops and Tamil rebels, and in January 2008 the government withdrew from it.

In 2004 Sri Lanka suffered its worst natural disaster when waves triggered by an undersea earthquake off Indonesia swept ashore the southern and eastern coastlines killing 30,000 people and leaving many hundreds of thousands homeless.

In this unstable region there are ongoing humanitarian needs. More than 800,000 people have been displaced by the violence, a further 500,000 were made homeless by natural disaster and there are violations of human rights occurring in northern and eastern hotspots where violence between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the Buddhist majority is worst. Escalating inflation rates have impoverished many of the country’s rural families.