Caritas Sri Lanka–SEDEC in collaboration with Caritas Trincomalee–EHED and other implementing partners will commemorate the third year of the Tsunami at Konesapuri, Trincomalee on Wednesday, December 12, 2007. Handing over of houses to 76 beneficiaries affected by the Tsunami will also take place at the event.

The housing site in Konesapuri is a multi-donor site on a land provided by the government. From a total of 500 houses, 103 are built by Caritas Trincomalee-EHED in this relocation site. Twenty seven houses have already been handed over to the affected families in its ‘phase one’ while the balance 76 houses will be handed over on Wednesday, during the event.

Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC in its third year of Tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction work has proved its capacity to rebuild the lives of people affected by the Tsunami through its holistic approach.

Nearly 40 years of presence of the Caritas Sri Lanka in the country addressing diverse needs of the poor and the marginalised, has helped the organisation to plan the process of empowerment of the Tsunami affected communities in three different phases. ‘Building the human person from dust’ being the first phase, concentrated much on providing relief to the affected. The second phase led with the theme of ‘working together rebuilding lives’ symbolising the foundation laid to build stronger and viable communities. Thus, this is the third phase of rehabilitation and reconstruction where Caritas Sri Lanka has begun the process of ‘empowering the communities through rebuilding lives.’

Caritas Sri Lanka has completed a total of 6,338 permanent houses for the Tsunami affected while 1,562 are still in progress, according to the statistics till 30th November 2007. Keeping in line with the objective of empowering people as individuals and as a community Caritas Sri Lanka has also concentrated on assets restoration as well as formation of groups of small scale entrepreneurs and provide them with training such as Market assessment and leadership. Caritas Sri Lanka has also provided more than 4,500 fishing nets, 1,210 boats and 1,401 engines. This work is being done as is always the case with Caritas, without regard to religion, ethnicity or politics.

Caritas Sri Lanka is well aware that economical empowerment alone cannot rebuild the communities and that social and psychological factors too have to be strengthened to cope with future disasters. There are 18,974 adults and children who have received psychosocial support for trauma from 529 psychosocial workers trained by Caritas Sri Lanka.

Caritas Sri Lanka is the social arm of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka with nearly forty years of humanitarian experience in Sri Lanka. It was also uniquely placed to respond within hours of the Tsunami with the support of its worldwide Caritas network present in 200 countries and territories.

With the move towards the completion of the programme it is Caritas Sri Lanka’s goal to make the individuals and the communities strengthened to reap the maximum benefit from the efforts and the commitment of all those who have supported the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction.

ENDS

A seminar on “Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture in Sri Lanka” was held from 8th to 11th of November 2007 at Palm Village Hotel, Uswetakeiyawa, Wattala. The seminar was organized by Caritas Sri Lanka – SEDEC - in collaboration and consultation with Prof. Ravindra Fernando. The seminar was sponsored by the Asia Foundation.

Ms. Jeannine Guthrie, Programme Manager of “Reducing the Effects and Incidence of Torture Project (RESIST)” of The Asia Foundation, participated at the Inaugural Ceremony, held on 8 November 2007.

The objective of the programme was to train Judicial Medical Officers and Forensic Pathologists on documentation and management of psychological aspects of torture. At two previous meetings held in Kandy (2004) and Galle (2007), the Judicial Medical Officers requested to have training on investigating, documenting, reporting and management on psychological aspects of torture. In addition, a curriculum was also developed to conduct regional seminars, in relation to the “Istanbul Protocol”, the manual on effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

Rev. Fr. Damian Fernando, National Director of Caritas Sri Lanka – SEDEC in his address touched on the importance of this training. “ I believe that this is an important area for all of us to work together to build a torture free society and also to ensure the dignity of the people in our country. This training would definitely help torture survivors to find justice and help eliminate torture in our country. This issue should be taken seriously not only at domestic levels also at international level.”   

The participants of the Seminar consisted of Judicial Medical Officers of the Ministry of Health from all provinces of the country including North and East, Forensic Pathologists from the Universities, and Psychiatrists. The Resource persons included Prof. Daya Somasundaram, Consultant Psychiatrist, University of Adelaide, Australia, Prof. Ravindra Fernando, Professor of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo and Dr. Jon Hubbard, Clinical Psychologist and Director of Health, The Centre for Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, USA.

Regional seminars will be organized in the next few months for Doctors and Lawyers in all nine provinces of the country, which will cover the investigation, and documentation of physical, legal and psychological aspects of torture.