Project Launch in Eastern Sri Lanka

With financial assistance by Japan Platform, JEN will launch a project in support of conflict-affected peoples in the Batticaloa District of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Batticaloa is infamous for the region in which the Army of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant Tamil organization, had severe fights since last summer, resulting in over 160,000 people displaced.

Since spring, 100,000 people have so far returned to their own villages when the tension between the two sides mitigated. However, the areas to which they returned were also affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, which hit Sri Lanka at the end of 2004. Two immense disasters, the domestic conflict and the tsunami, deprived people of their basis of living and income generating sources.

This project will target the fishermen in Vakarai, which is in the Northern part of the Batticaloa District. JEN will distribute new fishing boats lost in the conflict, provide vocational trainings for fish-net making, conduct organizational capacity development of the Fishery Cooperative Society, and deliver psychosocial care. 

JEN will begin by establishing a district office, employing national staff, and concluding the MOU with the district government. It will take time to set up the working environment, but we expect the project activities to get on track sometime in mid-October.