katherine's community challenge

Project Visit - Siyath Foundation

Saturday 8 April

We next went to the re-built headquarters of the Siyath Foundation and heard Kala Pieris, Executive Director of the Siyath Foundation talk about their work and campaigning.

An example of their campaigning for equality for women is the 2km march on International Women's Day which they organised - over 3000 women from all over Sri Lanka took part with banners reading 'listen to us', 'protect women's rights' and 'battering women is a crime'.

They have also been involved in working with education institutions, goverment officials and NGOs to develop a set of actions to be taken so that all children can receive education after a disaster such as the tsunami - there are no minimum standards for education post-disaster as there are for food, water and shelter. A People's Charter drawn up by this group has been presented to the Minister of Education recommending that reconstruction of all school buildings be completed by December 2006 and that the process is monitored by 'school development societies' comprised of teachers, parents and students.

We saw the production of coir at Pitiwalla village. The coconut husks are soaked for about 3 weeks in the river (and it is also soaked in the water at the edge of the lagoons), this soaking separates the strands, the husks are then beaten to produce the coir fibre - this is then spun it into rope. Three people work on this process and between them can produce 30kg of yarn per day. Sam and Sarah had a go at this - it's a lot more difficult than it looks but Sam made a very creditable attempt!

The river where coconut husks are soaked

Beating the soaked husk

Separating the fibre

Spinning yarn from the coir

Sarah has a go!

We also visited the Environment Resource Centre at Patuwatha. This centre provides a valuable resource to the local community, particularly children who come here to learn how to protect and preserve their environment. Many people have pointed to the destruction of the coral reef around the Sri Lankan coast as one of the reasons the tsunami wave was so large - this has brought environmental issues to the fore since December 2004.

Finally we visited another children's centre - here the children were practising games ready for New Year the following week - many of the games were the same as those we play here in the UK - sack races, 'egg and spoon' and many circle games too. The children were all having great fun.

Practising games for New Year

Vegetable garden

Sack race

Sarah and Jean try to drink coconut milk without straws

A women's meeting

Sharon Jackson, ActionAid UK, accompanied us on our Community Challenge and has compiled a report on our visit to the Siyath Foundation. This is available in pdf format for you to read.

During the build week, Sharon visited some of the other work ActionAid has been involved with in the south of Sri Lanka. Her report has some very moving stories about individuals who were affected by the tsunami and is also available in pdf format.

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