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Shelter for Internally Displaced Persons
This project leases land from the government and provides semi-permanent houses for Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka. This caters for both those displaced by war and those displaced by the Tsunami.
Description
The initiative started in 2002 and continued in 2003 providing semi permanent houses for the families displaced by war. In 2004-5, it expanded its target group to include people displaced by the tsunami as well. The initiative encourages cooperation between the displaced people as the beneficiaries build their houses together as a collaborative effort, donating their labour to build each others’ houses.
Aims / Objectives
Jaffna has over 20 years’ history of internally displaced people. The initiative aims to give them a safer, more secure, and healthier environment to live in than refugee camps, providing them with semi-permanent houses. By providing these semi-permanent houses, it is hoped that the internally displaced people will begin to get back to their normal lifestyle and out of the mentality of waiting to leave at any moment. We perceive this as one of the most important actions included in the conflict transformation and reconciliation processes, since this takes care of those affected by war and attempts to rebuild their lives.
How it is Articulated
The initiative facilitates the construction of semi-permanent houses as immediate relief for those people made homeless by war and the tsunami. We lease land from the government in the area where the displaced communities are to be relocated and deliver the material needed for building houses there. All the houses are then built as a cooperative effort by those who benefit from the scheme.
Achievements / Learning Points
Semi-permanent houses give families the privacy that is needed to get back to their normal way of life. This privacy protects women and children from the harassment that they face when living in an open area with hundreds of other people. Therefore the initiative provides Internally Displaced People (IDPs) with peace of mind and contributes to the creation of a space where healing and reconciliation can take place. This small transformation is a part of the larger conflict transformation and contributes to the process throughout the country. It further enables the I.D.P.s to start their lives afresh by allowing them to have a space that they can call their own again; by motivating the adults to start to work again; and by giving hope for children to start studying again. Having their own space and at the same time living in a place with a community that they know makes the people happier.
All the semi-permanent houses are built identically, but it might be more beneficial to the IDPs if each family’s needs were taken into account when constructing individual buildings. Realistically, however, this is only possible on smaller-scale projects involving around ten families. When engaged in a major initiative like this, it is not possible to personalise every house as the officials – normally no more than between three and five local people – would be overwhelmed by the number of requests. Therefore everything is standardised in the hope that it will meet the immediate needs of finishing construction as soon as possible and minimising conflicts among the beneficiaries.
Geographical Area of Operation
Jaffna
Funding Resources
UNHCR