Avanka Lanka: From South With Love
Written by K. Ramathas
Love Jaffna is a project by Avanka Lanka Foundation, which is helping a Village of Inpasolai, in the Vaddukoddai South area, closer to the Jaffna-Ponnalai-Point Pedro Road, consisting of around 40 families, to rebuild their lives. Funds for this project is provided by people from the South and managed by Lasantha Mendis, the founder of Avanka Lanka Foundation and his charming wife Vinu, almost on full time voluntary basis.
Avanka Lanka means a Sri Lanka on Integrity; a dire need of the hour, as you may agree.
The Northern Province, especially the Jaffna District, has not seen poverty, before the war, on the scale of that experienced in the North Central before arrival of Mahaweli waters. However, the 30 years of war has pushed the villages into poverty beyond imagination. While development of infrastructure in the Jaffna town may have covered ‘wounds’ of war to some extent, villages are worse than even during the war.
Monthly subsistence
In little more than a year, the history of ‘Love Jaffna’ project, ‘Avanka Lanka’, has implemented many a things like sponsoring a family by sending monthly subsistence from August 2019, providing 18 Bicycles (for school children) and 100 School bags in the month of January 2019, need assessment survey in the month of February 2019, providing dry rations jointly with World Vision during May-June 2020, holding a four-day session for Youth of Village both females and males, to give them direction and hope, by Colombo-based Psychologist Samitha assisted by Point Pedro-based Pastor ‘Sitha’ in September 2020. These numerous projects have cost in total a modest sum exceeding LKR 600,000 in cash donated by people from south who are not after publicity but keen in building people-to-people understanding between the North-South. Divisional Secretary of Valikamam West, Premini, under whom this village falls, has been a source of encouragement to the ‘Love Jaffna’ project. Rev. Sam Rajasuria and wife, Pastors in charge of Jaffna and Manipay Assembly of God churches respectively, provide bed and breakfast to Lasantha and Vinu and give their vehicle to drive around when the couple make their monthly or bi-monthly visits spending at least a week in Jaffna.
Emboldened by the success of these activities, currently, starting from September 2020, Avanka Lanka has embarked on a project at an estimated cost of LKR 12 million to improve on an activity to enhance the dwelling facilities of the Village. They identified Households to improve for the LKR 5 million funding already received from one individual donor from the South who wants to remain anonymous
Out of this, they have already renovated toilet facilities of two houses, repaired the floor of one house, replaced the roofing material of three houses, repaired two houses and constructed three new houses of 300 sq. feet.
Amidst the fear and risk of Corona, Lasantha Mendis has been visiting Inpasolai on a weekly basis to monitor the progress of the project with the view of completing the construction of the houses, house repairs and the replacement of the roofing material before the rains came down. Week before last three houses were handed over to their owners by the Divisional Secretary. You can see the photographs of the work being done in the Facebook page of ‘Love Jaffna’.
Farmer Fund
Avanka Lanka is planning to extend their project activities from social to economic upliftment. They are planning to embark on a project to help the farmers of the North and subsequently extend the help to farmers of the whole country.
According to Lasantha, “Covid-19 has vindicated the importance of self-sufficiency in food for geographical locations. Unlike in most of the developed countries, farmers in Sri Lanka do subsistence farming and they never get descent surplus income in their farming. As a result farming is not attractive, making people move away in search of other more lucrative jobs. The country has to depend on imports for food. Food security is a major issue for the country and poverty is an issue for farming.
“While several issues need to be tackled to solve this problem, one of the issue a civil society organisation can perform is to provide technical inputs to the farming community in terms of better management of resources such as water, fertiliser, choice of produce, application of processes, market access, value addition eco system, access to low cost and easy access working capital”.
Avanka Lanka Foundation intends to set up a fund for farmers of Sri Lanka to fulfil the objective of providing assistance in the above areas to Lankan farmers. We are proposing to start a pilot project for Northern farmers as they are the ones that require attention as they have suffered from multiple reasons due to the 30-year war. Co-operative system, once the hallmark of Jaffna should be strengthened and all the assistance should be channelled through co-operative system.”
Avanka Lanka strongly believes that until the people in the South stand along with the people in the North and get involved in solving their issues Sri Lanka as a nation will not flower to its full potential. Please visit www.avankalanka.org for further details.
As politics is no more for the people’s issues, but a power struggle, It may be the best opportunity for the Tamil Diaspora who has been funding the war to fund the peace as well, working with southern civil society representative like Avanka Lanka, who have no political agenda but have demonstrated their interest in extending their helping hand in improving living standard of people by people.
