A recent survey conducted in 30 tsunami-affected villages in southern Hambantota district by Walawe Kantha Maha Sangamaya (WKMS), one of our partners in the area, has revealed that many people lost their National Identity Cards, birth certificates or marriage certificates in the tsunami.
WKMS, in partnership with ActionAid, has organised a special Mobile Service (Jangama Sewaya) for more than 2000 people to support them to apply and get, for the time being, some of these essential documents they need in their day-to-day life.
The idea of this Mobile Service was to bring government institutions in to the village and make them interact with the community to improve the knowledge of the institutions and sensitize local civil servants on peoples problems, challenges and realities. GN Officers, Police officers, Officers from DS office and Justice of Peace bodies attended the meeting to provide information and advice on how to get some of the documents.
The programme, supported by ActionAid International Sri Lanka, represented a great opportunity to engage with governmental bodies on how local organizations can support in decentralizing administrative services at the grassroots level Rajindra Rohitha, Team Leader from the South Programme Support Unit of ActionAid International Sri Lanka affirmed.
The tidal waves washed away thousands of lives, houses and also important legal documents which are making tsunami affected peoples lives more complicated today. Lack of information and awareness is also creating new problems. Many affected individuals are facing difficulties in obtaining death certificates for those who lost their lives in the tsunami. Some others never got their marriage or birth certificates.
I was waiting for long time to obtain my National Identity Card but it never worked out. I will be sitting for my Advanced Level exam in 2007. For me, this is a unique opportunity to submit all the necessary documents to obtain my NIC which I do need to sit for the exam. This is going to make my life much easier K.H. Chamika Harshani, a 17 years-old student explained.
This mobile service has been focused on providing support to obtain legal documents for tsunami and non tsunami affected people -G. Hettiarachchi, coordinator of WKMS, said-. Now, we will take this effort forward to extend our support focusing on Womens issues. We have already identified some problems faced by women in this area and we will organise a similar service to provide support for them
ActionAid is committed to working towards a more equitable sharing of power and resources between men and women. WKMS, a network of more than 4000 women, has put women at the centre of their work challenging the Sri Lankan patriarchal society since 1992.
