BRAC Sri Lanka has been implementing its Rehabilitation and Livelihood activities in 7 districts, covering a total of 26 divisions. The programme is still identifying people who need livelihood assistance using surveys, discussion, population census and damage assessments, cross checking to eliminate duplication and wrong identification of beneficiaries. The total number of beneficiaries under the new proposal will be 28,983 and the project’s duration is 24 months from 16th May 2005.

Objectives

BRAC’s programme in Sri Lanka has two main objectives:
• To address the most immediate needs of the affected communities through rehabilitation support
o Cleaning and disinfecting the contaminated water wells
o Constructing latrines to prevent health hazards
o Replacing lost and damaged school materials to tsunami affected school students
• To implement sustainable livelihood activities for tsunami affected people in some selected areas in Sri Lanka over a period of two years
o Reestablishment of fishing activities
o Reestablishment of small businesses
o Initial startup capital for poultry and livestock farms
o Reestablishment of agricultural activities
o Training and capacity development

Activity Sectors

BRAC is working in the following sectors.
I. Fisheries Sector
• Replacingdestroyed fishing boats and fishing nets
• Repairing boats and fishing nets
II. Agricultural Sector
• Restoring damaged paddy fields
• Procuring seedling fertilizer and farming equipment
• Regenerating destroyed homestead gardens
III. Poultry and Livestock
• Promoting livestock and poultry farms
• Training and capacity development of beneficiaries
IV. Small Business Sector
• Providing initial funds for repair of small business
• Replacing lost tools, equipment and products
• Developing mid- to long-term women entrepreneurs
V. Income generation activities
• Activities such as weaving, sewing, spice making, mat making, paddy husking, string hopper making, carpentry and masonry
VI. Education Sector:
• Replacement of lost and damaged school materials (such as school textbooks, uniforms and stationery) to tsunami affected school students
VII. Health Sector
• Repairing, cleaning and disinfecting contaminated water wells
• Reconstructing latrines

Project Activities

BRAC Sri Lanka currently employs 161 staff of whom 144 are local and 116 are female. To date, BRAC Sri Lanka has set up 7 district and 26 divisional offices to provide a total of 8,666 Tsunami-affected people with a grant/loan for livelihood assistance. These beneficiaries consist mostly of small traders, entrepreneurs and poultry and livestock rearers. Out of the total, 300 are male beneficiaries from Jaffna who received fishing boats and nets.

The Livelihood Programme has developed selection criteria prioritizing women, especially widows and those with disabled husbands as well as women-headed households. The survey process to identify potential beneficiaries is continuing. After a preliminary selection of about 1,200 Tsunami affected people from every division, the field staff at the divisional office crosschecks those beneficiaries with other NGOs to avoid duplication and misidentification. Before providing grants/loan the list of beneficiaries are again checked on the basis of the present BRAC criteria and then submitted to the local government for their concurrence.

In order to sustain the livelihood enterprises of the beneficiaries, BRAC Sri Lanka has taken some important steps:
• Divisional Staff (Programme Organisers or POs) have developed a business plan of each enterprise which gives detailed information about each individual beneficiary in terms of his/her assets, daily sales, daily purchase, net profit, need for further training and other assistance, etc.
• The PO follows up each beneficiary individually with intensive visits on a weekly basis for the first few months and then meets with them in groups
• A marketing plan has also been developed to ensure the sale of their products, which in turn will help maximize production capacity and also encourage beneficiaries to expand their activities
• A plan has been made to maintain direct interaction with beneficiaries and help them improve their business by meeting the enterprise groups on a monthly basis at the division level to discuss their needs and any problems faced
• The PO will identify 10 spots within her area with 20 beneficiaries per spot, for a total of 200 beneficiaries in her working area.

New Initiatives

Initially BRAC Sri Lanka identified Livelihood beneficiaries according to an existing selection criteria and distributed assets and soft loans to them. Recently it was observed that there are people who do not fall in the beneficiary selection criteria but whose businesses and sources of income were affected by the Tsunami. A decision was taken to divide future BRAC Sri Lanka beneficiaries in to three categories, which would be:
• Target Group: Beneficiaries of this group are Tsunami affected poor people and are of present selection criteria. The target group will receive grants whose range will vary according to the enterprises, amounting between Sri Lankan Rs.5,000 –30,000.
• Non-Target Group: The beneficiaries of this group will be those who are socio-economically better off than the Target Group but have lost their business and their source of income due to the Tsunami. This Non Target Group will not receive any grants, instead they will receive a soft loan to restart their affected business, the range of which will be from 10,000 – 50, 000 rupees, according to the type business.
• Target Group New Enterprise: Beneficiaries of the group will be widows without any prior Income Generating Activity experience. Their capacity will be built up through vocational training according to their enterprise of interest and aptitude.

Health Activities

In Sri Lanka the majority of rural dwellers consume water from dug wells. Immediately after the Tsunami there was an urgent need to clean those wells. Many INGOs supplied drinking water, placing water tanks in the affected area which were filled in daily by water botches. As this did not meet the entire water requirement, BRAC Sri Lanka took a step forward in cleaning the infected dug wells. A total of 2,338 dug wells were cleaned by December 2005.With the cleaning of the wells, the villages were able to acquire clean water not only for drinking but for all other household needs. Some areas were found to not contain wells or any other sources of water so BRAC Sri Lanka installed 44 tube wells in those areas. BRAC has also been providing medical support to those who were badly injured in the tsunami.

Education Activities

As the new session commences in January 2006, BRAC Sri Lanka will address the education sector in the next two quarters with necessary repairs of school building, provision of furniture and distribution of school materials to needy students. The programme will also provide a stipend to about 1,800 tsunami orphan students so that they may continue their education.