Progress Report on Vavuniya Project

Progress Report on Vavuniya Project

I just returned from another arduous visit to the Chen Su Lan Education Center in Vavuniya, the Gateway to the North in Tamil majority region in Sri Lanka. This morning’s news headlined “Tamil Tiger-linked party wins big in local polls,” in reporting on last Saturday’s Local Councils elections. This is the first local election after the four decades of ethnic conflict in which the Tamil National Alliance seized victory in 18 of the 26 contested councils amid alleged voting buying and intimidation.

My journey by car took a strenuous eight hours of driving and with stops leaving from Vavuniya at eleven in the morning to reach the Colombo International Airport to catch the midnight flight to Singapore in the morning at six. After some rest I gave an address in a first ever half-day public Interfaith seminar on Religious faiths and Sexual Orientation.

On this trip I was made aware of the spirit of D T Niles whom I regard as my spiritual mentor. I began my ministry in 1954 fresh out of seminary from Boston University to deliver an address reflecting on Rajah Manikam’s “Christianity and the Asian Revolution.” Around the same period I met up with D T who was influential in setting the course of my ministry. He personally invited me to have my first ecumenical conference in 1965 in what was then in serene surroundings of the “colonial” Queens Hotel along the picturesque lake in Kandy. It was a meeting on “Confessional Families and the Churches in Asia.”

This was followed by an invitation to be the Conference Preacher in the Methodist Conference in which D T was the President. Here was a giant of a preacher inviting me a novice preacher. As expected you cannot refuse D T and he even gave me the “text” which he took from a classic Chinese poem – “The trees would like to be still but the winds keep blowing.” The winds continue to blow all these years. That imagery stuck in my mind.

Surprisingly when I was interviewing the candidates who applied for teaching positions at the CSL Center for O and A level students and Adults I opened up the application form of Niles Jayanayaki William. The name of Niles leapt from the form and before me was one of the members of the extended Niles family. She had just retired from teaching at the age of fifty last year and came to the CSL Center to take a computer course. When she found that we needed English teachers she applied. To me it is an act of providence and she is exactly the kind of person that I was looking for. She was able to finish her university education in English and was teaching since then in the government schools. I am not surprised if the spirit of D T is behind this too!

The level of English in the schools now is pathetically low and compounded with the lack of teachers even those below the required minimum for teaching. But English periods are scheduled for schools from primary to A levels. It was not difficult for me to identify that we need help to upgrade the low level ofEnglish instruction and I am of focussing on students from two years before the O level to A level and the adults in the community.

Unless the level of English education is improved they will not be able to take advantage from the courses which we will teach to use the Computer. There is neither Sinhala or Tamil full and direct access to the internet except through using the English keyboard. There is excitement about Computer courses but if they do not have a minimum command of English they cannot benefit from the Internet.

The CSL Center is poised to provide free quality English instruction to reach the students and adults who have the capacity to upgrade themselves. Free computer training is an extra tool for their educational development.

For another project I am looking for responsible people who can administer a micro financing scheme to help the poor generate income through developing small business. The money is already available but I need people on the ground to manage the programme.

There are some encouraging signs appearing. An NGO was organizing a walk from the south to Jaffna to raise money for the first Cancer Hospital there. Groups along the way participated in the walk. When it passed Vavuniya I was invited by Brigadier General Napagoda who is commanding the 56 Division to join him in meeting the walkers passing through the Army Camp and then had breakfast in his home before we followed them to the border crossing in Omanthe.

The trains are able to reach only Omanthe now and there is free access across the border to Jaffna. But travellers from the north still have to pass through the border and may face some security checks at this checkpoint point after they alight from the buses.

BG Napagoda then drove us for my second visit to Kela Bogaswewa which is about two hours through the jungle to some Sinhala villages. We saw elephant tracks and people repairing the irrigation canals and “tanks” for storing water during the rainy season for the rice fields. The last time I visited the clearing of the land mines was taking place for the area which was a battleground. With the villages returning and the water made available the fields will soon be lush with rice plants.

The Minister Agriculture whom I met earlier had informed me that Sri Lanka is now self-sufficient in rice but not enough to export.

I visited another former battle zone in Mannar on the way to meet Father Emilianuspillai of the Shrine of our Lady of the Rosary in Madhu Church. I have met Father earlier when he was serving in the Church in Vavuniya. He was preparing for the annual festival where around 500,000 pilgrims gather. The church buildings which were damaged have been restored. This church has a long history reaching back to around 400 years ago when the country was under Portuguese colonial rule.

Much more needs to be done for education and to open more land for agricultural purposes. There is lack of employment opportunities and people are struggling to survive under harsh conditions. The area is a safe place and I am trying to reach out to the religious leaders in Vavuniya to use the Centre to further interfaith relations and together develop community service to the people. Again resources are available but project carriers are hard to come by. Faith communities will have to assume responsibility to assist in developing the community.

The CSL Trust will continue to explore ways to help to bring about reconciliation and to promote peace and assist in development of the people.