Sri Lanka: Youth can confidently engage in recovery activities now

The frequency, magnitude and unprecedented nature of the natural disasters that struck Sri Lanka in the recent past have deeply affected the morale of children and youngsters. In the coastal villages in the eastern province of Sri Lanka, a considerable part of the work of Terre des hommes aims at strengthening the resilience of the children and youth through psychosocial activities. But Tdh also mobilises the adolescents to take into their own hands their wellbeing and that of their communities.

The eastern province apart from the Tsunami is affected by floods annually. The adolescents from this area, formed into ‘youth clubs’ by Tdh, are not only charged with building small projects to improve the wellbeing of their villages, but also prepared to respond to new disasters, natural or not. When the 2011 monsoon severely affected this region, these youngsters took a lead in emergency care by attending to the needs of their communities in relief centre’s, cleaning of wells, awareness raising on health and sanitation etc.

In view of this success, Terre des hommes and Sri Lanka’s Red Cross believe these youngsters are now ready to pass another step. The two organisations conducted training programmes on water safety and rescue. 70 youth from Batticaloa and Ampara districts participated in the training and improved their lifesaving skills in water related accidents.