Press Releases

Providing a Lifeline of Information in Sri Lanka

Jesse Hardman/Internews Internews distributed radios to families in Sri Lankan internally displaced persons camps.

(August 1, 2008) Internews has given nearly 3000 transistor radios to families who have been forced to flee their homes by the conflict in Eastern Sri Lanka. The radio distribution is part of Internews’ “Lifeline” project to meet the information needs of Sri Lankans living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Kowsalya Murugaiah, the local leader of the Alunkulam welfare camp in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Batticaloa District, calls out to her fifty-some constituents and then waits patiently under a shady tree.  Mostly women and children emerge from small one-room huts where they seek shade from the unbearable heat that defines afternoon in this part of the island. The men are out doing physical work like cutting and hauling firewood from the local jungle. 

Everyone in the Alankulam camp has been displaced from their original homes for more than two years because of the conflict that has killed an estimated 70,000 people since it began 25 years ago.  More than anything, they want to go back to their home district of Trincomalee, a couple of hours north by road, to see what is left of the lives they knew before. 

Most of them lost everything, from their rice paddies to their family photographs, when they fled intense fighting.  Now they live in houses made from tarps and corrugated sheet metal, trying to survive on day laborer wages and rations. 

The Alunkulum welfare center is more cut off than most, as it is set an hour from the nearest major town, Batticaloa, and does not receive the steady stream of assistance that many of the other Sri Lankan IDP camps receive. 

The families at this camp are not just cut off from physical assistance; they are also cut off from the news and information that might help them improve their situation. These people have never owned radios and they cannot afford newspapers.  They cannot access news on how to find work, how to improve their families’ health and nutrition, or how to replace essential documents lost in displacement. 

But today, under a big shady tree, one vital need of the Alankulam residents is getting addressed.  Each family is receiving a transistor radio from Internews. 

“Today, we finally got something we really needed,” says camp leader Kowsalya Murugaiah. “Now we can get news and information to help us. Now we won’t be so lost.” 

With a grant from USAID, Internews started its “Lifeline” project in Sri Lanka six months ago for populations like the people of Alankulam, to improve peoples’ access to vital information and knowledge and in doing so, help people to take more control of their lives. 

The “Lifeline” team produces a weekly newspaper and radio program in one of the local languages.  These outlets tell the displaced and others about projects and services provided by the Sri Lankan government, humanitarian agencies, and local organizations. 

The “Lifeline” radio program includes a popular radio drama that covers topics such as HIV/AIDS and dowry issues. A series of radio spots addresses the legal issues that displaced people face, such as how to replace birth certificates and how to insure their land and livestock. Recent interviews with government officials in the war-torn districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee conveyed how the local populations were coping and what resources they most needed.

Back at the Alankulam camp, one local resident tuned his radio contently. Sitting in a sarong and no shirt, he listened to some music for a bit. 

His wife mentioned the “Lifeline” radio program.  She says she heard a drama about dowry issues, and that she liked it.  Her husband smiles and says he liked hearing the sounds and voices from another IDP camp featured in the program. 

As the morning moves along, the sound of many radios being tuned fills the air.  Everyone, it seems, can finally listen. 

“Lifeline” airs for two hours on Saturday mornings as well as half an hour daily. Over the course of its six-month existence, “Lifeline” has also organized live information events at IDP camps and welfare centers, where the team hosts talks, music, and street dramas that air on “Lifeline.”

MORE INFORMATION:

Watch an excerpt from a “Lifeline” event.

Internews Field Coordinator Jesse Hardman's personal account of his work at “Lifeline."

Internews Network in Sri Lanka

Internews Network has been working to strengthen local media in Sri Lanka since early 2005.