Monthly Progress Report of Relief Activities

  CARITAS-HUDEC-Jaffna

Month of September 2009

General Situation

1. The important issue for this month is the visit of the R & R team consisting of Mr.Vareeswaran, Ms.Kirsten Natvig, Mr.Ingvar Anda on 25^th and 26^th of Sep. 2009 to do an evaluation regarding the R & R programme.  They visited Ramavila camp and Kopay IDP welfare centers and the site where the semi permanent shelters were constructed.  They had witnessed the sites and may have their own comments regarding the implementation of R & R programme.

2. Vanni IDPs from Jaffna and Vavuniya were released and allowed to resettle in Jaffna district.  The areas where the resettlement took place are Valanai (Islands), Kopay, Jaffna, Nallur, Sandilipay, Uduvil. These IDPs were released by the request of the IDPs and their relations.

3. According to the government sources, the released IDPs were resettled in their native places.  But actually majority of them are still residing with their relations and facing a lot of problems.

4. The detailed information of the released IDPs was not shared even with the NGOs by the government.  The presidential task force having their special plan for the resettlement of these IDPs.  We collected some information and details through our own sources.

5. Altogether by the mid of September there were 1,829 families and 5,289 persons were released.  Apart from this those who are natively from Island were bought to Jaffna twice or thrice a week from Vavuniya IDP camps and released to their relations.  It was witnessed and monitored by the DS Islands.

Food (Supplementary food)

1.  Caritas – Hudec is continuously distributing the supplementary food item to 6 camps and the TLS (Temporary Learning School) and daily around 7,888 individuals.  The GA (Government Agent) asked us to continue this programme until December 2009. He also requested us to support those IDPs who are brought from Vavuniya and allowed to stay in closed transit camps at Mirusuvil and Kaithady.

Heath

1. MSF - Visits the Vanni IDP camps continuously to treat the patients and monitor the health situation.

 2. Dengue awareness programme is still continuing inside the camps.

 3. RDHS, ICRC, and UNICEF is continuously monitoring the health conditions inside the camps.

Distribution of NFRI

1.  The NFRI distribution inside the camp is monitored by the UNHCR.  They insist that standard NFRI packages should be considered when issuing NFRIs to the IDPs.  Caritas-Hudec is not involved in issuing NFRIs as there are some outer agencies considering specially NFRIs alone.

2.  All the released families had received NFRI kit by UNHCR, and they will continue to provide the same for future releases.

Educational Assistance

        1.     All the children in Vanni IDP camp had received educational materials from the cluster agencies and continued their schooling.

2.   Some children from the transit sites were attending the nearest TLS but others were not attending school, the education cluster agencies were not supporting these children as they were expected to be released from the camps to their own villages.

3.    UNOPS would build drainage at Ramavil TLS.

4.    The Zonal Directors of Education have instructed the school principals to enroll the resettled students without calling for admission fee and certificates. Around 600 resettled students have been enrolled in schools in Jaffna Zonal Education Department and all have been provided with stationary and school bags. Children in the other division would receive the same kit.

5.   Requested the agencies to coordinate with education cluster before committed to repair /rebuild the schools as some of the schools had been already agreed by other agencies to build class rooms and other required facilities.

6.    Educational kits provided by Caritas-Hudec.  The details are as follows.

Information on other sectors

Shelter

1. Construction of 20 semi permanent shelters at Kopay and 10 temporary shelters by HUDEC Caritas for the vulnerable people at the old welfare centers are still in progress.

Protection

2. The general restriction of the security force is relaxed to some extent.