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an other month in this incredible nice and horrible place.... Sri Lanka
 ueber 160'000  Fluechtling!
After one year I returned back to the place I got most attatched to. I was busier than before..... and it was hot, hard and no human rights!!!
or SPORTS TO RELEASE AGGRESSION
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Sri Lanka
eight months changed already my heart
many things i had to learn
many things i could teach
many things i received
many things i gave
too many people still suffer!
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Here a project overview I did in the East of Sri Lanka 2006
FCE Foundation for Co-Existence
Volleyball and Netball coaching in Tsunami resettle camps and villages
Preface from N. Thevakumar
Since June 2005 I’m working for FCE in the Psychosocial Intervention Unit as a Community Care Co-ordinator. Many times my staff faced difficulties to get close with some youth. After the long war period and the Tsunami experience this young fellows are disoriented and they lost their confidence. Youths are the pillars of the society in future. So in order to guide them well and to reinstate them to the normal living standards, and thus to bring out their hidden talents a media was needed to join and serve them.From my earliest ages, the interest in sports and thus friendship and social contacts were convenient to maintain good relationship with the friends and society. So on the ground of the above experience, in order to sweep away the grievances and to develop the sports talents of the youths and to maintain good relationship with the societies and races, we decided to utilize sports media. In the affected areas and at the welfare centres, due to the non availability of sports grounds, it was decided to select the sports like volley ball, net ball etc which could be played in small areas.By keeping good relationship with youths selected from 10 areas of theDistrict, close relationship could be maintained with their families Thus we could know their grievances and problems and implement our plans
through the scheme.
Overview Date Activities
16.1 – 19.1 Information, Preparation and Material collection
20.1 – 8.2 First coaching days (implementing) in all areas
9.2 – 24.3 Sports coaching
25.3 Tournament arrangement
26.3 FCE – CUP 2006 (Tournament at Hindu College ground) 27.3 – 31.3 Last coaching and Feedback visit in all areasThe project has two main parts. Part A “sports coaching” and part B “FCE-CUP 2006” the final tournament. The coaching was held in ten Tsunami affected areas in Batticaloa District in the east of Sri Lanka. The tournament (FCE-CUP 2006) was implemented in the project since the beginning but not as big as it was hold.Further details to each of the project parts and the costs can be found in the following documentation.
Project description
 
Sports coaching ContentIn ten villages out of 22 villages where FCE is mainly working with community care officers (CCO), a netball and a volleyball team was formed by these CCO’s. The CCO’s informed their area about the practise possibility and motivated the youth to join in these new teams. People between 12 and 28 years followed this offer and came for the first practise to their playground. The team of sports coaches was formed at the beginning of the project and consisted of two coaches from each sport. They were instructed by the Swiss PE teacher about the content and the extent of the program of the sports coaching but could also bring in their own ideas. At the first coaching day a lot of time was been used to inform about the idea and the structure of this coaching and to fix practise time, prepare the playground and select a responsible captain. The captain has a leading part and was selected because of his behaviour, his attitudes and his motivation. Following responsibilities the sports coaches gave to the CCO’s and the captains for practise time:-They have to be at the fixed time on the ground with the Balls (6VB/6NB) and the participants presents list.-They have to arrange all players in time for the coaching day on the ground.-They have to mark every day the attendance of the participants-They have to look for discipline and fairness during practise time and take care about newcomers and team spirit.-They have to coach the team following the instructions of the FCE sports coach and the handover documents.-They should arrange local senior players and ask them for support and advice.-They should arrange friendship matches between other close FCE teams.-They have to organise a deputy for absent days. After this starting period in all areas the coaching team was divided into two groups. Through this, all villages received the possibility to get coached every week. If coaching team number one was coaching on Monday in Thiraimadu, the following week this team went on Monday to Paddiyadichanai and the following week again to Thiraimadu. See on the next page the coaching overview. This system was working well because coaching days for two close areas were selected on the same day with different starting time that only one vehicle was needed. After three weeks the netball team from Kattankudy stopped practising because of intervention of some community people who didn’t like to see the Muslim girls practising. These girls received drill practising from one of their CCO’s and could show the result at the final tournament at Hindu College ground. The last two coaching weeks before the tournament more friendship games have been arranged through CCO’s and the effort of the players. The last tactical tricks have been given from the coaches and a game warm up program as been shown.
Final tournament “FCE-CUP 2006”This report was written for the FCE newsletter: Batticaloa in Volleyball and Netball fever During ten hours the Hindu College Playground in Batticaloa was fully occupied by sports interested young people. More than 300 people were involved in this colorful sports event as player, helper, referee, coach or supporter. The event on Sunday 26th of March 2006 was organized by FCE and supported by their partner caritas Czech and different NGO’s working in Batticaloa which sponsored teams with jerseys and shoes. 240 participants showed their talents on the ground and fought hard but fair for every point. After the opening celebration for which some guests lightened the traditional oil lamp the Amirthakali Sri Siththit Vinayagar Vidyalayam School band played and three girls from Amirthakali area performed the traditional welcome dance. Without interruptions on four volleyball and two netball grounds, fourteen volleyball teams and six netball teams played in two groups against each other to reach a good placement in this group tournament to qualify for the semifinal. The tournament system was new for everybody and gave all teams the possibility to play at least three/five games. Four of the volleyball teams were invited NGO teams. For them, FCE organized a separate tournament included in this day, to bring them closer with the communities. The teams from the ten tsunami affected villages and resettle camps were encouraged, by FCE community care officers and trained by Corina a volunteer sports coach from Switzerland during more than two months, to practice volleyball and netball. In the run up to the tournament, FCE organized friendship games for the teams. This opportunity helped the participants a lot to get used of game situation and reduced their unsureness. Everybody who came to look some of the games at the tournament could feel the good atmosphere which was always full of tension during the games but never aggressive or unfair. On the contrary they could see smiling faces from loosing players who shook hands respectful with their opposite. “I’ve never seen winning and loosing teams dancing together after a hard fight in the final. I’m very happy to see here the result of a great psychosocial work in the run up to this tournament which made this attitude visible. That’s sports! Challenging each other on the ground and accept the opposite as a deserved winner. But to see at the same moment the new aim to beat him in the next game. That’s the way which brings us forward and the sport in this area to a higher level.” These were the words of Corina looking the boys dancing on the volleyballcourt more than an hour after the final. The result of the day was visible in the tired but satisfied faces of the participants after more than ten hours on the hot ground in which they played at least five games and enjoyed the dancing program and exhibition game between the Clubs “Shivananda” and “Ramakrishna” during lunch time. All participants left home to Kallar, Chettipalayam, Palamunai, Kattankudy, Kallady, Thiruchendur, Sinna Uppodi, Amirthakali, Thiraimadu and Paddiyadichanai in organized Transport with big trophies, balls, certificates and the new won experience.
 
Outcome The project aimed at the objectives below. It says for each aim if it was achieved and how and if not why it wasn’t fulfilled. a) Rehabilitate young people from tsunami trauma- There is no proof for this, but the children laughed a lot during the practices and were highly motivated. They also showed good social skills in dealing with each other.- In some villages the boys who spend time hanging around doing nothing, received new motivation to go on for something. New interest in sports was grown. They started to organise themselves and friends for practise possibilities. b) Help for suffering youth because of war situation- Through the arranged friendship games between two different villages and the final tournament, the children got the possibility to start friendships with the youth of an other area. Especially between Muslim and Tamil villages. c) Provide a good comprehension for teenager which quit school early- There were only a small number of these children coming to practise. For them it was an important change to have this possibility to feel close with others. These children failed to show their talent in study but now they received the chance to show their talent through sport and to find new friendships. They became a member of a team. d) Mentally absent youngsters can modify their trouble facing mind- During the sports practise the participants were totally concentrate in technical and tactical matter of the game. They showed a lot of effort and forced each other to practise well. At the same time they spent a lot time laughing about some misunderstandings, ball handlings or funny situations.
e) Youths can gain a physical fitness through sports - The two month practising period formed them well in body fitness. That was obvious at the tournament time when they had to play over four games in the heat and jumped higher than in the starting period of the coaching program. f) Encourage the competition mind between the youngsters- Through the final tournament all teams get well motivated to form their team with well condition in tactic and ricks. g) Sports will assist the good relation ship and understanding for all community people- Because of the new activity on the public or school; grounds where the coaching was hold, different community groups came to look and talk with players, coaches and the expatriate.
- The teams had to organise themselves to go for friendship games to an other village and started during these matches and the final tournament close relations among each other.
h) Sport is an excellent entertainment for the youngsters - Usually youngsters are looking for some idols and often they find them in movies or in sport. They like the action and the tension of the game and the challenge to measure. With netball and volleyball we won many youngsters to spending their time enjoying sports.
i) Bring the youths back to enjoy live and let them laugh - Accept a few girls in the resettle camp of Thiraimadu which felt to hard running around, really all youths were happy during practising time and they enjoyed the coaching and the final tournament. Here fore you can look at the pictures which are telling more than all explanations.
j) Exchange with international sports coaches - The foreigner coach brought a totally different coaching experiences with her and was hardly trying to let the local coaches discovering by themselves what methodic and pedagogic is behind her coaching structure. It was nice to see how the coaches started to share things and discuss about problems.
k) Intercultural communication between foreigner coaches and local players - It was not always easy for the foreigner sports coach to explain a new exercise in a tamil-english mix language and to understand feelings or the way of thinking of the local participants. But the acceptance was always on both sides and all misunderstandings let them laugh a lot.
Expenses in Rupees (1US$=100Rupees)
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Budget |
Expenses |
Balance |
| Material |
107’000 |
76’105 |
30895 |
| Salary |
45’500 |
63’750 |
-18’250 |
| other expanses FCE Tournament |
20’000 73’000 |
131’536 0 |
-111’536 0 |
| Totally |
245’500 |
271’391 |
-25’891 | Material: Because of only 6 netball teams not all money was used for netball posts and also the sports shop Sanaabil in Kattankudy offered a good discount for FCESalary: Because of Visa support this amount is higher than in the Budget.Other expanses: For the final tournament an extra budget was made and supported by FCE with rupees 73’000/-.but still there were more expenses than calculated through a high printing charge, the generator and lunch parcels.
United Nation Office of the Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinatorColombo, Sri Lanka18-01-2007
Colombo, 8 January: The United Nations condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians and deplores the latest incidents involving two civilian buses which resulted in the deaths of over 20 innocent civilians with dozens maimed and injured.
The United Nations calls for the protection of all civilians throughout the island.
The situation in Vaharai in the east is grave and demands an urgent response. According to Government estimates, 15,000 people are isolated without access to food or basic supplies as stocks are decimated. Since the 29 November when the last convoy of humanitarian supplies were allowed in, there has been no access to Vaharai for humanitarian agencies.
“We stand ready to assist those still trapped in Vaharai. These persons are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. We must always recall that it is the most weak who remain behind – the elderly, the sick and the disabled. They are still without access to food, emergency medical services, and shelter, and continue to be caught in the middle of relentless fighting,” says Amin Awad, Acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.
The United Nations has already mounted an extensive operation supporting the government through local authorities and partner agencies to protect and assist with the basic humanitarian needs of over 70,000 individuals across the district of Batticaloa. The United Nations further reminds both parties of their obligations under International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, as expressed in the Security Council Resolutions on the Protection of Civilians and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
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