Traps of humanitarian aid: observations from a village community in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The paper is a report on the findings of a research camp held in a village on the southern coast of Sri Lanka eight months after the Indian Ocean tsunami. The camp was part of a wider project of collaboration between the University of Colombo and the University of Ljubljana, and its participants were students from both universities working together as a group. The report is mainly focused on the views and experiences of humanitarian aid as expressed by people from the village. They keenly observed the distribution of aid and saw irregularities and abuses that only increased their distress. Among other issues, they questioned the methodology that caused less visible and socially excluded members of the community to be excluded once again from the distribution of aid, and they particularly resented being forced into submission.

Članek je poročilo o ugotovitvah z raziskovalnega tabora, ki se je odvijal v neki vasi na južni obali Šrilanke osem mesecev po cunamiju v Indijskem oceanu. Tabor je bil del širšega projekta sodelovanja med Univerzo v Colombu in Univerzo v Ljubljani, udeležile pa so se ga študentke z obeh univerz kot ena skupina. Poročilo se zlasti osredotoča na izkušnjo humanitarne pomoči in stališča o njej, kakor so jih izrazili vaščani. Zelo natančno so spremljali distribucijo pomoči in opazili nepravilnosti in zlorabe, ki so le povečale njihovo stisko. Med drugim so problematizirali metodologijo, s katero so bili manj vidni in družbeno izključeni člani skupnosti izključeni tudi iz distribucije pomoči. Zlasti pa so zamerili to, da so bili potisnjeni na podrejen položaj.

Keywords:

• Tsunami
• Aid Distribution
• Aid Abuse
• Social Work Education
• Participants' Perspective

Ključne besede:

• Cunami
• Distribucija Pomoči
• Zloraba Pomoči
• Izobraževanje iz Socialnega Dela
• Perspektiva Udeležencev