Youth Helps Protect Tsunami Damaged Coast in Sri Lanka
December 22, 2006 -- The World Bank’s Small Grants Program in 2006 awarded a grant to a youth-managed NGO -- the Derana Community Development Foundation, Waskaduwa, in the South of Sri Lanka. The Derana project focuses on building capacity and management skills of youth in the tsunami affected area of Kalutara district to enable them to regain livelihoods lost after the tsunami. The training program inspired the youth to undertake a program to recreate a protective green belt on the beach in their hometown.
Ruchira Gunathilaka in the field a dominant plant species, "moodilla," planted by the youth. The seeds of this plant are used for fuel by villagers. Combined with the pandanos bushes in the background once grown they provide a good physical barrier to trap salty winds. Ipomea creeper with the purple flowers on the ground provide cover against soil erosion. Photo by Chulie de Silva.
Ruchira Gunatileka, National Coordinator of the Derana Foundation, is a young graduate who's committed to helping youth in his hometown of Kalutara, and is passionate conserving his environment.
The World Bank Colombo office's first links with Ruchira and the work he is doing came through the Small Grants Program of 2006. Under the theme “Youth Development,” the program supported activities that focused on social values to build self-esteem and confidence, making youth feel proud of their cultural and ethnic identity, and inspiring them to achieve their full potential.
Derana Foundation conducted a number of skills building courses for the youth. The training included enhancing spoken and written English skills, tailoring classes, entrepreneurship development, and conducting an advisory program to assist youth start their own business ventures. There are about 120 beneficiaries involved in this project.
“Youth who participated in these programs understood that this support from the World Bank is not just from one individual or one organization, it was a contribution made by a number of countries and individuals in the world through the World Bank,” Ruchira says. “We needed to give something back to our country and through it to the world.”
Ruchira and his colleague Sithara on the replanted green coastal belt. Photo by Chulie de Silva.
Kalutara's coastline was very badly affected by the tsunami. Once a popular tourist destination, the pace of tourist activity is yet to pick up in this area. The youth, under Ruchira’s guidance, planted a variety of plants recommended for coastal conservation on the beach. Planting to conserve the coastline was undertaken several months ago and now the results are visible. Concrete slabs dislodged during the tsunami are now used as Notice Boards on the beach.
“We hope to carry on this project for several months more,” says Ruchira.
His interest in environmental issues goes a back to his childhood. His first degree is in applied sciences and includes forestry and environmental science while his masters is in floriculture and landscape architecture. His post graduate diploma in Journalism and Mass Communications led him to being an editor of a Sinhala language Science magazine “Vidusara.” However, his interest in conservation has him now working as a volunteer under the United Nations Environment program in the deeper South area of Tangalle.
Walking on the Kalutara beach one can see the plants thriving. Just beyond the replanted stretch, a bare shell of a house damaged by the tsunami, overgrown with lush creepers is a grim reminder of tsunami of 2004. Life in this area is slowly coming back to the way it was before the disaster. A ship repair and building can be seen through a grove of coconut trees. An old man is fishing on the shore while a younger boy plays at the water’s edge. Multicolored boats are piled up above the water’s edge. People are back on the beach, enjoying the sea and the sand but there is still much to be done to conserve and clean up the beach.
Ruchira explains the role of each plant, differentiating mangrove plants that are also used in local handicrafts, flowers that are in demand for religious offerings and points to us the various markers and the cement slabs he is using as notice boards on the beach. “I wish to consolidate all my work and interests and continue my contribution to safeguarding the environment of this country,” he says.
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