Mullaituvis one of the war affected districts in Northern Province of Sri Lanka. After the Civil war, most of the families were permitted to move in to their own lands and villages. The Government and other humanitarian organizations provided temporary accommodation for most of these families since their houses were damaged. The government also has undertaken improvement of houses for the war affected families through major housing program such as the Indian Government supported Housing program (50,000 Houses) and the other donor supported projects. Still there are some families who need external support to improve their houses and basic services.

SEVANATHA URC has approached the relevant Government Institutions such as Divisional Secretary and District Secretary, the National Housing Development Authority and other relevant authorities has identified some needy families in Ambalampokkanai and Anandapuram areas in Mulathivu District. These Families provided with Housing Support Grants by SEVANATHA under the financial support provided by SELAVIP Organization. The families were mobilized to introduce a Savings and Credit Program in collaboration with the Women’s Cooperative Society to ensure further assistance for livelihood improvement of these families. The number of families selected for providing housing support included 45 families, all of them have completed a basic house with built in permanent materials. The project has provided LKR 50,000 (US $) grants money per family.

The approached followed by SEVANATHA in achieving the project objectives was mainly a collaborative effort with the relevant government institutions and partnership with Women’s Cooperative Society and local CBOs. Real implementation of housing improvement was carried out self help basis between and among the beneficiary families. All these beneficiary families are currently occupying the houses built under the project and they have a scope for further improvement of their houses by adding more rooms. The Women’s Savings program introduced to the families is a key sustainable factor of this project since the families will be able to access to their financial needs in the future.

The institutional linkages develop during the mobilization process would help the community leaders to maintain improved relationship with the important institutions such as the Divisional Secretary and other Officials, the District Manager of NHDA and other service delivery organizations of the area.

It is also important to note that the community mobilizer assigned by SEVANATHA will continue to work in the project District and would be able to communicate with the beneficiary families and provide assistance when required. With all these linkages and communication systems the sustainability of the project is well assured.

The following photographs show filed project activities;