The Veddha chieftain "Wanniyaleththo" said that most of the previously introduced development programs in his tribal village did not cater to the real needs of his people. Those development programs fulfilled the agendas of outsiders, he said.
They did not recognise our traditions, values or our aspirations and finally those programs ruined our tribe. However, the Gemidiriya project has taken a different approach and it helps to bring the development to this indigenous people preserving their traditions and lifestyle, Wanniyaleththo said. |
Veddha chieftain
“Wanniyaleththo” |
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| Veddhas are Sri Lanka 's indigenous inhabitants living in Dambana in Mahiyangana electorate in the Badulla district. Dambana is one of the Gemidiriya third batch villages and now the development work is being planned and implemented with the wide participation of this indigenous people |
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| Wanniyaleththo described the difference he sees in the Gemidiriya program comparing with their previous experience. Gemidiriya facilitators do not force us to do what they want. They did not come with plans drawn up in Colombo , instead they discussed with us, looked at the requirements of the village.We have the freedom of deciding our development priorities. Today youth in the village are largely engaged in the Gemidiriya project and they decide what needs to be addressed in the village, he said. |
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| In Dambana there is a population of 986 in 254 Veddha families. The tribe has been exposed to rapid socio economic changes taking place in the country and is in a transition period. |
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| The Chief Facilitator of the Mahiyangana Gemidiriya field operation unit, Ravindra Jayantha said that according to the Gemidiriya wealth ranking, 36 families had been identified as eligible for the one time grant to start livelihood development activities. However, there are no big differences between those 36 families and the other families as all of them are extremely poor. |
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| They rejected the one time grant and requested us to support them to develop their livelihood activities or help them to start self-employment ventures. Actually the main issue here is livelihood. Their traditional means of living are no longer there and they have no skills, experience or outside support to start new income generating activities, he said. |
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| The village is in the dry zone and main livelihoods of the people are hunting, fishing, shifting (chena) cultivation and collecting indigenous medicinal plants from the jungle. As the North- East monsoon rain is about to start the cleaning of the jungle for chena cultivation has started. As hunting is becoming limited with reducing forest cover, restrictions by government and socio economic and attitude changes, chena cultivation has become one of the main livelihoods of the people. |
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Wanniyaleththo sharing his experience on Gemidiriya
in Dambana |
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| T.M. Sugathapala, the chairman of the Dambana Gemidiriya People's Company said that collection of indigenous medicinal plants and bee honey has also been one of the main livelihoods of the people since ancient times. Still majority of the people are engaged in this occupation and it is one of their main income sources. They collect over 70 varieties of medicinal plants and sell to collectors for daily income. But they do not get a reasonable price for these products while the middlemen earn profit, he said. |
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| T.W. Premadasa, a school teacher and the chairman of Gemidiriya livelihood development sub project committee said that a decision has been taken to open an indigenous medicine plant sales outlet to address this issue. Gemidiriya has given them information on market linkages and ways of maintaining the quality of these products. They are hopeful now that they can send bottled bee honey and medicinal plants from Dambana directly to market. |
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| Gemidiriya Foundation has allocated Rs.5.9 million for development activities in the Dambana village. They have received Rs. 0.212 million as first instalment of the capacity building fund and Rs.1.041million as first instalment of the livelihood support fund. |
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| Youth of the village want to start self-employment and they demand training on animal husbandry, poultry farming and small industries. |
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Youth in Gemidiriya youth circle of Dambana, performing a
folk dance at the cultural show held on
the National Youth Day 2007,in Colombo , Sri Lanka . |
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